Educational Scholarship Across The Mediterranean

This book brings together in one volume a selection of the best articles that have appeared in the Mediterranean Journal of Educational Studies, whose first issue appeared in 1996. Each chapter highlights challenges faced by education systems across the region.

This edited collection examines the impact that John Dewey had on educational thought across the Mediterranean region. It considers the manner in which Dewey and other progressive educators were actively received, adopted, adapted, and at times resisted in a range of Mediterranean countries, most of which emerging from autocratic regimes and colonial histories.

This book is not just about the linguistic translation process; it delves deeper into the socio-cultural journey, the unique challenges faced, and the broader implications of this cross-cultural exchange. It stands out for its novel perspective, taking the readers on a fascinating journey from the humorous undertones of ‘Monsters Inc.’ to the satirical edges of ‘The Simpsons’ and ‘Family Guy’. It uncovers the intricate process of dubbing and transcreating Western audiovisual content into Arabic, highlighting how visuals, irony, and stereotypes interplay in this complex process. It offers readers insights into the world of media translation and cultural adaptation in Arabic, making it a compelling read for linguists, translators, media scholars, cultural enthusiasts, and anyone intrigued by the intersection of language, culture, and humour. It is a unique blend of academic research and engaging storytelling that will leave readers with a newfound appreciation for the art of dubbing and the cultural nuances it negotiates.

Small Musical Worlds in the Mediterranean is a pioneering book-length study of the complex topics of identity, ethnicity and global processes in children’s musical lives in the Republic of Cyprus - a Mediterranean country during its post-colonial era. What is it about this country’s musical enculturation that made musical identity such a potent element in Greek Cypriot children’s worlds? How is history, tradition, modernity, ethnic fluidity, syncretism and diversification in the Mediterranean negotiated in the construction of musical ’self’ and ’other’ in children’s daily lives? This book, through a journey of ’fieldwork at home’, discusses how children select, reject, reproduce and transform meanings and create new ones at the micro-level of their lives through which individuals and groups define themselves and others. Towards this exploration, musical identity in childhood is discussed in terms of cultural production and reproduction, human expression, inter-relating and learning. Ethnographic vignettes of children’s musical practices and direct words add depth and humour to the flow of the book. This study is a synthesis of ethnomusicology, musical anthropology, education and folklore in which the author effectively weaves together theories of musical enculturation and identity, sociocultural learning and human agency. The book will be invaluable to scholars interested in musical enculturation, musical identities, children’s contextual musical practices, ethnicity, globalization studies, music education and Mediterranean studies.

In this magisterial cultural history of the Palestinians, Nur Masalha illuminates the entire history of Palestinian learning with specific reference to writing, education, literary production and the intellectual revolutions in the country. The book introduces this long cultural heritage to demonstrate that Palestine was not just a 'holy land' for the four monotheistic religions – Islam, Christianity, Judaism and Samaritanism – rather, the country evolved to become a major international site of classical education and knowledge production in multiple languages including Sumerian, Proto-Canaanite, Greek, Syriac, Arabic, Hebrew and Latin. The cultural saturation of the country is found then, not solely in landmark mosques, churches and synagogues, but in scholarship, historic schools, colleges, famous international libraries and archival centres. This unique book unites these renowned institutions, movements and multiple historical periods for the first time, presenting them as part of a cumulative and incremental intellectual advancement rather than disconnected periods of educational excellence. In doing so, this multifaceted intellectual history transforms the orientations of scholarly research on Palestine and propels current historical knowledge on education and literacy in Palestine to new heights.

This short book provides an introduction to the study of education, outlining the dual purpose of education – to help people live well and to help develop a world worth living in. It argues that education initiates people into forms of understanding, modes of activity, and ways of relating to each other and the world that not only help individuals to live good lives, but also help secure a culture based on reason, productive and sustainable economies and environments, and just and democratic societies. Subsequent chapters address the history of education in the West; explore how education reproduces the practices and forms of life in societies and groups, and also how it transforms them; and introduce the theory of practice architectures to explain what practices are composed of, and how they are enabled and constrained by local and more general conditions and circumstances. The book closes by showing how the theory of practice architectures unfolds to offer a theory of education – a theory that underpins the definition of education offered at the start of the book. Understanding Education is essential reading for anyone interested in the theory and practice of education.