On the 7 December 2023, UM Rector Prof. Alfred Vella awarded Research Excellence Funds to four winning project proposals. The ECPE Research Group of the Department of Early Childhood and Primary Education, within the Faculty of Education, was awarded Excellence Research Funds for 2024-2025 after a successful bid in the research category of Social Sciences and Education. Prof. Josephine Milton was invited to the Research Excellence Fund Ceremony as the lead researcher of the project to receive the award for the project submission titled: Addressing Linguistic Diversity in Malta: Teacher Education and Classroom Pedagogy in Early and Primary Education.
The ECPE Research Group is composed of Prof. Josephine Milton, Dr Charmaine Bonello, Prof. Josephine Deguara, Dr Rosienne Camilleri and Dr Tania Muscat. The ECPE Research Group hold that this research is urgent due to the incessant and rapidly changing linguistic milieu that is posing serious strains on the educational system in Malta. The study aims to help pre-service and in-service educators and school leaders to discover, connect with, share, understand and apply multilingual and plurilingual policies and practices to benefit all children, their families and society at large. Over the past ten years, Malta has witnessed a drastic change in the student population and the demographics of schools and childcare centres. According to the National Statistics Office during the last scholastic year non-Maltese student enrollment in compulsory education stood at 13.9% of the total cohort (NSO, 2022, NR119). This impinges directly on the quality of education and care professionals are in a position to provide. All children have the right to a quality education (United Nations, 1989). Therefore, changes in society cannot be overlooked in educational practice.
The proposed project seeks to provide a platform for stakeholders in education to be better informed and take evidence-based actions for all children and families to experience inclusive attitudes, dispositions and practices that are linguistically diverse within Maltese early and primary curricular and pedagogical agendas. The Excellence Research Fund Committee of the University of Malta has awarded one project grant in each of the following domains: Natural Sciences and Knowledge Sciences; Engineering, ICT & Built Environment; Medical and Health Sciences; and Social Sciences and Education.