Much has been written about Maltese and its transformation into a language in its own right, both through external contact with other languages and due to internal factors. Less has been said about the English of Malta. In spite of regular criticism from purists, Maltese English has started to be regarded as a variety, distinct from others. This chapter examines the complex plurilinguistic context within which the variety has emerged and continues to flourish. It demonstrates how the socio-political context provided perfect conditions for the establishment of English as the de facto second language of Malta. Extensive use of English in different domains has also contributed to shaping the local variety in distinct ways to reflect the needs of the community (or subsets thereof) it serves. The chapter also outlines some of the more salient characteristics of the variety, in terms of pronunciation, grammar and vocabulary, meaning and discourse.

This chapter argues that the relationship between the online world and the classroom remains a contentious issue. Popular culture, and the increasing use of social media by young people and children has seen many traditionalists lament how our culture has declined, and worry about how educationally corrupted our schools have become. Its absence has been used to suggest that our schools are out of touch with their primary constituency – children and young people. The keen-eyed among you might note that this chapter is full of false binaries... perhaps this tells us something about the nature of the topic. This is not a simple issue to address; even the notion of ‘culture’ itself is subject to considerable disagreement. This is not even a simple chapter to write; the references will likely be outdated by the time I finish writing this sentence. So read on with a little grace, and a little humor.

This chapter addresses one of the most important areas of philosophy – ethics – and uses it to examine aspects of the role of the law in education. Of all the areas of philosophy, more has probably been written about ethics, and over a longer period, than any other. In addition, all cultures are structured around a fundamental ethical system: the law. However, irrespective of their importance, both subjects are currently notable for their lowly status within the teacher education curriculum.

Scholars examining the characteristics of suicide bombers tend to note that poverty-related variables cannot explain participation (that suicide bombers come from more educated and wealthy circumstances). On the other hand, scholars and practitioners often note that poverty reduction is essential to combatting terrorism (and support for suicide terrorism seems correlated with higher poverty). Much of the empirical work suffers from an over-reliance on the Palestinian case, possible sample-selection bias, and conflating populations with recruits and absolute poverty/low education vs. relative poverty and relative deprivation. Consequently, scholars have concluded that adverse socio-economic conditions and suicide terrorism are unrelated or even inversely related. The demographic qualities of suicide bombers challenge the link between poverty, poor education and violence. While the inverse relationship continues to find broad empirical support, many studies focused on a single case (the Palestinians). Using original data from field research in Sri Lanka this chapter raises critical issues and provides some preliminary empirical support for a link between lower levels of education and support for suicide terrorism. An operative might have different characteristics than the general population from which he/she is drawn. Future research should seek to identify more precise causal mechanisms between socio-economic conditions and suicide terrorism and all forms of political violence, while policies aimed to redress these conditions should continue as constructive elements of broader counter-terrorism strategies.

This chapter argues that even though we all have a pretty good idea of what is meant by the term ‘social class’, it is far from being a straightforward matter. After all, there is only tenuous agreement about exactly what it is, how prevalent it is, how it organises the life opportunities of our citizens and how best to study it. To make it more difficult still, this is a subject that many feel uncomfortable discussing, let alone applying to themselves or anyone else.

Education has long been central to the social democratic agenda. In the postwar period, social democrats largely expanded access and reduced disparities through comprehensive schooling. By the 1990s, they shifted towards ‘Third Way’ social investment policies, incorporating market-oriented reforms, testing, and expanded childcare. The former was an ideological project that began with the demands of the party base and sought to persuade the electorate, while the latter was a more pragmatic project that started with broader electoral appeals and aimed to convince the base. Both, however, entered institutional contexts that varied in their receptivity to change. This chapter looks at political speech regarding education across these two periods to examine how social democratic parties adapted their rhetorical strategies to navigate the specific constraints of their political contexts. Using a hand-coded dataset of party manifestos from 1945 to 2022 across advanced democracies, it identifies four key rhetorical approaches social democrats employed in their educational speech: putting more emphasis, focus, clarity, and equity framing. The analysis reveals that while early social democratic rhetoric was more ideologically consistent and equity-driven, later discourse became more layered, ambiguous, and focused on economic outcomes.

