Peter Mayo


Peter Mayo is a Maltese professor, writer, and former head of the Department of Arts, Open Communities and Adult Education at the University of Malta. He holds the UNESCO Chair in Global Adult Education at the same university. He holds a PhD - Major in Sociology, Minor in Adult Education, University of Toronto and a PhD in the programme of Estudios Artisticos, Literarios y de la Cultura, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid . He also holds a Master's in Sociology of Education, University of Alberta, 1988, a BA Hons in English, University of London, External Degree, 1985 and a BA Hons. Education, University of Malta, 1982.

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 from 2008 to 2010. He was visiting professor at the University of Alberta, Bogazici University Istanbul, University of British Columbia UBC, University of Cyprus, University of Gdansk, University College London, IoE, University of Rome Sapienza, University of Naples, Federuco II and National Research Centre, Naples. 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 thesis, this time in Estudios Artisticos, Literarios y de la Cultura at the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, 2023.
  • American Education Studies Association Critics Choice Award, 2005, for 2004 book, Liberating Praxis. Paulo Freire's Legacy for Radical Education and Politics, Westport: Praeger
  • Comparative International Education Society Higher Education SIG Award for the best published research article on higher education from an international and comparative perspective
  • 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
  • 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,
  • GPS Scholar top 0.5% for Lifelong learning, Pedagogy
  • 2024 Stanford-Elsevier top 2% Scientist ranking, results published 2025

    Books

  • The National Museum of Fine Arts: Art Treasures in Malta
  • Gramsci, Freire and Adult Education ; also published in Catalan, Portuguese, German, Italian, Spanish Turkish and Japanese
  • Gramsci and Education also published in Turkish, Spanish and Catalan translation.
  • Liberating Praxis: Paulo Freire's Legacy for Radical Education and Politics, 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, ; also published, in Turkish translation, as Özgürlestiren Praksis - Paulo Freire'nin Radikal Eğitim ve politica Mirasi.
  • Learning and Social Difference.
  • Education, Society and Leadership,
  • Adult Education in Malta
  • Public Intellectuals, Radical Democracy and Social Movements. A Book of Interviews.
  • Mediterranean Studies in Comparative Education,.
  • Education in Small States. Global Imperatives, Regional Initiatives and Local Dilemmas
  • Gramsci and Educational Thought also published in Turkish translation, as Gramsci ve Eğitsel Düşünce.
  • Learning with Adults. A Critical Pedagogical Introduction. 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 ; also published, in Catalan translation, as Aprenent amb persones adultes: una introducció crítica i pedagògica
  • Echoes from Freire for a Critically Engaged Pedagogy
  • Politics of Indignation. Imperialism, Postcolonial Disruptions and Social Change
  • Learning with Adults. A Reader
  • Lorenzo Milani, the School of Barbiana and the Struggle for Social Justice.
  • Práctica de la Práctica. compromiso y libertad en las experiencias educativas emancipadoras,.
  • Hegemony and Education under Neoliberalism. Insights from Gramsci
  • International Critical Pedagogy Reader
  • Saggi di Pedagogia Critica.Oltre il Neoliberismo. Analizzando educatori, lotte e movimenti sociali, co-authored with Paolo Vittoria.
  • Higher Education in a Globalising World. Community Engagement and Lifelong Learning
  • Lifelong Learning, Global Social Justice and Sustainability
  • Critical Education in International Perspective
  • Adult Learning and Difference
  • Stretching Boundaries of CRITICAL EDUCATION. Past, present and future possibilities.
  • Culture, Power and Education. Representation, Interpretation, Contestation
  • 'Southern ' Europe and Beyond in the Mediterranean. Critical Essays on Adult Learning and Education