Engaging with Twenty Years of Educational Scholarship Through the MRER Archive

The Malta Review of Educational Research celebrated another significant milestone in its twentieth anniversary commemorations with the official launch of 'Engaging with the MRER 20th Anniversary Archive: Reflections on Three Educational Journeys' on Friday, 5 June 2026, at the Theatre of the University of Malta’s Valletta Campus.

Authored by Prof. Carmel Borg, editor of MRER and coordinator of the MRER Project, Prof. Michelle Attard Tonna, and Dr James Calleja, the book serves as a companion volume to 'Building Knowledge, Inspiring Practice: The MRER at 20', co-edited by Prof. Borg and Dr Charmaine Bonello, and launched in January 2026. While the 856-page commemorative volume brought together contributions from dozens of scholars whose work has shaped educational discourse over the past two decades, this companion text offers a more focused and reflective engagement with the intellectual legacy of the MRER archive. Drawing on twenty years of scholarship, the authors revisit key debates and emerging concerns that continue to influence educational research, policy, and practice in Malta and beyond.

Structured around three interconnected essays, the book examines education through distinct but complementary lenses. Carmel Borg explores the relationship between education, ethics, democracy, and inclusive societies; Michelle Attard Tonna reflects on teacher identity, agency, and professional growth; while James Calleja focuses on leadership, professional development, and school improvement. Together, the essays offer a rich narrative of educational change, tracing how ideas evolve, how educators navigate complex realities, and how institutions respond to social transformation.

Rather than presenting definitive answers, the volume encourages dialogue across generations of educators, researchers, students, and policymakers. It asks what can be learned from the past twenty years of educational scholarship and how these lessons might inform more equitable, democratic, and transformative futures.

Since its establishment, MRER has grown into Malta’s leading platform for educational research, providing an open-access forum for critical inquiry and scholarly exchange. Over two decades, and forty issues and four hundred articles later, the journal has documented changing educational realities while supporting both established and emerging researchers.