It is likely that you have experienced the impact of place on your education without even thinking about it. Maybe you’ve had a class on a boiling hot day, with bad lighting and no aircon. Maybe you’ve had to sit in traffic on the way to class, and thought ‘Wow, I wish I didn’t have to be at school by 8 am!’. Maybe you’ve accessed your education online, and felt the differences (good and bad), between in-person and online learning. Or perhaps you’ve sat under a lovely tree after class and chatted with your friends. Maybe you’ve experienced traditional ways of learning on Country, and connectedness to the environment around you. Whatever it may be, you get the drift – if you’ve had an education, it’s happened somewhere.

It is argued here that the modern school isn’t just about ‘education’ in some abstract, humanist sort of way; rather, schools have an essential role to play in how we govern our society. It is tempting to think that the process of teaching children has always been pretty much the same, and that mass schooling emerged as a result of greater concern for the wellbeing of the young. The evidence paints a somewhat different picture, wherein mass schooling formed a crucial component of a new form of social regulation based upon an increasing focus on individuality, where the school subtly conforms to the requirements of the state and where the disciplinary management of the population is made possible through continual surveillance and the close regulation of space, time and conduct.

This chapter unpacks the complex and changing relationship between gender and education. In order to accomplish this, it links each of the most common myths in the area with one of the three waves of feminism that characterised the twentieth century. As with the arguments surrounding social class, it will ultimately be suggested that explanations relying upon a master discourse – not ‘the economy’ again, but rather patriarchy, a unified system of male domination – are outdated. Similarly, it is argued that the view of gender as a binary of man/woman based on anatomy at birth has had its day.

This chapter argues that educators need to have a good grasp of all the various forms of pre-adulthood that we take for granted, such as ‘the child’ and ‘the youth’. These categories are the focus of a range of different disciplines, most of which found their explanatory models in nature itself. As such, the behaviour of children and youth may be deemed to require explanation, but not the very existence of the categories themselves. The issues raised in this chapter concern the degree to which childhood and youth are actually socially constructed categories that serve particular social functions. Of greatest interest here are the ways in which childhood and youth are both artefacts of, and vehicles for, social governance.

This chapter aims to qualify any defined boundaries between educated Roman women and their political or public engagement. As one moves further into the post-triumviral period, women pursuing cultural and educational endeavours appeared to gain more acceptance and admiration. This observation is particularly applicable to the case of Octavia Minor, the sister of Octavian Augustus and the fourth wife of Marcus Antonius. This chapter explores instances of Octavia’s educational pursuits, such as her involvement in creating networks of philosophers and tutors to educate her son, Marcellus (Strabo), her patronage (Vitruvius and the Porticus Octaviae) and instances of speech crafted for the Plutarchan Octavia, which blend the political and private spheres and are interpreted as a suasoria (Plutarch). Through these examples, this study positions Octavia as a prominent figure who exemplifies how female political engagement and paideia could be reconciled during the triumviral period.

We are living in a time when many teachers say they are feeling burnt out, and many others have left the profession altogether. Even new teachers who might start out feeling enthusiastic are likely to leave the profession after a few years. Teachers say the pressures they feel don’t match their view of what teaching is supposed to be all about – caring for, and teaching, children and young people. So, what do teachers do? What does the public (and, for that matter, Hollywood movie producers) think teachers do? This chapter argues that we have a bit of a mismatch between what people outside the profession think, and the experiences of teachers themselves. It also argues that broader changes in education, such as the use of data to govern teachers’ work has created extra pressure on teachers.

There are all sorts of dilemmas when it comes to technology and education. How much should be allowed in schools? Do teachers have to worry about students’ data security and privacy? Is it ok for you to ask a computer to write your essay for you? Are we ruining the eyesight and attention spans of an entire generation thanks to excessive screen time? This chapter looks at the debates that exist when it comes to digital technology and education. It will be argued here that the interplay between technology and education is highly complex – and changing – at a pace that is almost unimaginable.

