Academic biography

Fiona Giblin is an Assistant Professor in Early Childhood Education at DCU Institute of Education and contributes to undergraduate and postgraduate initial teacher education programmes, as well as masters of education programmes. She is co-Programme Chair of the Master of Education in Early Childhood Education and a Senior Fellow of Advance HE. Fiona has previously worked as a primary school teacher and contributed to the design and delivery of continuing professional development throughout the country on Aistear, Ireland’s early childhood curriculum framework. She has worked with the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment (NCCA), the Association of Teachers Education Centres in Ireland (ATECI), the Irish National Teachers’ Organisation (INTO) in the development of resources and in-service for teachers, particularly to support play pedagogy. Fiona's research interests include initial teacher education and early childhood curriculum and pedagogy, with a particular focus on multimodal communication, meaning making and play. Fiona is affiliated to DCU's Early Childhood Research Centre, and is a founding member of the DCU Tanzania Pre-Primary Education project, which was awarded a DCU President's Award for Engagement in 2024.