Agenda's Valletta Waterfront outlet provided the setting for the Malta launch of the book, Learning and Social Difference. Challenges for Public Education and Critical Pedagogy. The book, co-authored by Dr Carmel Borg and Professor Peter Mayo, was presented by Professor John P. Portelli of the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education of the University of Toronto.

Professor Portelli discussed the book in the context of the neoliberal scenario, which is engulfing educational policy worldwide. He provided a succinct account of the way neo-liberalism impinges on educational policy and undermines the more expansive, holistic and humanistic traditions in the field, rendering education a consumption rather than a public good.

He stated: 'Vividly critiquing the seductive nature of neo-liberal influences on educational policy, pedagogy, curriculum and reforms, Learning and Social Difference is an exemplary work in the critical democratic tradition.

'Combining both theoretical and empirical work and carefully building on the work of Antonio Gramsci, Paulo Freire and Lorenzo Milani, this book offers meaningful, powerful alternatives that enhance democratic leadership and inclusive school improvement.'

Professor Peter Mayo spoke on the development of the book project and Dr Carmel Borg outlined the book's main topics. The book was produced by the US publishing house, Paradigm Publishers, which specialises in the Humanities and Social Sciences.

This is Dr Borg's third book after Gramsci and Education (co-edited with Joseph Buttigieg and Peter Mayo, Rowman & Littlefield, 2002) and Children and Youth at Risk. Narratives of Hope (co-edited with Colin Calleja, Agenda, 2006). This is Professor Mayo's seventh book in a list that includes Gramsci, Freire and Adult Education (Zed Books, 1999 and subsequently published in Catalan, Portuguese and German) and the award winning (American Educational Studies Association Critics Choice Award 2005) Liberating Praxis. Paulo Freire's Legacy for Radical Education and Politics (Praeger, 2004).

Dr Mayo is a professor in the Department of Education Studies at the University of Malta's Faculty of Education; and Dr Borg is Dean of the same faculty.