Professor Susan Walker
Faculty of Creative Industries, Education & Social Justice,
School of Early Childhood & Inclusive Education
Biography
Dr Sue Walker is a Professor within the School of Early Childhood and Inclusive Education at QUT. Her research interests concern children's developmental outcomes and the role of early intervention in early childhood. In the past ten years, Dr Walker's research teams have attracted over $3.5m in research funding. Funding has included ARC Discovery grants (DP180100160, DP0880000, DP130102136, DP160100319), an ARC Linkage grant for $214,857 (LP150100279) and a Financial Markets Foundation for Children Grant worth $125,175 (“Whose behaviour is and is not managed in the early years of school, why and with what effects?”).Dr Walker has extensive expertise in survey methodology and quantitative data analysis and particular expertise in working with large longitudinal data sets (through her work with Growing up in Australia: The Longitudinal Study of Australian Children). Past and current research projects include:
- Politics of belonging: Promoting children’s inclusion in educational settings across borders (Nordforsk Project) with Professor Jo Lunn-Brownlee and Professor Eva Johansson
- Educating preservice teachers to teach diverse learners (ARC Discovery Project) with Professor Jo Lunn-Brownlee and Associate Professor Terri Bourke (QUT), Professor Mary Ryan (Macquarie University) Associate Professor Leonie Rowan (Griffith University) and Professor Eva Johansson (University of Stavanger)
- Which children develop severely disruptive school behaviour? (ARC Discovery Project) with Professor Linda Graham and Dr Sonia White (QUT), Professor Pamela Snow (La Trobe Rural Health School), Dr Kathy Cologon (Macquarie University) and Professor Robert Pianta (University of Virginia).
- Changing relationships between children’s moral reasoning for inclusion and epistemic beliefs in early years primary school classrooms (ARC Discovery Project) with Professor Jo Lunn-Brownlee and Professor Donna Berthlesen (QUT) and Professor Eva Johansson (University of Stavanger)
- The Transition to School for Young Children with Developmental Disabilities: The Impact of Interpersonal Relationships on Successful School Adjustment (ARC Discovery Project) with Professor Donna Berthelsen and Professor Suzanne Carrington (QUT) and Professor Jan Nicholson (La Trobe University)
- Learning about social and moral values for active citizenship: Educational Policy and Practice in Early Education (ARC Discovery Project) with Professor Jo Lunn-Brownlee and Professor Gillian Boulton-Lewis (QUT), Dr Jo Ailwood (University of Newcastle) and Professor Eva Johnasson (University of Stavanger)
Dr Walker is a key researcher in the Cooperative Research Centre for Living with Autism Spectrum Disorders (Autism CRC), which has received $31 million from the federal government for the next eight years. She is currently involved in two projects that have received funding within Program 2 (Education) of the Autism CRC: Longitudinal Study of Australian Students with Autism (LASA) and Transition Models of Practice.
Personal details
Positions
- Professor
Faculty of Creative Industries, Education & Social Justice,
School of Early Childhood & Inclusive Education
Keywords
Child Development, Early Childhood Education, Epistemic Beliefs, Inclusive Education, Executive Function, Teacher Education, Transition To School
Discipline
Education Systems, Specialist Studies in Education
Field of Research code, Australian and New Zealand Standard Research Classification (ANZSRC), 2008
Qualifications
- PhD (Queensland University of Technology)
- MEd(Research) (Queensland University of Technology)
- BEd(Hons) (Queensland University of Technology)
Professional memberships and associations
- Australasian Human Development Association (AHDA)
- International Society for the Study of Behavioural Development (ISSBD)
- Society for Research in Child Development (SRCD)
- European Early Childhood Education Research Association (EECERA);
- Australian Research Alliance for Children and Youth (ARACY)
- Early Childhood Australia (ECA)
- European Association of Developmental Psychology (EADP)
- European Association for Research in Learning and Instruction (EARLI)
Teaching
Dr Walker's teaching includes post graduate supervision for Honours, Masters and Doctoral students with project foci including inclusive education, early intervention, parent involvement and Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC). Higher Degree Research student projects include:
Dr Walker also teaches in research methodology, specifically quantitative research methods.
- Development, Implementation and Evaluation of a Parenting Intervention to Promote Mother-Child Interaction and Child Development in Bangladesh
- Fathers in Australia: A longitudinal study of fathers’ parenting and wellbeing, and associations with children’s social-emotional development.
