https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/1165 2026-08-04T01:00:57Z 2026-08-04T01:00:57Z Cutajar, Mario Martinelli, Victor https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/148382 2026-08-03T06:11:47Z 2026-01-01T00:00:00Z

Title: Parental engagement in two Maltese state colleges : a case study Authors: Cutajar, Mario; Martinelli, Victor Abstract: In 2006, The Act to Amend the Education Act Cap. 327 (Laws of Malta, 2006) made provisions to sustain and augment the then-existing school-parent partnership. This study examines the current partnership between schools and parents in two Maltese State Colleges and the perceived challenges to nurturing, enriching, and sustaining collaboration between the schools and the parent community. The history of Education in Malta reveals a pattern of fragmented initiatives between schools and parents. For example, the establishment of the College Board of Governors, a tenet of the aforementioned Act, was never implemented after its enactment and is not even mentioned in the Education Act, CAP 605, ACT XXIX of 2019 (Laws of Malta, 2022). The data were collected through questionnaires administered to teachers and parents. Convenience and purposive sampling methods were used to recruit participants. We explored educators’ and parents’ positions on parental involvement and participation in their children's education, as well as the issues and challenges they encountered in sustaining such partnerships. The study seeks to advance understanding of these issues and challenges and to propose a way forward to address the missing link in the structure contemplated by the 2006 and 2019 Acts.

2026-01-01T00:00:00Z Darmanin, Mary https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/148238 2026-07-27T08:02:20Z 2024-01-01T00:00:00Z

Title: “So we can do our best.” Care in children’s relationships with teachers Authors: Darmanin, Mary Abstract: This volume offers a fresh approach to student-teacher relationships in middle childhood from the perspective of children in primary schools. It explores how children express their learning and emotional needs, as well as their experience of good and less good student-teacher relationships. Their apprehension of care and its reciprocity, of the need for time and proximity in teaching and learning, of the vicariousness of the experience, and crucially, of the place of learning in student-teacher relationships, is authentically evoked through rich verbatim quotations. Children’s accounts answer questions which teachers, parents, professionals and policy-makers ask. In the experience of children, what makes a person a teacher? What is a “good” student-teacher relationship? Can children with poor relationship histories have good relationships with new teachers? How is learning or “doing well” integral to “getting on well”?

2024-01-01T00:00:00Z Tutar, Peri Mayo, Peter Brown, Maria https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/148113 2026-07-17T07:48:52Z 2025-11-01T00:00:00Z

Title: UNESCO Chair in global adult education : second international conference on critical adult education and learning : the book of abstracts Authors: Tutar, Peri; Mayo, Peter; Brown, Maria Abstract: The University of Malta Valletta Campus hosted, once again following 2023, an international conference organised by the UNESCO Chair in Global Adult Education on 6–7 November 2025. The conference brought together over 70 participants from South and North America, Africa, Europe, and Asia, reflecting the global reach and relevance of Critical Adult Learning and Education (CALE). Building on the earlier conference held in May 2023 in the context of the International Critical Education Conference (ICCE), CALE 2025 focused exclusively on critical adult education and learning. The conference took place at a historical moment marked by rampant populism, the erosion of distinctions between fact and fiction, intensifying militarisation, corporate encroachment into public spaces, and the growing reduction of education to a narrow technical activity. Against this backdrop, CALE 2025 sought to reaffirm the urgency of critical adult education research and practice. In the spirit of its predecessor, the conference aimed to move beyond critique as denunciation, embracing critique as a generative practice—one that combines critical analysis with the exploration of emancipatory possibilities. The guiding imperative was clear: liberating praxis or sheer barbarism. The strong engagement and enthusiasm of participants reaffirmed CALE as a significant space for international dialogue in adult and continuing education. [Foreword by Prof. Peter Mayo]

