Master's course for educational thinkers

For the third year running the University of Malta is offering an Master of Education (M.Ed.) course in the Philosophy of Education, which, as the course co-ordinator, Professor Kenneth Wain explains, aims to produce professionals "who can understand the complexity of educational issues, conduct a sophisticated analysis and make their voices heard in public".

"Hopefully," he added, "our policy makers will one day see the importance of employing some of them as consultants."

Giving examples of issues Professor Wain had in mind, he pointed out that classroom management raises important ethical and political questions about the teacher's authority, the rights of pupils or students, the ethics of punishment, discipline, etc. Another example is the practice of streaming, which Professor Wain said he and many others consider as unjust.

The M.Ed. degree will also be exploring the use of philosophy in the classroom. "This goes beyond teaching thinking skills because it deals with values, questions of identity, of relating with others, and so on," he added.

All teachers, administrators and policy makers with a teaching qualification are eligible to apply for the course, which commences this October, and is partly taught during the first year and partly based on a dissertation.