People
鈥�
Faculty of Education academic delivers international early childhood keynote
On 25 September 2026, Dr Charmaine Bonello, Senior Lecturer within the Department of Early Childhood and Primary Education, Faculty of Education at the University of Malta, delivered a keynote address at Cities in Dialogue: European Models for Early Childhood Development, Learning and Participation, organised by Sofia Municipality, Sofia University “St. Kliment Ohridski” and the Kaleidoscope Foundation for Child Development.
Dr Bonello addressed participants during the conference’s first plenary session with her keynote, “Whose Curriculum Is It Anyway? From Teaching Children to Co-Constructing Learning.” A distinctive element of the keynote was its connection between the local and the international. Dr Bonello drew on research and educational reflections rooted in Marsamxett, Valletta, the place where she grew up, using childhood experiences, community, place and memory to consider how cities themselves can become spaces of learning, participation and belonging.
By bringing Marsamxett into an international academic conversation, the presentation offered a Maltese contribution to wider European dialogue on early childhood education and raised a broader question for educators, communities, municipal and education leaders and policymakers: What will our cities teach the next generation?