- Differentiated learning opportunities for children with learning disabilities
- Teacher-child Relationship Quality for Young Children with Parent Reported Language Concerns
- The effectiveness of a short-term group music therapy intervention with young parents and their children
- Parent decisions regarding paid work and care of the child
- Mothers of Young Children with Special Needs: Cross-sectional and Longitudinal Relationships between Well-being and Engagement in Work
- Risk and resilience: School and family influences on the social adjustment and academic achievement of young Australian children
- Children with Special Health Care Needs - Academic and Social Adjustment in the Early Years
- Early non-parental child care in Australia: Quality of care, patterns of care and developmental outcomes for Australian children
Dr Walker also teaches in research methodology, specifically quantitative research methods.
Experience
I have made an international contribution in the area of early childhood development, including atypical development and children’s outcomes. This contribution has resulted in the publication of a scholarly book, eight book chapters and over 60 journal articles published in high quality internationally respected journals. My research has had an impact on policy at both the State and Federal levels of Government. For example, my findings on the quality of the early home learning environment and children’s outcomes using data from the Longitudinal Study of Australian Children (LSAC) informed the work of A Flying Start for Queensland Children (DET). In the ARC Discovery grant project, The Transition to School for Children with Developmental Disabilities (DP0877587, 2008-2011) we investigated the transition to school of young children with high support needs. Three cohorts of children, aged 4 to 6 years, were recruited from Early Childhood Developmental Programs (ECDPs) of Education Queensland. Each cohort was tracked for 3 years in mainstream schools. The longitudinal sequential design enabled the study of individual change in child adjustment to school across the timeframe of the study to be explored and inter-individual difference (between cohorts) to be analysed. The findings from this project have been cited by the Queensland Commission for Children and Young People in their advice to the Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations regarding the review of Disability Standards for Education (21/4/11) demonstrating impact on educational policy.
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Publications
- Lunn J, Johansson E, Walker S, Scholes L, (2017) Teaching for Active Citizenship: Moral Values and Personal Epistemology in Early Years Classrooms, Routledge
- Taylor A, Beamish W, Tucker M, Paynter J, Walker S, (2021) Designing a Model of Practice for Australian Teachers of Young School-age Children on the Autism Spectrum, Journal of International Special Needs Education, 24 (1) p1
- Lunn J, Walker S, Wallace L, Johansson E, Scholes L, (2019) Doing the right thing in the early years of primary school: a longitudinal study of children's reasoning about right and wrong, Australian Educational Researcher, 46 (5) p863
- Lunn J, Walker S, Scholes L, Johansson E, (2019) Reasoning about social inclusion over the early years of primary school: a focus on epistemic cognition, European Early Childhood Education Research Journal, 27 (5) p616
- Lunn J, Rowan L, Ryan M, Walker S, Bourke T, Churchward P, (2019) Researching teacher educators' preparedness to teach to and about diversity: investigating epistemic reflexivity as a new conceptual framework, Asia-Pacific Journal of Teacher Education, 47 (3) p230
- Ryan M, Bourke T, Lunn J, Rowan L, Walker S, Churchward P, (2019) Seeking a reflexive space for teaching to and about diversity: Emergent properties of enablement and constraint for teacher educators, Teachers and Teaching: Theory and Practice, 25 (2) p259
- Walker S, Lunn J, Scholes L, Johansson E, (2020) The development of children's epistemic beliefs across the early years of elementary school, British Journal of Educational Psychology, 90 (2) p266
- Walker S, Lunn J, Scholes L, Johansson E, (2019) Young children's moral evaluations of inclusion and exclusion in play in ethnic and aggressive stereotypic peer contexts, International Journal of Inclusive Education, Online (Online) p1
- Ey L, Walker S, Spears B, (2019) Young children's thinking about bullying: Personal, social-conventional and moral reasoning perspectives, Australasian Journal of Early Childhood, 44 (2) p196
- Walker S, Graham L, (2021) At risk students and teacher-student relationships: student characteristics, attitudes to school and classroom climate, International Journal of Inclusive Education, 25 (8) p896
QUT ePrints
For more publications by Susan, explore their research on ePrints (our digital repository).
