The next MRER lecture will be held on Thursday 8 March at 17:00 in the Open Access Area, Faculty of Education, Rm.224. The lecture, entitled 'Intercultural Education through School Geography' will be delivered by Dr Glorianne Borg Axisa.
Chairperson: Professor Carmel Borg, Editor, Malta Review of Educational Research
Abstract
Population mobility and globalisation lead to social, political and economic challenges globally, raising complex debates related to citizenship, human rights, democracy and education. Geography education and intercultural education have common underpinnings as they develop in, and seek to explain, the changing global context.
The research seeks to merge different areas of study, geography education, intercultural education and the discourse related to ‘powerful disciplinary knowledge’ which, although emerging from the same global context and having the same objectives, developed independently.
The research questions how school geography addresses the principles of intercultural education within the Maltese Islands. This study tracks whether teachers of geography, in their role as ‘curriculum makers’, embrace the underlying principles of intercultural education and ‘powerful disciplinary knowledge’, to address social inequity. The challenge lies in translating this principle into practice within highly structured school systems.
The scenario portrayed from a mixed method research case study, is that of a heavy loaded exam oriented system that does not allow for flexibility, where often teachers cannot engage students with disciplinary knowledge and activities that allow them to think critically and reflect on alternatives. This context risks perpetuating education inequalities.