Rhona Stallard PhD

Rannóg

Department of Arts, Literacy & Early Childhood

Role

Lecturer in Early Childhood Education

Biography

Dr Rhona Stallard is a lecturer in early childhood education at Marino Institute of Education. Dr Stallard has a PhD in early childhood education (psychology). Her PhD thesis explored the enablers and barriers to identifying a professional identity in the field of early childhood education in Ireland. The three core areas of study that this thesis interrogated relates to playful pedagogies, professional identity and the policy context of early childhood education. Since completing her PhD, Dr Stallard has continued to research in the field of early childhood education with a particular interest in the pedagogical implications of the COVID-19 crisis on practice, the role of slow relational pedagogy in early childhood education and in arts-based practices relating to the early years.

Dr Stallard has been involved in the evaluation of quality services for the early years, in Erasmus + funded projects, in arts-based funded projects and was a founding member of the Tusla Research Ethics Committee.

Dr Stallard has supervised research at undergraduate and masters level. She also lectures at undergraduate and masters level in topics relating to curriculum, young children’s learning, play, leadership and psychology.

Teaching

MES ECE: EC9102 - Psychology of Early Childhood Education

Bsc ECE: EC8909- Elective in Holistic Education

Bsc ECE: EC8905 - Elective in leadership Theory and Practice

ORCiD

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1315-1399

Publications and other outputs

 

Books

Haals Brosnan, M., O’Donnell, N., & Stallard, R. (2026). Time to think: Enacting slow pedagogy: What Covid-19 taught us about time, pace and pedagogy in ECEC. Peter Lang. https://doi.org/10.3726/b22757

 

Book Chapters

Haals Brosnan, M., Stallard, R. and O'Donnell, N. (forthcoming). "The children are grand!" - Educators' perspectives on educator and child well-being during the COVID-19 pandemic. In Resilience and Wellbeing: Children, Families and Communities. Edited volume. (full reference not yet available).

 

Journal Articles

O’Donnell, N., Haals Brosnan, M., Olsen, K., Stallard, R., & Bjørnestad, E. (2026). Reconceptualising time and pace in early childhood education–situating slow pedagogy as inclusive post-pandemic pedagogical practice. European Early Childhood Education Research Journal, 34(3), 438–454. https://doi.org/10.1080/1350293X.2026.2645033.

Haals Brosnan, M., Stallard, R., & O’Donnell, N. (2025). Where are you going? Lessons learned from Irish ECEC educators’ intuitive implementation of slow pedagogy during the COVID-19 pandemic. European Early Childhood Education Research Journal, 1–15. https://doi.org/10.1080/1350293X.2025.2532552

Stallard, R., Hayes, E. N., & Halpenny, A. M. (2023). Capturing the perspectives of a diverse range of early childhood education and care stakeholders. Irish Educational Studies, 42(4), 995–1007. https://doi.org/10.1080/03323315.2023.2259360.

 

Thesis 

McGinn, R. (2023). An analysis of professional development and learning to support enhanced pedagogy in early childhood education. Doctoral Dissertation, TU Dublin.  Online.

 

Research Reports

Cartwright, A., McGrath, K., Martyn, D., Redmond, R., O’Donnell, N., Stallard, R. & HaalsBrosnan, M. (2024). Evaluation of the Better Start Quality Development Service: Final Evaluation Report. Dublin: Centre for Effective Services. 

 

Conference Contributions

Stallard, R., & Chaisrihar Bach, T. (2026, August 25–28). Cultivating educators’ agency in early childhood research: Experiences with community of practice as a methodology [Symposium presentation]. 34th EECERA Conference, Funchal, Madeira, Portugal.

Stallard, R., O’Donnell, N., & Haals Brosnan, M. (2026, April 17). Inclusive and sustainable post-Covid pedagogy (InSCoPe) [Conference presentation]. National Early Childhood Conference 2026, Marino Institute of Education, Dublin, Ireland.

Stallard, R., Haals Brosnan, M., and O'Donnell, N. (2025, August 26-29). A Paradigm Shift; Slow Pedagogy in Early Childhood Education and Care in Ireland. [Paper presentation]. ATEE Annual Conference, Marino Institute of Education, Dublin.

Haals Brosnan, M., Stallard, R., and O’Donnell, N. (2025, August 26th-28th). Slow pedagogy and inclusive practice: learning from crisis to formulate new pedagogies. [Conference presentation]. EECERA 2025, Bratislava, Slovakia. 

Haals Brosnan, M., Chairsrihar Bach, T., Norregaard Hansen, L., Stallard, R. (2025, August 26th-28th). The role of communities of practice and team reflection in inclusive pedagogy. [Conference presentation]. EECERA 2025, Bratislava, Slovakia.

McGinn, R. (2020, January 16). The use of observations for research in early childhood education and care settings. [Paper Presentation]. THRIECE International Conference, Placing the Child at the Centre of Quality in Early Childhood & Primary Education. Carlow Visual Arts Centre, Ireland.

McGinn, R. (2020, January 16).  Module development. [Paper presentation]. THRIECE International Conference, Placing the Child at the Centre of Quality in Early Childhood & Primary Education. Carlow Visual Arts Centre, Ireland.

McGinn, R., Hayes, N., & Halpenny, A. (2019, June 18). Issues of professional identity for early childhood educators in Ireland. In International Step by Step Association, Leiden, Netherlands.

McGinn, R., Halpenny, A., & Hayes, N. (2018). “Words from the Wise”. Re-framing and scaffolding multi-professional understandings of early childhood education. In European Early Childhood Education Research Conference. Budapest, Hungary. 29th-31st August.

McGinn, R., Hayes, N., & Halpenny, A. (2018). Hashtag “Nothing about us without us”. Creating a more inclusive identity for early childhood education. In European Conference of Educational Research. Bolzano, Italy. 3rd-5th September.

McGinn, R., Hayes, N., & Halpenny, A. (2018). Creating a more inclusive identity for early childhood education. In Children’s Research Network PhD Symposium. Dublin, Ireland. 24th August.

McGinn, R., Halpenny, A., & Hayes, N. (2017). Enhancing Pedagogy in Early Childhood Education. In OMEP Ireland Conference. Cork, Ireland. 20th May.

 

Webinar

Martin, C., Stallard, R., and Bacon, K. (2020, December 5). Covid: Opportunities, Possibilities and Challenges, how PhD candidates negotiate their way through the process. Children’s research network webinar.

 

Research/Professional Interests

 

Early childhood education, slow pedagogy in ECE, play, play for learning, early childhood holistic development, quality in ECE, qualitative temporal research practices.

 

Grants

In 23/24 Dr Stallard was involved in the small scale erasmus + 'InSCoPE' (inclusive and sustainable post-covid pedagogy: Exploring quality practices in ECEC across countries post-covid). This €60,000 two year project became a vibrant Community of Practice for educators and researchers to explore enactments of inclusion in and post-covid, through various methodologies, drawing upon video-cued ethnography and world cafe research designs.

In 2019 Dr. Rhona Stallard was awarded the T-Rex Module Innovation Framework grant (€1200) to embed the use of T-Rex in an early childhood education module.  Rhona was awarded a T-REX Teaching & Learning Innovation Award, for integrating online collaborative learning in teacher education.

In 2020, together with artist Clare Breen, Rhona was awarded the Exploring and Thinking Bursary (A collaborative framework for early childhood arts provision by local authorities in the Dublin region). The award of €5,000 went towards the design and development of baby cards, a resource for parents and educators of children and babies under three years.