Dear students

A new academic year commences, the first after two years living through the pandemic with all the challenges this has brought about. As a Faculty, we have the responsibility of developing and nurturing one of the most noble professions – teaching. Perhaps the easier part of our role, as teacher educators, is to focus on teaching competencies that our students will need to achieve, in their Initial Teacher Education programme and also throughout their careers. Becoming a teacher, and building expertise in your profession, would require you to perform complex pedagogical duties and be cognisant of progressive theoretical ideas, principles and methods of teaching and learning. 

But our aim is not just to provide you with knowledge that you may later apply. Our aim is to teach you how to obtain knowledge by yourselves and to work in ways that enable you to come up with new ideas. We need to nurture professionals who are culturally competent, talented, innovative and creative problem-solvers, skilled and critical thinkers. This is a bit more complex to achieve, but we are devoting our energies and our expertise to fulfill this aim.

We must provide you with skills that will help you work collaboratively and sensitively in a team, listen to one another and be respectful of the learning needs of your students. We need you to become dedicated professionals who will have a lasting impact on your students, to be vocal in the current educational discourse and to never tolerate injustices, both within the classroom, and beyond. We want you to act as mentors and role models to your students, who will be inspired by your commitment to helping them develop their unique talents and intellect.

We are honoured to be entrusted with this obligation, and I will do my utmost, as Dean, to steer the Faculty in this direction. We look forward to experience a fruitful, productive academic year with you. May I take this opportunity to remind you that we are here to help you grow, and your feedback is important to help us support you in this endeavour. Do come forward and speak to us about your learning experiences and share with us your ideas of how we can enhance our programmes and our Faculty.

The Dean

Prof Colin Calleja