Foreword

Abstract

This collection of readings is the result of a collaborative effort on the part of staff lecturing in different disciplines in the Faculty of Education at the University of Malta. The impetus behind the book was the need, felt by students and Faculty staff alike, to develop readings that could be used in a professional teacher-training course and which, while referring to key issues and themes in the theory and practice of education, were situated in a Maltese context, reflected Maltese data, and confronted Maltese concerns. The papers are therefore meant to help readers, be these students or seasoned teachers, to reflect critically on their experience in schools and to move from 'common-sense' attitudes and judgments to 'good sense'. Unexamined biases and prejudices, classroom behaviour and repertoires of actions and reactions that have fossilized and which with time have clouded the vision of possible alternatives, are challenged by the arguments as well as empirical evidence presented in this book.