Adult education and the politics of knowledge : the relevance of Malta’s Dun Gorg Preca

Abstract

This paper sets out to explore the contribution that Dun Gorg Preca made to the development of adult education in the Maltese islands. Preca's achievements are situated historically in order to highlight more effectively his relevance to the development of the field. Qualities underlined in this account are Preca's commitment to the democratization of knowledge, his stance vis-a-vis the learner, opting to reach out to communities and to work at the grass roots rather than the formal institutional level, and his conviction that difficult knowledge, often used as a positional good by status groups, can, given the right pedagogical approach, be communicated to all learners, whatever their social and educational background.