Professor Catherine Odora Hoppers, Incumbent: DST/NRF South African Research Chair in Development Education, Unisa, and PASCAL Board member gave a public lecture on 27 May at the University of Malta.

Professor Hoppers spoke about emancipation in a bid to wipe out oppression, both in people’s everyday lives and also connected to global systems.  “My vision centres around the democratisation of democracy through cognitive justice, a new theory of non-violence which goes beyond statist dreams,” says Prof Catherine Odora Hoppers.

The 7^th Children's Festival of the University of Patras expanded its horizons to include young refugees. Thirty refugee children visited the University of Patras and enjoyed moments of carefree play and learning together with hundreds of other children from kindergartens and nurseries around Patras. The visit took place on Friday 3^rd of June 2016 during the 7^th Children's Festival of the Department of Educational Sciences and Early Childhood Education.

Mathew O'Hagan is a Lead Teacher at Meadows Primary School, City of Hume, Victoria, Australia. In 2014 he won a Hume Teacher's Scholarship to help him complete a Masters in Educational Management. This enabled him to travel to the USA and NZ to investigate the practical application of 'collective impact'. As a result he wrote a paper entitled ‘Making a case for a collective impact approach towards raising educational achievement in Hume City’.  This is critical reflection on 'collective impact' and how it might be applied to the Hume Global Learning Village going forward as a way of improving educational outcomes. [Leone Wheeler]

Last week I attended a talk by Sharjah writer, Sultan Sooud Al Qassemi,  about the rise of the Gulf Cities. It was held on Tuesday 19 April at New York University Campus, Abu Dhabi.

Sultan Sooud Al Qassemi talked about the rise of cities such as Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Doha and others across the Gulf area establishing themselves as “new city centres of the Arab world” and are now becoming “global powers in terms of diplomacy, energy, finance, culture, education and sport”. A few decades ago these cities were no more than fishing villages.

"Think Globally - Eat Locally" has been accepted into the Film for (a better) Future Festival, and will screen this May at Pinch 'n' Ouch Theatre in Atlanta, GA.