The ECPE Research Group at UMRE 2026

The Early Childhood and Primary Education (ECPE) Research Group within the Department of Early Childhood and Primary Education, at the Faculty of Education, attended and presented some findings at the University of Malta’s Research Expo (UMRE26). The Research Expo was held at the UM Valletta Campus on 27 May 2026.

The ECPE Research Group presented two papers and a poster based on research being undertaken following the award of Excellence Research Funds (2023-2025) in the research category of Social Sciences and Education titled: Addressing Linguistic Diversity in Malta: Teacher Education and Classroom Pedagogy in Early and Primary Education. The project aims to provide stakeholders with a snapshot of the local situation and explore how in-service and pre-service educators are navigating linguistic diversity in their everyday practice with learners in early and primary education.

The two papers were presented on behalf of the group through the Expo Stream 10.1-10.8: Education, Pedagogy and Social Inclusion, chaired by Pro-Rector Prof. Valerie Sollars. The first presentation held by Prof. Josephine Milton and Prof. Josephine Deguara (in absentia) on behalf of the group, was titled Teaching and Learning in Multilingual Classrooms: Perspectives of pre-service educators in early and primary schools in Malta. This focused on some preliminary results from the survey with UM student teachers in early and primary education. The second paper, Beyond Maltese-English Bilingualism: Policy Orientations to Multilingualism, was presented by Dr Michela Vella (part-time RSO) on behalf of the research group.

The poster presented by Ms Rebecca Barbara (part-time RSO) was titled Comparative Analysis of Initial Teacher Training Programmes in Six Universities and Colleges in the European Union and depicted a brief analysis of a part of our study that focuses on ITE programmes in various Universities and Colleges across the European Union and compares them with UM’s ITE programmes.

The ECPE Research Group is composed of Prof. Josephine Milton, Dr Charmaine Bonello, Prof. Josephine Deguara, Dr Rosienne Camilleri and Dr Tania Muscat. Part time academic RSOs working on this research project are Ms Rebecca Barbara and Dr Michela Vella, while Mr Gabriel Spiteri is part time RSO for administrative duties.

NB: The ECPE Research Group acknowledges the University of Malta for funding this research through the award of Research Excellence Funds Award (2023-2025).