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.