Stretching Boundaries of Critical Education 

Co-edited by Carmel Borg and Peter Mayo

A new compendium of papers has been released by co-editors Carmel Borg and Peter Mayo. International scholars contributed to the formation of this volume titled Stretching Boundaries of Critical Education. Past, Present and Future Possibilities, where one can appreciate worldwide experiences, perceptions and prospects in the realm of critical education.

One who has at heart “education” as a social good understands that matters of power, politics and (in)justice impact education’s potential to contribute to social transformation.

Philosophers of education such as Paulo Freire wanted to discern the importance of thinking critically about such matters, and thus, how the community’s sociopolitical condition affects its prospects and well-being.

Following Freire and other scholars’ contributions, the field of critical education became more prominent in both literature and application. Among its democratic intentions, critical education aims to empower people’s agency to fight injustice and become more politically active, such as through the use of dialogue and encounters.

Keeping the same intent in mind, this volume offers the scenarios and perspectives to maintain critical education’s direction; a direction heading towards justice and social change.

This volume succeeds the International Conference on Critical Education-Critical Adult Learning and Education held in May 2023 at the University of Malta Campus in Valletta, jointly organised by the Department of Arts, Open Communities and Adult Education, and the UNESCO chair in Global Adult Education.

The volume comprises papers from this conference, combining critical education (in its broadest terms) and critical adult learning and education. The following review summarises the book’s five main sections; alternative subtitles are used in this review to label each respective section.

Public education from a global standpoint

The hyper-militarisation in Brazil, the Ubuntu philosophy of education, women’s role in critical education, and the curriculum studies within Britain’s medical education, form the opening four papers in the first section of this volume.

One aspect worth mentioning in this section is the effort to extend beyond the Eurocentric context, allowing encounters with other philosophies of education from around the globe.

For instance, Njoki Nathani Wane’s paper introduces the philosophy of self-reliance, a philosophy of independence and responsibility (similar to the likes of Mahatma Gandhi) based on the importance of Ubuntu, which similarly translates to “I am what I am because of who we all are” in African Indigenous sense.

Additionally, Marcelo Bordin takes us to Brazil and its issue of hyper-militarisation in educational contexts, that is the “expansion of military participation in public and private education…” p. 37.

Popular education: insights from history and today

Following on the former, the second section also takes a multinational and multidisciplinary approach, this time focusing on popular education. This concept aims to elevate communities by engaging with their lived experiences while encouraging community-driven learning.

To historically and contemporarily expand on popular education, seven different papers invite readers to critically examine people’s experiences, such as from the Grenada Revolutionary and the Greek National Resistance.

Further, scholar Aidan Jolly elaborates on pertinent research methodologies, while in Emilio Lucio Villegas’s paper, Dangerous Memories. Recovering People’s Histories to Create Critical Thinking, focuses on the importance of recovering memories to not succumb to a ‘culture of silence’, as was described by Freire.

Analysing critical policy, legal implications and historical foundations

The next section of this volume presents four papers on the intersections between policy, law and education. Firstly, Dave Hill criticises policy analyses, such as the Critical (Education) Policy Analysis over its misrepresentation of social classes and its obstruction with class consciousness.

Hill’s critique also extends to the work of two renowned theorists of education, Stephen J. Ball and Michael W. Apple, referencing their “anti-capitalist Marxist” approaches to policy and education.

The next paper examines the origins of STEM Education – STEM being a prevalent category in local education policies and funding. The subsequent paper focuses on ‘educational law’ and how it can serve as a means to (a) foster dialogue between pedagogy and law; and (b) encourage the contribution of important educational stakeholders in forming educational legislation.

The last paper in this section deals with the increase of educational commodification and privatisation due to neoliberal policies and ideologies, concerning Turkey’s historical context.

Matters of power, politics and (in)justice impact education’s potential to contribute to social transformation. Photo: Shutterstock.com

Exploring critical education, populism and social difference

The fourth section introduces the reader to issues of populism, hegemonic whiteness and critical consciousness, as seen through case studies and historical contexts. By including these issues, the editors have assisted us in realising the sociopolitical responsibilities which different stakeholders and institutions have, for instance in ensuring universal rights such as literacy, as seen in the closing paper of this section.

Economic issues and workplace learning

The fifth and last section of this volume explores how the workplace ought to become a space of learning and encounter. Scholars such as Duncan Spiteri emphasised that critical education literature counters neoliberal discourses, discourses which impede one’s ability to encounter the other – even at work. This section also observes issues related to economics through a “critical realist lens”, as seen by Emanuel Mizzi. Mizzi reinforces the idea of including critical realism in pedagogy while teaching economics.

Doing so, phenomena such as normative economics (which interests itself with ethical values) can prevail over its counterpart, positive economics, which is not as concerned with ethics when compared to the former, for example. Papers such as the latter make this volume even more dynamic, as they strengthen the bond between the socioeconomic and the importance of ethics and justice in educational contexts – following in the footsteps of critical education.

Stretching Boundaries of Critical Education does indeed deliver possibilities to the reader. Borg and Mayo were able to create a volume which speaks different cultures, ‘languages’, disciplines, and narratives. When speaking about education, this volume is not restricted to schooling. From Indigenous cultures to the modern workplace, different papers reveal how critical education is an overarching theme in various sociopolitical contexts.

I conclude with one last remark: this work ought to also be viewed outside its academic pursuits. Policy and decision-makers are to benefit immensely from the well-researched literature in dealing with different sociopolitical issues. Social injustice remains – yet social change prevails, and with respect to the book’s front illustration, this book can surely be a key to prevail.

Luke Fenech is a teacher of ethics and casual lecturer at the University of Malta.