Academic biography

Dr Geraldine French is an Associate Professor, the Head of School of Language, Literacy and Early Childhood Education, the Programme Chair of the Master of Education in Early Childhood Education, and Senior Fellow of Advance HE. Geraldine is a specialist in early childhood education. Her doctoral thesis is in the area of pedagogical interactions between adults and very young children in early childhood settings with a particular focus on educational inequality. She has worked for a variety of governmental and voluntary organisations, national and international, in conducting continued professional development, research, needs analysis, evaluations, and consultancy for strategic planning. Commissioning bodies have included: The Arts Council, Barnardos, Better Start, Centre for Early Childhood Development and Education, Childhood Development Initiative, Children's Books Ireland, European Programme to Combat Social Exclusion, Fingal Libraries, Katharine Howard Foundation, National Council for Curriculum and Assessment, the Department of Education among others. Geraldine has published in the areas of parenting and the experience of poverty amongst families with very young children. In the context of early childhood settings, Geraldine has published on quality professional practice, supporting early language, literacy, numeracy, and nurturing babies’ learning and development. Recent publications include the Literature Review to Support the Updating of Aistear, the Early Childhood Curriculum Framework, and the Literature Review to Update the Literacy/Digital Literacy and Numeracy Strategy.