Bernardette Mizzi
Maynooth University, Ireland
ESR 5
Sharon Todd (supervisor), Simone Galea (co-supervisor)
Bernardette Mizzi grew up in Malta, where she graduated with a Bachelor of Education (Hons) in 2006 from the University of Malta and taught in culturally diverse public primary schools for twelve years. Follow the introduction of Ethics Education in Malta in 2012, she was part of the first student cohort to receive postgraduate training and certification in the subject at the Faculty of Education at the University of Malta. Subsequently, Bernardette taught Ethics Education for three years in middle schools, during which time she became intrigued by a relational understanding of ethics informed by the work of Emmanuel Levinas.
Her interest in relational ethics unfolding in pedagogical encounters is explored in her Master’s dissertation (2020) on constructions of otherness and processes of othering embedded in the Ethics curriculum and pedagogical practices and summarised in an article published by the International Journal of Ethics Education. As a member of the Maltese human rights NGO Kopin, she has also worked with minority communities, providing education support to refugee women and children.
Bernardette’s current PhD research focuses on migrant teachers’ becomings in Ireland and how they create practices of solidarity with one another.