The Future of Maltese Teachers in a United Europe

As Malta prepares to join the European Union, Maltese teachers need to look critically beyond the honorific title of ‘professionals’, which the state has trust on them, in order to compare their level of professionalism with that of their European colleagues. They can carry out analytical self‐reflection to establish whether the degree of substantive theory and validated practice they bring to their work reaches the standards expected of them by the Community. The paper argues that the Maltese educational service has the capacity to employ fully trained and qualified teachers, who, through research, self‐regulation and continuous professional development, can enhance their prestige in the local community and gain that of a wider European audience.     

Authority and control in the maltese educational system

This study of educational policy in Malta¹ exemplifies in microcosm the obstacles faced by teachers who seek a higher degree of professional emancipation. It points to the frustrations that educators are likely to encounter in situations where central authorities attempt to curtail teachers' autonomy through stricter administrative control. The paper argues that teachers' professional status cannot be enhanced by the granting of honorific titles when they have to go on working in a highly bureaucratic and authoritarian environment that pervades the educational system and dominates teachers' occupational perspectives. Malta's traditions in public administration, which it inherited from the British, militate against teachers' bid for full professionality. In a small developing country striving to shed its colonial past, legislative measures and industrial agreements do not suffice to change the traditional mentality of its public service. Genuine attempts to professionalise the teaching corps require measures that reduce teachers' dependence on central authority, and opportunities that promote occupational initiatives to a high degree.

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Zusammenfassung Diese Studie über Bildungspolitik in Malta¹ veranschaulicht im Mikrokosmos die Schwierigkeiten, denen Lehrer, die ein höheres Maß an beruflicher Emanzipation anstreben, gegenüberstehen. Die Frustrationen, die Ausbilder wahrscheinlich in den Situationen erleben werden, in denen zentrale Behörden die Autonomie der Lehrer durch strengere administrative Kontrolle beschneiden, werden aufgezeigt. Der Autor argumentiert, daß der Berufsstatus der Lehrer nicht durch das Verleihen von Ehrentiteln aufgewertet werden kann, wenn sie weiterhin in einer stark bürokratisierten und autoritären Umgebung arbeiten müssen, die das Bildungswesen durchdringt und die beruflichen Perspektiven der Lehrer dominiert. Maltas von den Briten ererbte Tradition in der öffentlichen Verwaltung behindert die Bemühungen der Lehrer um vollständige Professionalität. In einem kleinen Entwicklungsland, das sich bemüht, seine koloniale Vergangenheit abzulegen, reichen legislative Maßnahmen und Industrieabkommen nicht aus, um die Traditionsmentalität des öffentlichen Dienstes zu ändern. Ernsthafte Versuche, den Lehrberuf zu professionalisieren, erfordern eine verringerte Abhängigkeit der Lehrer von zentralen Behörden, sowie Möglichkeiten zur intensiven Förderung beruflicher Initiativen.

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Résumé La présente étude sur la politique éducative de Malte¹ illustre dans un microcosme les obstacles rencontrés par les enseignants recherchant un degré élevé de liberté professionnelle. Elle montre les frustrations que les enseignants sont susceptibles d'éprouver dans les situations oû les autorités centrales tentent de restreindre l'autonomie des maîtres en appliquant un contrôle administratif plus strict. On prétend dans cet article que le statut professionnel des enseignants ne peut être rehaussé par la remise de titres honorifiques s'ils doivent continuer de travailler dans un environnement hautement bureaucratique et autoritaire qui pénètre le système éducatif et détermine les perspectives professionnelles des enseignants. Les traditions de l'administration publique maltaise, léguées par le système britannique, vont à rencontre du désir des maîtres d'accéder à un plus grand professionnalisme. Dans un petit pays en développement qui s'efforce de se défaire de son passé colonial, les mesures législatives et les accords industriels ne suffisent pas pour changer la mentalité traditionnelle de son service public. Les véritables tentatives pour professionnaliser le corps enseignant requirèrent des mesures qui réduisent la dépendance des enseignants de l'autorité centrale, et des occasions qui favorisent les initiatives professionnelles à un haut degré.

     

Gender,reputation and regret: the ontological politics of Australian drug education

This study explores the role of gender in the constitution youth alcohol and other drug consumption in Australian drug education curriculum. Drawn from an analysis of contemporary classroom drug education documents, it is argued that current drug education reproduces unethical and harmful accounts of femininity and masculinity. These enactments of gender primarily arise in three ways. First, drug education currently positions young women's consumption practices as intrinsically more problematic than those of young men. Second, drug education works to position young women's consumption practices as a problem of spoiled reputation and regret. Third, drug education works to responsibilise young women for potential danger and harm they experience while intoxicated without any consideration of the illegal actions of young men. Working with Annemarie Mol's notion of ontological politics, this article argues that Australian drug education enacts gendered realities of youth consumption that work to reproduce, rather than reduce, a range of social harms, ‘drug-related’ or otherwise.