This chapter makes the case for the importance of philosophy as a discipline in its own right, as a subject area vital to the better understanding of education and as a set of self-reflective practices that can make us better teachers. Philosophy is concerned largely with those areas of study and speculation beyond the reach of empirical analysis, addressing problems about how we construct knowledge, how we produce a just society and how we determine ‘right’ from ‘wrong’. Its central research methodology is simply to think with clarity. The significance of this discipline has not been limited to answering abstract questions about the human condition; philosophy has been instrumental in both making us into rational and reflective citizens and framing the ideas behind our entire system of mass schooling.

This chapter argues that our subjective experiences – how we experience the world and understand ourselves within it – are just as closely governed as our objective conduct, discussed in Chapter 5. Whether they realise it or not, contemporary teachers are expected to play a significant role in this form of regulation. After all, teachers are now not simply responsible for transmitting a given curriculum and keeping children in line; they are de facto psychologists, responsible for the mental health, regulation and development of their pupils.

This chapter argues that the issue of ‘truth’ has played a foundational role, not only within the discipline of philosophy but also within many different aspects of Australian culture. However, there seems to be little agreement on what it really is, and while some philosophers contend that truth is a meaningless concept – a linguistic mirage – most would argue there’s something of importance there, but what is it? Even if we struggle to determine the real nature of truth – as we did with the real nature of right and wrong in Chapter 14 – at least we structure our culture, our knowledges and our school curricula around stuff we know to be unequivocally true … or do we? Arguably, many of the assumptions we make, often derived from five centuries of European colonialism, do not stand up to close scrutiny. They are often ‘truths’ that suit particular interests of the powerful, and subtly act to reinforce their worldview.

This chapter examines the rather ambiguous notion of alternative education. To some, sending a child to a Catholic school constitutes an alternative education; to others, nothing short of a total rejection of the central parameters of the mass school deserves the label – such as the elimination of timetables, authority relations, organised curricula, fixed learning goals, even the notion that pupils are to be schooled in any way at all. It’s a subject that often engenders no little passion in those who embrace the categorisation, and no little ridicule among those who do not. Strange though some of the alternative education options might seem, they are all worthy of serious consideration – but what exactly are they?

This is the fifth edition of Making Sense of Mass Education. It offers a nuanced discussion of emerging problems in an ever-changing world. Changes to the field of education have not slowed since the publication of the fourth edition. Of course, this edition offers an updated contemporary assessment of all the topics addressed in the book, but it also provides an extensive discussion of the important and rapidly changing areas that impact mass education and the professional lives of teachers.

In attempts to identify root causes of terrorism, the view that terrorist actors are poor and uneducated often plague the speeches and works of politicians and media outlets. The grouping of these issues is appealing, making terrorism a seemingly easier to solve problem. Yet, rigorous academic research over the past two decades helps refute this view. Studies have revealed that while some stereotypical notions of terrorists are correct, such as that they are usually single, young males, others are wildly misleading. Terrorists are often wealthier and better educated than their peers in the broader population. This, perhaps surprising, academic finding has been independently identified in numerous studies around the world and has subsequently opened the topic of terrorism up to further investigations on microeconomic factors. The question in this chapter then turns to, what other characteristics might influence terrorism? Studies into individual religion have yielded results that are complex and inconclusive. Macroeconomic investigations into theories that involve heroic acts or screening effects have thus far failed to capture a fully substantiated mechanism. Additional research focusing on grievances, media, systematic-indoctrination, and psychological motivations should contribute to a fuller picture of the typically wealthier, better-educated males that choose to engage in terrorism.

Of all the ways humans have chosen to divide themselves, none has a history as problematic as race. This concept has significant implications for almost every aspect of contemporary human conduct, irrespective of what ‘race’ we identify with, or even are deemed to belong to. This is particularly so for the field of education. This chapter looks at the complicated history of race as well as some of the current challenges that exist. In order to describe the complex issues within this important area, a wide range of interrelated terms are used. Probably the most important is the underpinning notion of ‘othering’; that is, thinking about a certain person or group as not ‘one of us’, as the ‘other’.