ABOUT THE AUTHORS

Josephine Deguara is a Senior Lecturer in Early Childhood and Primary Education within the Faculty of Education at the University of Malta. Her research over the last 16 years has focused on curriculum philosophy and pedagogy, play and learning, children’s rights and children’s voices, policy and practice, as well as language use in diverse early childhood and primary education settings. She also has a long‑held research interest in children’s drawings, identity as well as children’s rights and participation approach to research. She currently serves on the Faculty of Research Ethics Committee (FREC), at the University of Malta, ensuring the ethics and integrity of research. Josephine has worked on several funded projects. She has presented several papers at international conferences and is the author of several journal articles, book chapters, research reports, and book reviews. She is an editor of two book chapters: Innovations in Pedagogical Practice and Curriculum Development in Higher Education: Contemporary Global Perspectives, Emerald (2025) and Innovations in Assessment, Student Experiences and Professional Development in Higher Education: Contemporary Global Perspectives, Emerald (2025).

Cathy Nutbrown is Professor of Education in the School of Education at The University of Sheffield and President of Early Education, UK. Her research over the last 30 years has focused on working with parents to support young children’s literacy development and on young children’s voices, their learning, their inclusion, and their rights. Cathy chaired the Nutbrown Review of the Early Years Workforce in England in 2012, which aimed to influence a government policy change to improve educators’ qualifications. She has won an ESRC Award for Research with Outstanding Impact on Society and a Nursery World Lifetime Achievement Award. She is the author of over 150 publications, including Threads of Thinking, Sage (2011); Early Literacy Work with Families (with Hannon & Morgan), Sage, (2005); and Early Childhood Educational Research, Sage, (2019), and editor of Early Childhood Education: Current Realities and Future Possibilities, Sage, (2023).  In 2023, she was awarded a Damehood for Services to Early Childhood Education.