Geraldine McDonald

Geraldine McDonald (; 13 May 1926 – 26 November 2018) was a New Zealand academic and teacher. She was a pioneer of research into women's education and early childhood education, and advocated for women and girls throughout her life. After an early teaching career, she completed her doctoral thesis on the development of preschool-aged Māori children, and began working for the New Zealand Council for Educational Research. Throughout her later career she ran and chaired various organisations including the New Zealand Mental Health Foundation and the New Zealand Association for Research in Education, and was influential in government policy on early childhood education.

Early life, career and family McDonald was born in Wellington on 13 May 1926. Her mother, Alma , was a clerical worker and her father, Gerald Player, was a public servant. She attended Hataitai School, where she was dux in her final year, and subsequently Wellington East Girls' College. Her first year at the college was 1939 and coincided with the outbreak of the Second World War. Her father committed suicide when she was 13, which meant McDonald and her mother had to live with her terminally ill aunt. In order to escape from her stressful home life she started at Dunedin Teachers' College at age 16. Her marriage ended around this time. In 1992 she retired from NZCER, but continued to work as a consultant and undertook some part-time lecturing at Wellington Teachers' College and Victoria University. McDonald was twice selected to give the Herbison Lecture, first in 1993 and again in 2006.