Lauren van Niekerk
Principal Investigator, Book-sharing for Fathers in South Africa
Lauren-Jayne van Niekerk is the Principal Investigator on Book-sharing for Fathers in South Africa. She is also a Lecturer in the Department of Social Development at the University of Cape Town. She is a social worker and holds a MSocSc in Social Planning and Administration. Ms van Niekerk will be joining the GPI as a Playful Parenting Future Leader Male Engagement Fellow.
Lauren started her career in the early childhood development (ECD) non-profit sector where she managed large-scale ECD programmes across South Africa that aimed at increasing access and improving the quality of ECD. She also engaged in several research endeavours concentrating on inequality within early education. Looking to engage more significantly in the science behind early childhood, Lauren then moved into academia with a strong research focus on early childhood development and father involvement in the early years.
She is presently engaged in PhD studies centering on father involvement in children’s early learning and development aiming to provide a positively nuanced discourse on fatherhood in South Africa.