2025-11-01T00:00:00Z Tang, Thomas Li-Ping Li, Zhen Özbek, Mehmet Ferhat Lim, Vivien K. G. Teo, Thompson S. H. Ansari, Mahfooz A. Sutarso, Toto Garber, Ilya Chiu, Randy Ki-Kwan Charles-Pauvers, Brigitte Urbain, Caroline Luna-Arocas, Roberto Chen, Jingqiu Tang, Ningyu Tang, Theresa Li-Na Arias-Galicia, Fernando De La Torre, Consuelo Garcia Vlerick, Peter Akande, Adebowale Al-Zubaidi, Abdulqawi Salim Kazem, Ali Mahdi Borg, Mark G. Cheng, Bor-Shiuan Du, Linzhi Ibrahim, Abdul Hamid Safwat Kim, Kilsun Malovics, Eva Mpoyi, Richard T. Ugochukwu Nnedum, Obiajulu Anthony Sardžoska, Elisaveta Gjorgj Allen, Michael W. Correia, Rosário Jen, Chin-Kang Moreira, Alice S. Osagie, Johnston E. Osman-Gani, AAhad M. Pholsward, Ruja Polic, Marko Skobic, Petar Stembridge, Allen F. Canova, Luigina Manganelli, Anna Maria Pitariu, Adrian H. Costa Pereira, Francisco José https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/145882 2026-04-26T21:08:41Z 2023-01-01T00:00:00Z

Title: Behavioral economics and monetary wisdom : a cross‐level analysis of monetary aspiration, pay (dis)satisfaction, risk perception, and corruption in 32 nations Authors: Tang, Thomas Li-Ping; Li, Zhen; Özbek, Mehmet Ferhat; Lim, Vivien K. G.; Teo, Thompson S. H.; Ansari, Mahfooz A.; Sutarso, Toto; Garber, Ilya; Chiu, Randy Ki-Kwan; Charles-Pauvers, Brigitte; Urbain, Caroline; Luna-Arocas, Roberto; Chen, Jingqiu; Tang, Ningyu; Tang, Theresa Li-Na; Arias-Galicia, Fernando; De La Torre, Consuelo Garcia; Vlerick, Peter; Akande, Adebowale; Al-Zubaidi, Abdulqawi Salim; Kazem, Ali Mahdi; Borg, Mark G.; Cheng, Bor-Shiuan; Du, Linzhi; Ibrahim, Abdul Hamid Safwat; Kim, Kilsun; Malovics, Eva; Mpoyi, Richard T.; Ugochukwu Nnedum, Obiajulu Anthony; Sardžoska, Elisaveta Gjorgj; Allen, Michael W.; Correia, Rosário; Jen, Chin-Kang; Moreira, Alice S.; Osagie, Johnston E.; Osman-Gani, AAhad M.; Pholsward, Ruja; Polic, Marko; Skobic, Petar; Stembridge, Allen F.; Canova, Luigina; Manganelli, Anna Maria; Pitariu, Adrian H.; Costa Pereira, Francisco José Abstract: Corruption involves greed, money, and risky decision-making. We explore the love of money, pay satisfaction, probability of risk, and dishonesty across cultures. Avaricious monetary aspiration breeds unethicality. Prospect theory frames decisions in the gains-losses domain and high-low probability. Pay dissatisfaction (in the losses domain) incites dishonesty in the name of justice at the individual level. The Corruption Perceptions Index, CPI, signals a high-low probability of getting caught for dishonesty at the country level. We theorize that decision-makers adopt avaricious love-of- money aspiration as a lens and frame dishonesty in the gains-losses domain (pay satisfaction-dissatisfaction, Level 1) and high-low probability (CPI, Level 2) to maximize expected utility and ultimate serenity. We challenge the myth: Pay satisfaction mitigates dishonesty across nations consistently. Based on 6500 managers in 32 countries, our cross-level three-dimensional visualization offers the following discoveries. Under high aspiration conditions, pay dissatisfaction excites the highest-( third-highest) avaricious justice-seeking dishonesty in high (medium) CPI nations, supporting the certainty effect. However, pay satisfaction provokes the second-highest avaricious opportunity-seizing dishonesty in low CPI entities, sustaining the possibility effect—maximizing expected utility. Under low aspiration conditions, high pay satisfaction consistently leads to low dishonesty, demonstrating risk aversion—achieving ultimate serenity. We expand prospect theory from a micro and individual-level theory to a cross-level theory of monetary wisdom across 32 nations. We enhance the S-shaped Curve to three 3-D corruption surfaces across three levels of the global economic pyramid, providing novel insights into behavioral economics, business ethics, the environment, and responsibility.

2023-01-01T00:00:00Z