Rate My Professor Natalie Brand

Dr. Natalie Brand is an early career postdoctoral researcher in the Macquarie School of Education within the Faculty of Arts at Macquarie University and a member of the Early Childhood Education Research Centre. She completed her PhD at the Macquarie School of Education under the supervision of Professor Sheila Degotardi and Dr. Emilia Djonov. Her doctoral thesis examined the learning potential of everyday conversations between toddlers and educators in early childhood centres, utilizing observational data collection, in-depth interviews with educators, and qualitative analysis with NVivo software. Brand's academic background includes a Master of Research (MRes), Master of Teaching (MTeach), and Bachelor of Linguistics (BLing). Prior to her research career, she accumulated extensive experience as an early childhood teacher in both not-for-profit and for-profit centres, providing practical grounding to her scholarly work.

Brand's research focuses on infants' and toddlers' social interactions in early childhood centres, infant-toddler pedagogies based on interactions with peers and educators, toddlers’ learning-oriented language, infant-toddler curriculum, young children’s developmental trajectories, language development, and methods for implementing early childhood research in educators’ everyday practice. As primary chief investigator, she led the MQ Toddler TaLK project from 2021 to 2024, tracking the developmental trajectories of learning-oriented talk produced by toddlers aged 2.5 to 3.5 years to identify interaction features that promote language development and learning. She also served as a chief investigator on the Early Childhood Education and Care Pay and Conditions Research project completed in 2023. Key publications include the commissioned report "Early childhood education and care pay and conditions research: final report" (2026, co-authored with Degotardi et al., 186 pages), "Conversational leadership in toddler-educator talk and its potential to promote learning" (Australasian Journal of Early Childhood, 2025), "From ‘what’ to ‘why’: plotting the emergence and frequency of children's questions from 30 to 42 months of age" (European Early Childhood Education Research Journal, 2025), "Toddler-educator decontextualised talk and its value for toddlers’ learning" (Early Years, 2024), and the project’s interim report (2023). As a member of the Pay and Conditions Team, she contributed to the Faculty of Arts Learning and Teaching Award. Her contributions enhance theoretical knowledge and practical applications in early childhood education.