Duncan P Mercieca
Biographic Data
| ID | 4250213 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Duncan P Mercieca |
| GIVEN NAMES | Duncan P |
| FAMILY NAME | Mercieca |
| SIGNATURE | MERCIECA D P |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Dundee |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-4071-9522 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 25 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 19 |
| WORKS AS AUTHOR | 24 |
| WORKS AS EDITOR | 1 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2007 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 3 |
The impossible possibility of listening to (young) children’s voices
This paper questions the dominant discourse of listening to (young) children’s voices by drawing on Jacques Derrida’s critique of phonocentrism and Jean-Luc Nancy’s ontology of resonance to propose a more attuned conceptualisation of listening. While Article 12 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child foregrounds the child’s right to ‘express views’, this principle has often been translated into a language of ‘voice, which risk…
Social Justice in Scottish Education? Revisiting the Question
Social justice is a key value within Scottish education and is listed as one of four professional values within the General Teaching Council for Scotland’s (GTCS) professional standards. This paper uses the work of Nancy Fraser to question what is meant by social justice within Scottish education. Parallels are drawn between the conception of social justice as presented within the Standard for Registration and the work of Fraser, highlighting the…
Teachers’ Use of Knowledge in Curriculum Making
Curriculum work is a key part of teachers’ practice and involves engaging with different types of knowledge. The way in which teachers use this knowledge will influence pupils’ experience of the curriculum in their classroom. In the globalised world of the 21st century, knowledge questions are important considerations, as schooling is situated in inequitable systems and social structures. This qualitative research study examined teachers’ use of …
Children's voices through play-based practice
Purpose This paper offers a reflection of a research process aimed at listening to young children's voices in their everyday school life through a play-based context in a Scottish school. Throughout the research process, the complexity of conducting this research was kept in mind as listening to children's voices presents methodological and conceptual difficulties and tensions. Reflecting on the research process after the data was collected, the …
Educational Psychologists as ‘Dissenting Voices’
This paper locates the educational psychologist’s (EP) involvement in addressing social justice in practice. It uses some philosophical ideas from Jacques Rancière, particularly the idea of the distribution of the sensible and dissensus, to help us question how systems that are aimed at contributing to a socially just society can limit social justice itself. Whilst the argument of this paper is applicable to educational psychologists internationa…
Thinking through the death of migrants crossing the Mediterranean Sea
This paper focuses on the issue of the death of migrants and invites us to recognise bodily vulnerability and precariousness when confronted with the faceless and nameless dead migrant. It explores mourning and grief as a political relational act between strangers (us and the dead migrant) in very difficult moments. There is an obliteration of identity which is furthered by the responses of receiving countries, whose struggle with masses of need …
Uncertainty and practical judgement in research
This paper draws upon research projects in which efforts have been made to find ways of listening to young children's voices in early years contexts. This listening, namely in the mosaic approach, helps us to see how children make sense of their world, and adopt our planning and 'being with' young children. After setting the context of early years pedagogy and ideology of mosaic approach, this paper focuses on the researcher's journey to turn her…
Primary Head Teachers’ Construction and Re-negotiation of Care in Covid-19 Lockdown in Scotland
This article looks at three primary Head Teachers’ experience of working in COVID-19 lockdown in Scotland. The theoretical framework of this paper builds on Nel Noddings’ ethics of care, with a particular focus on reciprocity, empathy, communication, and community. The three Head Teachers were interviewed during the pandemic lockdown. These interviews are part of a larger study that interviewed teachers and Head Teachers during COVID-19 lockdown …
Technology as Thirdspace
