https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/1055 2026-09-06T15:12:49Z 2026-09-06T15:12:49Z Gatt, Isabelle https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/148873 2026-09-02T09:40:32Z 2026-01-01T00:00:00Z

Title: The drama studio as pedagogical space : rehearsing the whole teacher Authors: Gatt, Isabelle Abstract: A drama studio is an open space. Without desks, rows of chairs or a fixed front, familiar expectations of teaching can be noticed and reconsidered. Student teachers enter carrying memories, habits and images of the teachers they might become. This reflective, practice-based chapter asks what becomes possible when these dimensions are given space within initial teacher education. Drawing on over thirty years in theatre and teacher education, including thirteen years in an ensemble theatre laboratory, it reflects on drama workshops and the Teatru Qroqq productions with student teachers in Malta. These experiences show trust developing as participants contribute, take creative risks and respond to one another. Read alongside scholarship on presence, creativity, ensemble and dialogic education, the studio becomes a pedagogical space where habitual actions can be interrupted and possibilities emerge. Rehearsal is understood not as preparation for a perfected teacher-self, but as a practice of attending, imagining and responding responsibly to others.

2026-01-01T00:00:00Z Gatt, Isabelle https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/148777 2026-08-31T05:21:18Z 2026-01-01T00:00:00Z

Title: Teatru Malta and the formation of a theatre culture Authors: Gatt, Isabelle Abstract: It is tempting, when speaking of a national theatre, to focus on what is produced: the plays staged, the actors employed, the audiences gathered. These matter. They are the visible articulation of a theatre’s presence in the life of a country. But they do not stand alone. What appears on stage is inseparable from the processes that shape it and from the ways it is received, read, and carried beyond the performance itself. Product and process are part of the same ecology. [excerpt]

2026-01-01T00:00:00Z Gatt, Isabelle https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/148453 2026-08-10T08:16:36Z 2027-01-01T00:00:00Z

Title: Drama education in Malta : from theatre practice to pedagogical ecology in the Mediterranean Authors: Gatt, Isabelle Abstract: This chapter traces the development of drama education in Malta as an evolving, hybrid field shaped by the interplay of theatre practice, educational reform, and higher education. It begins with the establishment of formal theatre training through the Manoel Theatre Academy of Dramatic Art (MADC) in the late 1970s and examines the pioneering work of Adrian Rendle and Peter Cox. Their initiatives contributed to the emergence of drama-in-education practices and the formation of the Drama Unit. The chapter then follows the shift from theatre-based training towards the academic and pedagogical development of drama, marked by the introduction of Theatre Studies at the University of Malta in 1988 and subsequent developments in teacher education. These include the Postgraduate Certificate in Drama Education and, later, the MTL in Drama Education, which became the professional route to qualifying as a drama teacher in Malta. Particular attention is given to the distinctive character of Maltese drama education, which developed through an interaction between British drama-in-education traditions, Italian pedagogical influences, notably the work of Loredana Perissinotto and the AGITA network, and local educational and cultural conditions. Drawing on documentary sources, practitioner interviews, and a reflexive practitioner perspective grounded in the author’s professional involvement, the chapter examines how drama education expanded beyond theatre training and developed across schools, teacher education, community settings, and educational policy. It foregrounds the role of collaboration, practitioner networks, and practice-led innovation in shaping a specifically Maltese approach. Situated within the wider cultural and educational context of the Mediterranean, Malta is presented as a case study of how international traditions can be adapted through local practice to produce a responsive and evolving pedagogy with implications for creativity, cultural participation, and educational policy.

2027-01-01T00:00:00Z Cutajar, Maria https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/147795 2026-07-03T09:51:48Z 2026-01-01T00:00:00Z

Title: Phenomenography in a more-than-human world - clarity, coherence and critical renewal Authors: Cutajar, Maria Abstract: Phenomenography is an interpretative research approach for investigating the “qualitatively different ways in which people experience, perceive, and understand various aspects of, and phenomena in the world around them” (Marton, 1986, p.31). In its short history of a few decades phenomenography accumulated a substantial body of literature. A few stand out as seminal works developing phenomenography knowledge. Historically, Marton and Booth (1997) was an unmatched reference work that set out the philosophical and theoretical foundations of phenomenography, elevating it from a set of qualitative research methods to a research approach, while concurrently laying out the foundations of the variation theory of learning as a pedagogy using phenomenographic outcomes for scaffolding students’ thinking and learning. [Excerpt] Description: This extended book review does not include an abstract.

2026-01-01T00:00:00Z