Personal and social education : curriculum innovation and school bureaucracies in Malta

Abstract

The rationale behind a personal and social education (PSE) initiative coordinated by the author in Malta’ is critically reviewed. The social context for the emergence of PSE in a number of countries is compared and contrasted, linking this ‘new’ development with issues of legitimation on the one hand, and problems posed by bureaucratic school structures on the other. Some of the normative dilemmas with PSE are explored, notably its tendency to reduce ‘education’ to a technocratic focus on the development and learning of skills. It is suggested that there is a danger that PSE could become yet another compensatory divide which reinforces the social-control function of schools, but that this can be averted if there is a creative rapprochement between two disparate educational perspectives, namely humanistic education and critical theory pedagogy. The convergence of the two approaches would ensure that both the personal and the political goals of a true education would be achieved.