This paper looks at the impact of digital technology on teaching and learning in primary schools in Scotland during the first COVID-19 lockdown from March to June 2020. The pandemic has challenged our understanding of schooling as, for the first time in many years, schools as we know them were shut and the school building was removed as the site of teaching and learning. This paper uses the concept of Thirdspace as developed by Edward Soja (1996)…
Teachers Working in Special Schools in Scotland Acting with Practical Wisdom
The COVID-19 lockdown has substantially disrupted the established facets of teacher engagement with their students, and, given the significance of this multidimensional interaction, it brings into question what we know as teachers’ identity. The lockdown has offered a dilemmatic context where the processes of teaching and learning and being(s) a teacher are being re-visited and re-negotiated. This paper looks specifically at the perceptions of tw…
What about me?’ Stories of the educational experiences of care-experienced children and young people in a Scottish local authority
This qualitative study explores the educational experiences of looked after children and young people in one Scottish local authority. The preoccupations of government are academic achievement and school attendance, but these are not the prime concerns of the children, carers and professionals involved. Moreover, they can be both enhanced and restricted by the background characteristics and care situations of the young people and the responses of…
Becoming as a possibility of opening the distribution of the research sensible
This commentary acknowledges Barbara Held’s (2020) idea that knowledge of, from, and for people can create epistemic violence. We look at this through the idea of binaries and how binaries distribute a particular sense in knowledge. We argue that the researcher’s engagement with uncertainty offers possibilities of becoming for the researcher, the researched, and the research process in a way that opens up such binaries and the distribution of the…
Distribution of the sensible within the Salamanca Statement and Framework for Action
This paper revisits The Salamanca Statement and Framework for Action through Jacques Rancière’s writing about the distribution of the sensible. It questions the supports provided within the Maltese state education system and asks readers to ‘think again’ by asking what has been left out. The Salamanca Statement is seen as reflected within the Maltese education system, both of which, however, position people and services in particular spaces. As s…
In Hermes’ shoes
Educational psychologists (EP) are constantly engaged in diagnosing and labelling children. In this article, we explore this by thinking of the EP as a translator, where the child is translated into psychologised discourse which often results in the allocation of support. This paper questions this act of translation and the role of the EP as the translator. Through Derrida’s writing we point out that this process of translation is not automatic a…
Judgements on young children by early years practitioners
Various instruments that have the aim of assessing children even from a very young age are constantly being developed. We argue that these instruments and assessment processes risk removing judgement from educators and teachers. Using the Aristotelian concept of phronêsis, we argue that teachers need to develop a habit of engaging with practical judgments with children. This is done through being attentive to children, that gives us the possibili…
Ethics in school psychologists report writing
Research in school psychologist report writing has argued for reports that connect to the client’s context; have clear links between the referral questions and the answers to these questions; have integrated interpretations; address client strengths and problem areas; have specific, concrete and feasible recommendations; and are adapted to the language and literacy level of the reader. The training of school psychologists involves attention to th…
Educational psychologists’ report-writing
TEST 02 - Elsevier's Scopus, the largest abstract and citation database of peer-reviewed literature. Search and access research from the science, technology, medicine, social sciences and arts and humanities fields
Reading with love
This paper draws upon Deleuze and Guattari's ideas to suggest a different kind of reading of a narrative of a mother of a child with severe disability, and thus a different kind of ethical response to them. This reading gives readers the possibility of opening up experiences of parents and children with disability, rather than compartmentalising such stories. The reader becomes, is transformed, through reading these narratives and through engagin…
Living Otherwise
How Early is Early?’ Or ‘How Late is Late?’
