Peter Mayo

This article is about the Maltese academic. For English slavist, see Peter John Mayo.

Peter Mayo (born 2 May 1955) is a Maltese professor, writer, and former head of the Department of Arts, Open Communities and Adult Education at the University of Malta. He is responsible for the UNESCO Chair in Global Adult Education at the same university.He holds a PhD in Sociology in Education, University of Toronto ( thesis defended 10 December, 1993) and a PhD in the programme of Estudios Artisticos, Leterarios y de la Cultura, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid (thesis defended 19 December, 2023).

Career

Mayo served as the university's Head of the Department of Education Studies from 2008 to 2012. Mayo was a member of the Collegio Docenti for the doctoral research programme in Educational Sciences and Continuing Education at the Università degli Studi di Verona. He teaches in the areas of sociology of education and adult continuing education, as well as in comparative and international education and sociology in general. He was previously employed as a school teacher and later as Officer in Charge of Adult Education in the then Department of Education, Ministry of Education, Malta. Mayo was a Visiting Professorial Fellow at the Institute of Education, University College London during 2014. He was previously a member of the Collegio Docenti for the international doctorate in intercultural sociology and education at the University of Messina and was the President of the Mediterranean Society of Comparative Education (MESCE) from 2008 to 2010. He was visiting professor at the University of Alberta (twice, 1996, 2007), Bogazici University Istanbul ( 2009), University of British Columbia UBC ( 2010), University of Cyprus (2008), University of Gdansk (2014), University College London, IoE (October 2016 - September 2018), University of Rome Sapienza(2024). As of September 2024, he is Honorary Professor at the University of Nottingham in the School of Education.

Mayo has published over 150 papers in refereed journals or as edited book chapters and has been serving as book series editor for Brill-de Gruyter, Bloomsbury Academic, and Palgrave-Macmillan. He is also one of the two founding editors for the refereed journal Postcolonial Directions in Education. which both edited for its first ten years, following which they let go to turn it into an institution not a fiefdom. He also serves on the editorial advisory boards of several international peer reviewed journals He is also the Editor of Convergence. An International Adult Education Journal which he resuscitated in 2022 at Volume 43. 1, after its lengthy moratorium, as part of his work as UNESCO Chair in Global Adult Education.

Awards and recognition

• First Class Honours in BA Education degree, University of Malta
• Awarded A+ Sobresaliente in his second PhD, this time in Estudios Artisticos, Leterarios y de la Cultura at the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, 2023.
• Comparative International Education Society (CIES) Higher Education SIG Award for the best published research article on higher education from an international and comparative perspective (2011)
• Awarded Honourable Mention by the Higher Education Sig, Comparative and International Education Society at its Book Awards for his single authored Higher Education in a Globalising World. Community Engagement and Lifelong Learning ( Manchester University Press, 2019)
• Cyril Houle Award by the American Association for Adult Continuing Education, 2013, with Leona English - for Learning with Adults: A Critical pedagogical Introduction
• Invited as 'Noted Scholar' at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada, (2010)
• Appointed Honorary Professor University of Nottingham, UK.
• GPS Scholar rank top 0.5 % for Lifelong Learning, Pedagogy.

