https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/18560 Sat, 31 Oct 2026 08:17:05 GMT 2026-10-31T08:17:05Z https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/150449 Title: 3S - seen, safe, supported : framework for professionals working with migrant children Abstract: The 3s framework serves as a practical, research- and evidence-based guide for professionals in psychosocial, educational, and health fields who have direct or indirect contacts with migrant children. Its aim is to enable professionals to identify and address children's concerns promptly, diminish stigma, enhance support for children and families with migration experiences, and foster collaboration among various sector professionals. The 3S Framework was developed within COST Action CA21143 TraFaDy – Transnational Family Dynamics in Europe (2022-2026). It translates evidence generated through research conducted within the Action on children growing up in contexts of migration into practical guidance for professionals working with migrant children and their families. The framework brings together the expertise of academics and specialists from the fields of psychosocial studies, education, and health. It draws on scoping reviews and empirical studies published within the Action (Bozic et al., 2026; Spiteri et al.,2026; Udrea et al., 2026), complemented by practice-based knowledge, international child rights standards, and European policy documents. Thu, 01 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/150449 2026-01-01T00:00:00Z https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/149878 Title: Climate change education for children : a critical integrative review and the participation–emotion–resilience (PER) framework Authors: Spiteri, Jane Abstract: Climate change education (CCE) in early childhood and primary settings has expanded rapidly, yet remains unevenly theorised with respect to children’s participation, emotional experiences, and resilience. While existing approaches frequently emphasise knowledge acquisition, pro-environmental behaviour, or coping skills, they offer limited explanatory insight into why children’s engagement with climate issues can simultaneously create agency, anxiety, hope, or disengagement. This critical integrative review synthesises 47 empirical, conceptual, review, and policy-oriented studies to examine how participation, emotion, and resilience are conceptualised and enacted in CCE for young children. Drawing on established guidance for integrative synthesis, the review identifies three patterned tendencies across the literature: constrained forms of participation that prioritise expression over influence; heightened attention to climate emotions without corresponding structural responsiveness; and resilience framings that risk individualisation in the absence of collective and rights-based supports. To explain these patterns, the review advances the Participation–Emotion–Resilience (PER) framework, which conceptualises participation, emotion, and resilience as mutually constitutive processes rather than discrete domains. Grounded in children’s rights research and aligned with the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, the PER framework elucidates how the quality of participatory opportunities shapes emotional experiences and conditions whether resilience emerges as collective capacity or individualised coping. The review concludes by outlining implications for theory, pedagogy, and policy, arguing for climate education approaches that attend to the ethical and affective dimensions of children’s participation in conditions of climate uncertainty. Thu, 01 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/149878 2026-01-01T00:00:00Z https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/149876 Title: Approaches to foster young children’s engagement with climate action : a scoping review Authors: Spiteri, Jane Abstract: Climate change poses a significant risk to young children (birth to eight years). Early childhood education and care is believed to play a pivotal role in guaranteeing young children’s understanding of sustainability issues and climate change. Yet how education translates into climate action in early childhood is still unknown, and there is a need for research to explore the approaches that may be deployed to foster young children’s engagement with climate action. This scoping review aims to identify and describe the existing literature highlighting the approaches used in early childhood education to foster climate action amongst young children; map the gaps in this emerging field of inquiry; and make recommendations for areas of future research to address this problem. These findings offer potential priorities for educators, researchers and policymakers to develop climate change education programmes that are meaningful to young children in the early years. Based on the findings, areas for interventions related to climate literacy and climate change education, which may be helpful in raising awareness of climate change among young children, will be outlined. Sun, 01 Jan 2023 00:00:00 GMT https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/149876 2023-01-01T00:00:00Z https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/149016 Title: Before they can name ecological grief : a brief research report of young children’s climate emotions in a small island state Authors: Spiteri, Jane Abstract: Climate emotions research is expanding rapidly, yet children under eight remain less visible than adolescents and adults within the field despite evidence that climate concern may emerge early in life. Such an omission is especially consequential in small island states that are more vulnerable to climate change. This Brief Research Report presents a secondary qualitative analysis of empirical studies conducted in Malta with young children, parents and early childhood educators. Re-examining these datasets through the lens of climate emotions, the analysis shows that young children express early forms of climate worry and ecological loss through concrete, place-based concerns about heat, pollution, animals, the sea and damaged environments, even without adult terminology. Parents and educators recognise climate risks but often struggle to communicate them in emotionally safe ways. The findings conceptualise climate emotions in early childhood as an emergent, relational and co-constructed experience shaped by place attachment, intergenerational communication and opportunities for care-based action. The report further suggests that children’s climate emotions are socially mediated through family, educational and peer contexts. Finally, it argues that conservation social science must integrate young children’s emotional responses to ecological loss, particularly in small island contexts where the impacts of climate change are more pronounced and encountered intimately and daily. Thu, 01 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/149016 2026-01-01T00:00:00Z