Early intervention comes in-between the lives of children, families and teachers. This article uses part of a report written by an educational psychologist about a little girl to question the nature of intervention through Rancière’s writings. As children and parents are seen as put into the position of inadequacy, they require such intervention, which in turn makes them more inadequate. The article goes on to highlight the numerous ‘givings’ inv…
Initiating ‘The Methodology of Jacques Rancière’
Making sense of intensities of disability through writing and reading – contributing to more inclusive communities
Using a text written by women with disability, this paper introduces writing and invites readers to allow themselves to be shaken, rather than to fit this writing into preconceived ideas. A distinction between thinking and method is made, where the former involves the personal while the latter requires adherence to procedure. Reading and writing which interpret and replicate are seen as different to reading and writing which invite connections. D…
Becoming‐Teachers
This article proposes a reading of the lives of teachers through a Deleuzian‐Guattarian materialistic approach. By asking the question ‘what kind of life do teachers live?’ this article reminds us that teachers sometimes welcome the imposed policies, procedures and programmes, the consequences of which remove them from students. This desire is compared to another desire—the desire for children. Teachers are seen as machines rather than singular o…
Opening Research to Intensities
TEST 02 - Elsevier's Scopus, the largest abstract and citation database of peer-reviewed literature. Search and access research from the science, technology, medicine, social sciences and arts and humanities fields
On the borders
This paper concerns the issue of the continual arrival of irregular immigrants in Malta and the problems that ensue. The view generally held is that we need to respond to the needs of irregular immigrants by providing services. However, with reference to some of Jacques Derrida's ideas, I argue in this paper that the other/immigrant is not there for us to respond to by creating services to cater for her needs. Through the presence of the irregula…
Opening Research to Intensities
TEST 02 - Elsevier's Scopus, the largest abstract and citation database of peer-reviewed literature. Search and access research from the science, technology, medicine, social sciences and arts and humanities fields
Thinking through the death of migrants crossing the Mediterranean Sea
This paper focuses on the issue of the death of migrants and invites us to recognise bodily vulnerability and precariousness when confronted with the faceless and nameless dead migrant. It explores mourning and grief as a political relational act between strangers (us and the dead migrant) in very difficult moments. There is an obliteration of identity which is furthered by the responses of receiving countries, whose struggle with masses of need …
Becoming‐Teachers
This article proposes a reading of the lives of teachers through a Deleuzian‐Guattarian materialistic approach. By asking the question ‘what kind of life do teachers live?’ this article reminds us that teachers sometimes welcome the imposed policies, procedures and programmes, the consequences of which remove them from students. This desire is compared to another desire—the desire for children. Teachers are seen as machines rather than singular o…
What about me?’ Stories of the educational experiences of care-experienced children and young people in a Scottish local authority
This qualitative study explores the educational experiences of looked after children and young people in one Scottish local authority. The preoccupations of government are academic achievement and school attendance, but these are not the prime concerns of the children, carers and professionals involved. Moreover, they can be both enhanced and restricted by the background characteristics and care situations of the young people and the responses of…
How Early is Early?’ Or ‘How Late is Late?’
Early intervention comes in-between the lives of children, families and teachers. This article uses part of a report written by an educational psychologist about a little girl to question the nature of intervention through Rancière’s writings. As children and parents are seen as put into the position of inadequacy, they require such intervention, which in turn makes them more inadequate. The article goes on to highlight the numerous ‘givings’ inv…
Children's voices through play-based practice
Purpose This paper offers a reflection of a research process aimed at listening to young children's voices in their everyday school life through a play-based context in a Scottish school. Throughout the research process, the complexity of conducting this research was kept in mind as listening to children's voices presents methodological and conceptual difficulties and tensions. Reflecting on the research process after the data was collected, the …
Uncertainty and practical judgement in research
This paper draws upon research projects in which efforts have been made to find ways of listening to young children's voices in early years contexts. This listening, namely in the mosaic approach, helps us to see how children make sense of their world, and adopt our planning and 'being with' young children. After setting the context of early years pedagogy and ideology of mosaic approach, this paper focuses on the researcher's journey to turn her…
Making sense of intensities of disability through writing and reading – contributing to more inclusive communities
Using a text written by women with disability, this paper introduces writing and invites readers to allow themselves to be shaken, rather than to fit this writing into preconceived ideas. A distinction between thinking and method is made, where the former involves the personal while the latter requires adherence to procedure. Reading and writing which interpret and replicate are seen as different to reading and writing which invite connections. D…
On the borders
This paper concerns the issue of the continual arrival of irregular immigrants in Malta and the problems that ensue. The view generally held is that we need to respond to the needs of irregular immigrants by providing services. However, with reference to some of Jacques Derrida's ideas, I argue in this paper that the other/immigrant is not there for us to respond to by creating services to cater for her needs. Through the presence of the irregula…
Opening Research to Intensities
TEST 02 - Elsevier's Scopus, the largest abstract and citation database of peer-reviewed literature. Search and access research from the science, technology, medicine, social sciences and arts and humanities fields
Making sense of intensities of disability through writing and reading – contributing to more inclusive communities
Using a text written by women with disability, this paper introduces writing and invites readers to allow themselves to be shaken, rather than to fit this writing into preconceived ideas. A distinction between thinking and method is made, where the former involves the personal while the latter requires adherence to procedure. Reading and writing which interpret and replicate are seen as different to reading and writing which invite connections. D…
Becoming‐Teachers
This article proposes a reading of the lives of teachers through a Deleuzian‐Guattarian materialistic approach. By asking the question ‘what kind of life do teachers live?’ this article reminds us that teachers sometimes welcome the imposed policies, procedures and programmes, the consequences of which remove them from students. This desire is compared to another desire—the desire for children. Teachers are seen as machines rather than singular o…
Initiating ‘The Methodology of Jacques Rancière’
Living Otherwise
How Early is Early?’ Or ‘How Late is Late?’