Awards
- Type
- Editorial Role for an Academic Journal
- Reference year
- 2016
- Details
- Member of the Editorial Board Pakistan Journal of Educational Research and Evaluation (PJERE)
- Type
- Editorial Role for an Academic Journal
- Reference year
- 2016
- Details
- Member of the Editorial Board Australian Educational Researcher
- Type
- Committee Role/Editor or Chair of an Academic Conference
- Reference year
- 2010
- Details
- Invited reviewer for the scientific programs of the 2007, 2009 and 2011 Biennial Conference for Society for Research in Child Development. SRCD is the largest and most prestigious professional association for developmental and related research
- Type
- Committee Role/Editor or Chair of an Academic Conference
- Reference year
- 2010
- Details
- Secretary of the Australasian Human Development Association
- Type
- Editorial Role for an Academic Journal
- Reference year
- 2010
- Details
- Invited reviewing in the fields of social development and inclusion for national and international journals including Contemporary Issues in Early Childhood and the Australian Journal of Early Childhood, Australian Journal for Developmental and Educational Psychology, International Journal of Early Childhood
- Type
- Membership of Learned Societies
- Reference year
- 2010
- Details
- Member of the Society for Research in Child Development, International Society for the Study of Behavioral Development, Australasian Human Development Association, European Early Childhood Education Research Association, European Society for Developmental Psychology and Early Childhood Australia
Research projects
- Title
- Educating Preservice Teachers to Teach Diverse Learners
- Primary fund type
- CAT 1 - Australian Competitive Grant
- Project ID
- DP180100160
- Start year
- 2018
- Keywords
- Title
- Building Executive Function in Imaginary Play
- Primary fund type
- CAT 1 - Australian Competitive Grant
- Project ID
- LP150100279
- Start year
- 2016
- Keywords
- Title
- Which Children Develop Severely Disruptive School Behaviour?
- Primary fund type
- CAT 1 - Australian Competitive Grant
- Project ID
- DP160100319
- Start year
- 2016
- Keywords
- Title
- Changing relationships between children's moral reasoning for inclusion and epistemic beliefs in early years primary school classrooms
- Primary fund type
- CAT 1 - Australian Competitive Grant
- Project ID
- DP130102136
- Start year
- 2013
- Keywords
- epistemic beliefs; values education; children's reasoning
- Title
- Whose behaviour is and is not managed in the early years of school, why and with what effects?
- Primary fund type
- CAT 1 - Australian Competitive Grant
- Project ID
- 2013-030
- Start year
- 2013
- Keywords
- Disruptive Behaviour; Inclusive Education; Learning Support; Mixed-Methods; Teacher-Student Relationships
- Title
- Learning about Social and Moral Values for Active Citizenship: Educational Policy and Practice in Early Education
- Primary fund type
- CAT 1 - Australian Competitive Grant
- Project ID
- DP0880000
- Start year
- 2008
- Keywords
- Active Citizenship; Inclusion; Early Education; Pedagogy; Epistemological Beliefs; Values Education
- Title
- The Transition to School for Young Children with Developmental Disabilities: The Impact of Interpersonal Relationships on Successful School Adjustment
- Primary fund type
- CAT 1 - Australian Competitive Grant
- Project ID
- DP0877587
- Start year
- 2008
- Keywords
- Transition to School; Disability; Early Childhood; Inclusion; School Adjustment; School Engagement
Supervision
Current supervisions
- Fathers in Australia: A longitudinal study of fathers' parenting and wellbeing, and associations with children's social-emotional development
PhD, Mentoring Supervisor
Other supervisors: Associate Professor Kate Williams - DEVELOPMENT, IMPLEMENTATION AND EVALUATION OF A PARENTING INTERVENTION TO PROMOTE MOTHER-CHILD INTERACTION IN UNDERPRIVILEGED FAMILIES IN BANGLADESH
PhD, Associate Supervisor
Other supervisors: Professor Linda Gilmore - TEACHERS' BELIEFS AND PRACTICES AROUND THE PROMOTION OF READING FOR PLEASURE AMONG PRIMARY CHILDREN
MPhil, Mentoring Supervisor
Other supervisors: Dr Stacey Campbell
Completed supervisions (Doctorate)
- Early Childhood Educators' Intercultural Competence: A Multiple Case Study through the Lens of Self-Authorship (2016)
- Continuity and Change in Family Engagement in Home Learning Activities across the Early Years (2015)
- Early child care in Australia: Quality of care, experiences of care and developmental outcomes for Australian children (2015)
- An Examination of Saudi High School Teachers' ICT Knowledge and Implementation (2014)
- Family Structure and Change Through Middle Childhood: The Impact on Children's Adjustment and Achievement (2014)
- Self-regulation from Birth to Age Seven: Associations with Maternal Mental Health, Parenting, and Social, Emotional and Behavioural Outcomes for Children (2014)
- The role of motivation and motivational strategies in Saudi students' communicative competence in English (2013)
- Mothers of Young Children with Special Health Care Needs: Maternal Well-being and Engagement in Work (2012)
- Supporting Children's Language and Literacy Skills: The Effectiveness of Shared Book Reading Intervention Strategies with Parents (2012)