Vol. 14 no. 1 / June 2020

Following a three-year embargo, this article represents the first in a series of publications stemming from long term ethnographic fieldwork. This paper explores how contrasting forms of cultural capital come to be valued, and considers how tension between them affects the way that children engage with schooling in a Southern Harbour town in Malta. I demonstrate how children are tasked with accumulating conflicting forms of capital, while navigating the rules of different games in co-existing fields of forces. Drawing upon 13 months of ethnographic fieldwork and participant observation in 2011-2012, with 47 students aged 8-10 years old, I argue that the school becomes a battleground between opposing forms of cultural capital, all vying for the children’s appropriation, yet not within equal reach. Children’s disengagement from school, and occasional attempts at reintegration, must be located within a socially situated understanding of the compelling (though not determining) social forces at play, within which children find alternative and culturally accessible ways to construct themselves as persons of value.

This paper introduces learning spaces in two multilingual countries, Switzerland and Malta, with the aim to interpret space in terms of social practices related to teaching and learning. The visual study draws on schoolscape studies and the conceptualization of space in education. The comparative analysis of 913 photographs collected from two schools aims to bring to light the similarities and differences in the respective learning spaces. A comparative approach is taken in order to explore the strange in the familiar context and to prompt reflections about learning spaces. Further, based on the result of the visual study, this article discusses how schoolscape studies may prove to be a potentially useful pedagogical tool in teacher education.

A major concern in education is students’ decline in motivation over the school years. Focusing on the subject of history, this paper reports on a case study involving students, aged 15/16, analysing moving-image sources in a Maltese Year 11 history option classroom. Moving images are defined in terms of footage broadcast in news and documentaries and used as sources of evidence in history lessons. Data analysis revealed how moving images supported students’ motivational dimensions of interest, competence and relatedness. However, they do not seem to have provided students with a level of autonomy, defined in terms of students’ self-directed initiative to find out things for themselves outside the classroom context. It is argued that a possible reason for this could lie in the stakes students attached to the end-of-secondary examinations and in the necessary preparations for them. In this light, it is hoped that the paper offers reflections for discussing further motivation in terms of summative assessment.

Transferable skills are internationally acknowledged as an important tool to reduce the friction generated through skills mismatch between education and the labour market. This paper examines some challenging aspects of transferable skills that may reduce their effectiveness, such as their unclear definition and delineation, difficulties in translating policy into practice, and the challenge of convincing employers to invest in such skills. While over the years, elements of transferable skills were added to the Maltese educational curriculum, the country requires a comprehensive policy that tackles the barriers hindering the dissemination of transferable skills. This paper proposes the adoption of a comprehensive skills policy that includes a focus on demand and supply skills audit research, the revision and development of curriculum and teaching methods, the training of stakeholders, and quality assurance, assessment and recognition of transferable skills.

A phenomenon in the Maltese educational scene is the rise in the number of educators who voluntarily resign from the profession. This phenomenon is under-researched as most studies focus on in-service teachers rather than on those who resign to seek alternative employment in non-educational sectors. This fact prompted the researcher to conduct a study aimed at revealing the underlying motives for teacher resignations in Malta. The methodology followed an interpretivist research philosophy that utilises an inductive, qualitative research instrument based on a narrative inquiry strategy. The data set comprised fifteen narratives gathered through independent semi-structured interviews. The interviews were conducted with teacher graduates and were segregated into four groups based on their years of teaching experience. A thematic analysis yielded sixteen individual determinants for local teacher attrition.

The knowledge of the importance of reflection in the field of teaching is crucial for an understanding of teacher development. There has been a considerable amount of literature published on reflective practice highlighting the need for quality reflection in various fields of study. Questions have been raised about the challenges or obstacles which might occur on the way towards successful realization of teacher trainees’ reflection. Factors found to be influencing its effectiveness and meaningfulness have been explored in several studies. Debate continues about the best strategies for meaningful reflection which would lead towards professional development of English language teachers. Despite the fact that the issue of reflective practice is widely recognised as a serious concern, research has consistently shown that many English language teacher trainees lack knowledge of meaningful reflection on their teaching. Therefore, the paper intends to focus on reflective practice in English language teaching, especially during teaching practice. In addition, it seeks to discuss its importance, successful realization and possible challenges in the process. Moreover, the paper presents partial research findings based on qualitative data obtained from feedback sessions conducted on a sample of pre-service English language teacher trainees.

There is no abstract for this book review.

There is no abstract for this book review.