Early intervention comes in-between the lives of children, families and teachers. This article uses part of a report written by an educational psychologist about a little girl to question the nature of intervention through Rancière’s writings. As children and parents are seen as put into the position of inadequacy, they require such intervention, which in turn makes them more inadequate. The article goes on to highlight the numerous ‘givings’ inv…
Reading with love
This paper draws upon Deleuze and Guattari's ideas to suggest a different kind of reading of a narrative of a mother of a child with severe disability, and thus a different kind of ethical response to them. This reading gives readers the possibility of opening up experiences of parents and children with disability, rather than compartmentalising such stories. The reader becomes, is transformed, through reading these narratives and through engagin…
Ethics in school psychologists report writing
Research in school psychologist report writing has argued for reports that connect to the client’s context; have clear links between the referral questions and the answers to these questions; have integrated interpretations; address client strengths and problem areas; have specific, concrete and feasible recommendations; and are adapted to the language and literacy level of the reader. The training of school psychologists involves attention to th…
Educational psychologists’ report-writing
TEST 02 - Elsevier's Scopus, the largest abstract and citation database of peer-reviewed literature. Search and access research from the science, technology, medicine, social sciences and arts and humanities fields
In Hermes’ shoes
Educational psychologists (EP) are constantly engaged in diagnosing and labelling children. In this article, we explore this by thinking of the EP as a translator, where the child is translated into psychologised discourse which often results in the allocation of support. This paper questions this act of translation and the role of the EP as the translator. Through Derrida’s writing we point out that this process of translation is not automatic a…
Judgements on young children by early years practitioners
Various instruments that have the aim of assessing children even from a very young age are constantly being developed. We argue that these instruments and assessment processes risk removing judgement from educators and teachers. Using the Aristotelian concept of phronêsis, we argue that teachers need to develop a habit of engaging with practical judgments with children. This is done through being attentive to children, that gives us the possibili…
Distribution of the sensible within the Salamanca Statement and Framework for Action
This paper revisits The Salamanca Statement and Framework for Action through Jacques Rancière’s writing about the distribution of the sensible. It questions the supports provided within the Maltese state education system and asks readers to ‘think again’ by asking what has been left out. The Salamanca Statement is seen as reflected within the Maltese education system, both of which, however, position people and services in particular spaces. As s…
Becoming as a possibility of opening the distribution of the research sensible
This commentary acknowledges Barbara Held’s (2020) idea that knowledge of, from, and for people can create epistemic violence. We look at this through the idea of binaries and how binaries distribute a particular sense in knowledge. We argue that the researcher’s engagement with uncertainty offers possibilities of becoming for the researcher, the researched, and the research process in a way that opens up such binaries and the distribution of the…
Primary Head Teachers’ Construction and Re-negotiation of Care in Covid-19 Lockdown in Scotland
This article looks at three primary Head Teachers’ experience of working in COVID-19 lockdown in Scotland. The theoretical framework of this paper builds on Nel Noddings’ ethics of care, with a particular focus on reciprocity, empathy, communication, and community. The three Head Teachers were interviewed during the pandemic lockdown. These interviews are part of a larger study that interviewed teachers and Head Teachers during COVID-19 lockdown …
Technology as Thirdspace
This paper looks at the impact of digital technology on teaching and learning in primary schools in Scotland during the first COVID-19 lockdown from March to June 2020. The pandemic has challenged our understanding of schooling as, for the first time in many years, schools as we know them were shut and the school building was removed as the site of teaching and learning. This paper uses the concept of Thirdspace as developed by Edward Soja (1996)…
Teachers Working in Special Schools in Scotland Acting with Practical Wisdom
