https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/22326 2026-09-28T18:19:28Z 2026-09-28T18:19:28Z Stroia, Armanda Ramona Xerri, Daniel https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/149466 2026-09-28T10:45:58Z 2026-01-01T00:00:00Z

Title: Empowering young voices : critical media literacy in an AI-driven world Authors: Stroia, Armanda Ramona; Xerri, Daniel Abstract: This study investigates the potential of combining critical media and ecomedia literacy to help young learners become critically aware digital citizens and agents of social and environmental change. It presents a classroom-based project with fifth-grade students and teenage co-researchers in a Romanian public school, using a three-stage approach and collaborative multimodal tasks that incorporated ethical generative AI use. The paper reviews key phases of critical media literacy—deconstructive and critical, constructive media production—highlighting their role in developing students’ ecological identity and media skills. Findings show increased critical thinking, eco-consciousness, creativity, and empowerment through challenging media messages and creating counter-narratives. The study also discusses theoretical and practical implications, emphasising the value of embedding critical media literacy in English Language Teaching (ELT) to foster inclusive learning and support students in becoming socially and environmentally engaged individuals.

2026-01-01T00:00:00Z Xerri, Daniel Block, Josianne https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/148965 2026-09-09T07:43:09Z 2027-01-01T00:00:00Z

Title: Leveraging generative AI for teaching writing : a case study of two English language teachers Authors: Xerri, Daniel; Block, Josianne Abstract: This chapter presents a qualitative case study investigating how generative AI (GenAI) can transform English language teachers' approaches to writing instruction. Following two English language teachers in Malta over a four-week period, the study explores their implementation of ChatGPT across four process-writing stages: brainstorming, planning, drafting, and editing. Data collected through semi-structured interviews and reflective journals revealed three main themes: GenAI as a facilitator of process-oriented writing instruction, teacher concerns regarding over-reliance and loss of human agency, and the development of teachers' own GenAI digital competence. The findings indicate that integrating GenAI shifts pedagogical emphasis from final written products to active engagement with the writing process, fostering critical thinking, prompt engineering skills, and student autonomy.

2027-01-01T00:00:00Z Xerri, Daniel https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/148964 2026-09-07T10:52:55Z 2026-01-01T00:00:00Z

Title: Cultivating adaptability via education and continuing professional development Authors: Xerri, Daniel Abstract: This chapter explores the cultivation of adaptability as an essential global competency, positioning it as a foundational capacity for thriving in volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous contexts. Framed as a key educational outcome, adaptability is examined as a multidimensional construct encompassing cognitive, emotional and dispositional flexibility that enables individuals, teams and organisations to learn, adjust and innovate amid ongoing change. Drawing on interdisciplinary research, the chapter proposes that adaptability operates across three interconnected dimensions: personal, career and organisational. The personal dimension examines psychological resources such as emotional regulation, growth mindset and mattering, which sustain resilience and flexibility. The career dimension highlights adaptability as a self-regulatory capacity that supports employability and vocational growth through proactive goal adjustment and continuous learning. The organisational dimension situates adaptability within leadership, culture and dynamic capability development, emphasising collective learning and agile structures. The chapter concludes by outlining systemic and continuing professional development (CPD) strategies to embed adaptability through reflective, experiential and relational learning approaches. It argues that cultivating adaptability through education and CPD is central to preparing individuals and institutions for the complex challenges of a globalised, technology-driven future.

2026-01-01T00:00:00Z Xerri, Daniel https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/148690 2026-08-25T11:14:03Z 2026-01-01T00:00:00Z

Title: English and glocal justice : rethinking language, power, and advocacy Authors: Xerri, Daniel Abstract: This chapter examines the role of English in advancing social justice by positioning the language not as a neutral global set of skills but as a contested resource shaped by the interplay of global structures and local practices. Drawing on the concept of glocalisation, it highlights English’s dual role as both a bridge for intercultural dialogue and a barrier that reinforces inequalities rooted in colo-nial histories and neoliberal ideologies. Through examples from diverse educa-tional contexts, the chapter explores how hegemonic discourses reproduce systemic inequities, whereas glocal pedagogical practices offer pathways for advocacy and empowerment. Teachers and school leaders are examined as glocal agents whose agency, shaped by personal histories and institutional contexts, enables resistance to exclusionary practices and fosters inclusive education. The chapter culminates in the articulation of a glocal justice lens, a conceptual framework that integrates struc-tural critique, pedagogical transformation, and agency-in-context. This framework calls on policymakers, school leaders, teachers, and teacher educators to reconcep-tualise English education as a means of fostering equity, solidarity, and advocacy across local and global scales, thereby contributing to ongoing debates on language, justice, and education.

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