Books

• The National Museum of Fine Arts: Art Treasures in Malta (1995, Midsea Publications)
• Beyond Schooling: Adult Education in Malta (co-edited with Godfrey Baldacchino, Mireva, Malta, 1997)
• Gramsci, Freire and Adult Education (Zed Books, London, 1999); also published in Catalan (Crec, Xativa-Valencia), Portuguese (Artmed, Porto Alegre), German (Argument Verlag, Hamburg), Italian (Carlo Delfino Editore, Sassari), Spanish (Instituto Paulo Freire de España y edicions del CREC; col.laboradores: denes editorial y diálogos.red, Valencia) Turkish (UTOPYA, Ankara) and Japanese (TaroJiro-Sha Editus Co., Ltd.)
• Gramsci and Education (co-edited with Carmel Borg and Joseph A. Buttigieg, Rowman & Littlefield, Maryland, 2002) also published in Turkish (Kalkedon, Istanbul), Spanish (Xativa-Valencia, denes editorial y diálogos.red)and Catalan translation (Crec, Xativa).
• Liberating Praxis: Paulo Freire's Legacy for Radical Education and Politics (Praeger, Westport CT, 2004), AESA Critics Choice Award 2005; in paperback by Sense Publishers, Rotterdam, 2008;in Catalan translation, as La Praxi Alliberadora. El Llegat de Paulo Freire per a l’Educació Radical i Politica, (Xativa, Denes editorial, Crec, 2008); also published, in Turkish translation, as Özgürlestiren Praksis - Paulo Freire'nin Radikal Eğitim ve politica Mirasi (Ankara, Dipnot, 2012).
• Learning and Social Difference. (co-authored with Carmel Borg, London and New York City, Routledge, Taylor & Francis, 2006 - originally published by Paradigm)
• Education, Society and Leadership (co-edited with Mary Darmanin, Allied Publishers, Malta, 2007),
• Adult Education in Malta (DVV-International, Bonn, 2007)
• Public Intellectuals, Radical Democracy and Social Movements. A Book of Interviews (with Carmel Borg, Peter Lang Publishers, New York, 2007).
• Mediterranean Studies in Comparative Education, (co-edited with Carmel Borg and Ronald G. Sultana, MESCE and EMCER, 2009).
• Education in Small States. Global Imperatives, Regional Initiatives and Local Dilemmas (edited, London & New York City, Routledge, Taylor & Francis 2009)
• Gramsci and Educational Thought (edited, Oxford and New York, Wiley-Blackwell, 2010) also published in Turkish translation, as Gramsci ve Eğitsel Düşünce (Istanbul, Kalkedon, 2010).
• Learning with Adults. A Critical Pedagogical Introduction (co-authored with Leona English, Rotterdam, Sense Publishers, 2012). Winner of 2013 Cyril Houle Award for "outstanding literature in adult education" ; also published in Spanish translation, as Aprendiendo con personas adultas. una introducción crítica y pedagógica (Xativa, Instituto Paulo Freire de España, Dialogos, CREC, 2013); also published, in Catalan translation, as Aprenent amb persones adultes: una introducció crítica i pedagògica (Xativa, Instituto Paulo Freire de España, CREC, 2013)
• Echoes from Freire for a Critically Engaged Pedagogy (New York City & London, Bloomsbury Academic, 2012)
• Politics of Indignation. Imperialism, Postcolonial Disruptions and Social Change (Alresford, Hants, Zer0 Books/John Hunt Publishers, 2012)
• Learning with Adults. A Reader (edited) (Rotterdam, Boston & Taipei: Sense, 2013)
• Lorenzo Milani, the School of Barbiana and the Struggle for Social Justice (co-authored with Federico Batini and Alessio Surian, New York & Frankfurt, Peter Lang, 2014).
• Práctica de la Práctica. compromiso y libertad en las experiencias educativas emancipadoras, (Xativa: Instituto Paulo Freire de España, Dialogos, Tarepa PV, 2014).
• Hegemony and Education under Neoliberalism. Insights from Gramsci (New York City & London: Routledge, Taylor & Francis 2015)
• International Critical Pedagogy Reader (co-edited with Antonia Darder and João Paraskeva), New York and London, Routledge, Taylor & Francis 2015)
• Saggi di Pedagogia Critica.Oltre il Neoliberismo. Analizzando educatori, lotte e movimenti sociali, co-authored with Paolo Vittoria (Florence: Società Editrice Fiorentina, 2017).
• Higher Education in a Globalising World. Community Engagement and Lifelong Learning (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2019 hbk, 2021 pbk)
• Lifelong Learning, Global Social Justice and Sustainability (co-authored with Leona English)(New York and Basingstoke: Palgrave-Macmillan, 2021)
• Critical Education in International Perspective (co-authored with Paolo Vittoria) (London and New York: Bloomsbury Academic, 2022 hbk, 2023 pbk)
• Stretching Boundaries of CRITICAL EDUCATION. Past, present and future possibilities. ( co-edited with C.Borg) ( Malta: Faculty of Education, 2024)
• Culture, Power and Education. Representation, Interpretation, Contestation (Routledge, 2025)

External links

• Official website
• Profile on Google Scholar
• Profile on OAR@UM