https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/1055 Wed, 30 Sep 2026 18:38:11 GMT 2026-09-30T18:38:11Z https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/149516 Title: Gendered (in)visibilities and the public-private divide : critical insights from early career researchers in European higher education Authors: Külcür, Rakibe; Bonello Rutter Giappone, Krista; Brown, Maria; Baysan, Sultan; Demir, Tülay; Patón-Romero, J. David; Novelskaitė, Aurelija; Grinevica, Liva; Showunmi, Victoria Abstract: This paper presents findings of a study that profiled ‘Early Career Researchers (ECRs) to demystify ‘public-private divide’ conventions, while critically questioning the ECR category’s definition. The study also queried disparities and resistances at play with respect to (de)colonising higher education, research, and innovation (HERI) contexts. [extract]. Wed, 01 Jan 2025 00:00:00 GMT https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/149516 2025-01-01T00:00:00Z https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/149514 Title: Professionalisation of adult educators as a right : a critical pedagogical approach Authors: Brown, Maria Abstract: This paper draws on a case study of the University of Malta’s part-time, evening, hybrid BA (Hons) in Adult Education, Training, and Development (BA AETD) to interrogate the professionalisation of adult educators through the lens of critical pedagogy and educational rights. Using secondary data - student feedback, institutional records, and the Annual Programme Review - the study explores how course structures, practices, and institutional commitments shape sustainable participation and professional identity formation among (prospective) adult educators in a (post) COVID-19 context. [extract] Wed, 01 Jan 2025 00:00:00 GMT https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/149514 2025-01-01T00:00:00Z https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/149510 Title: 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. Wed, 01 Jan 2025 00:00:00 GMT https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/149510 2025-01-01T00:00:00Z https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/148873 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. Thu, 01 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/148873 2026-01-01T00:00:00Z