The COVID-19 lockdown has substantially disrupted the established facets of teacher engagement with their students, and, given the significance of this multidimensional interaction, it brings into question what we know as teachers’ identity. The lockdown has offered a dilemmatic context where the processes of teaching and learning and being(s) a teacher are being re-visited and re-negotiated. This paper looks specifically at the perceptions of tw…
What about me?’ Stories of the educational experiences of care-experienced children and young people in a Scottish local authority
This qualitative study explores the educational experiences of looked after children and young people in one Scottish local authority. The preoccupations of government are academic achievement and school attendance, but these are not the prime concerns of the children, carers and professionals involved. Moreover, they can be both enhanced and restricted by the background characteristics and care situations of the young people and the responses of…
Educational Psychologists as ‘Dissenting Voices’
This paper locates the educational psychologist’s (EP) involvement in addressing social justice in practice. It uses some philosophical ideas from Jacques Rancière, particularly the idea of the distribution of the sensible and dissensus, to help us question how systems that are aimed at contributing to a socially just society can limit social justice itself. Whilst the argument of this paper is applicable to educational psychologists internationa…
Thinking through the death of migrants crossing the Mediterranean Sea
This paper focuses on the issue of the death of migrants and invites us to recognise bodily vulnerability and precariousness when confronted with the faceless and nameless dead migrant. It explores mourning and grief as a political relational act between strangers (us and the dead migrant) in very difficult moments. There is an obliteration of identity which is furthered by the responses of receiving countries, whose struggle with masses of need …
Uncertainty and practical judgement in research
This paper draws upon research projects in which efforts have been made to find ways of listening to young children's voices in early years contexts. This listening, namely in the mosaic approach, helps us to see how children make sense of their world, and adopt our planning and 'being with' young children. After setting the context of early years pedagogy and ideology of mosaic approach, this paper focuses on the researcher's journey to turn her…
Social Justice in Scottish Education? Revisiting the Question
Social justice is a key value within Scottish education and is listed as one of four professional values within the General Teaching Council for Scotland’s (GTCS) professional standards. This paper uses the work of Nancy Fraser to question what is meant by social justice within Scottish education. Parallels are drawn between the conception of social justice as presented within the Standard for Registration and the work of Fraser, highlighting the…
Teachers’ Use of Knowledge in Curriculum Making
Curriculum work is a key part of teachers’ practice and involves engaging with different types of knowledge. The way in which teachers use this knowledge will influence pupils’ experience of the curriculum in their classroom. In the globalised world of the 21st century, knowledge questions are important considerations, as schooling is situated in inequitable systems and social structures. This qualitative research study examined teachers’ use of …
Children's voices through play-based practice
Purpose This paper offers a reflection of a research process aimed at listening to young children's voices in their everyday school life through a play-based context in a Scottish school. Throughout the research process, the complexity of conducting this research was kept in mind as listening to children's voices presents methodological and conceptual difficulties and tensions. Reflecting on the research process after the data was collected, the …
The impossible possibility of listening to (young) children’s voices
This paper questions the dominant discourse of listening to (young) children’s voices by drawing on Jacques Derrida’s critique of phonocentrism and Jean-Luc Nancy’s ontology of resonance to propose a more attuned conceptualisation of listening. While Article 12 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child foregrounds the child’s right to ‘express views’, this principle has often been translated into a language of ‘voice, which risk…
Sociology (21 works) · Psychology (18 works) · Pedagogy (14 works) · Computer Science (12 works) · Philosophy (12 works) · Epistemology (11 works) · Political science (10 works) · Philosophy (9 works) · Law (8 works) · Social science (7 works)