The first journal solely dedicated to research into all areas of local education is to be published on the internet early next year, filling a sorely felt gap in the burgeoning educational scene.
The Journal of Maltese Education Research will give both established and emerging scholars and practitioners the opportunity to publish "critical and empirical analysis of issues central to Maltese education policy, curriculum reform and pedagogy".
The journal comes at a time when education in Malta is undergoing some far-reaching changes, what with a new national minimum curriculum in the first stages of implementation, more emphasis being placed on teacher training, reforms taking place in vocational education, and a major initiative to promote lifelong learning in all sectors of society just getting underway.
Carmel Borg, the head of the university's department of primary education, is the editor.
He said he was not anticipating a shortage of high quality work; in fact the response to the call for papers had so far been "very encouraging".
"There are many good dissertations and term papers that never see the light of day," he said.
"The national minimum curriculum puts a lot of emphasis on basing educational decisions on scientific data," he added. The journal will make that data widely available. And it will showcase Maltese research to the outside world.
The journal would consider publishing undergraduate work, but this would have to be outstanding.
The scope of the journal will not be limited to schooling, but will extend to areas ranging from pre-school education to the history of education.
The call for papers asks for articles which may also be related to adult education, vocational training, popular education and culture, education for leisure, museum education, distance learning, open learning, education and the Maltese diaspora, education administration and management, and education planning.
The journal will be published electronically twice a year, with the first issue due to go online in February 2003. Every two years the cream of the crop will be published by traditional means.
Articles, in English, will be fully refereed, by at least two independent referees.
The associate editors are among Malta's foremost educationalists: Christopher Bezzina, Mark Borg, Mary Darmanin, Peter Mayo and Kenneth Wain. The reviews editor is Valerie Sollars.
The international board is made up of academics from universities worldwide, including Lithuania, Scotland, the UK, Hong Kong, Northern Ireland, Cyprus, Canada, New Zealand, Sweden, Italy, Israel, USA and Australia.
A few Maltese names stand out: Carmen Dalli of the Victoria University of Wellington and Joe Grixti of Massey University, both in New Zealand; and John Portelli of OISE/University of Toronto in Canada.
The journal is an initiative of the Publications Committee of the Faculty of Education at the University of Malta.
Other publications include the Journal of Postcolonial Education, which deals with new forms of domination; Trends, a monograph series, which focuses on local research with particular emphasis on the principles, objectives and areas of the national curriculum; and the Mediterranean Journal of Educational Studies, which features educational research carried out in Mediterranean countries as well as related to the diaspora of Mediterranean people worldwide.
The Faculty of Education also publishes a professional magazine in collaboration with the Education Division called Education 2000.