Associate Professor Kathleen Tait’s expertise in the field of tertiary education stems from 30 years practical, administrative and consultative experience in the United Kingdom, Brunei Darussalam, Hong Kong SAR and Australia.  Kathleen has a strong history of working in cross-cultural research projects in East Asian countries (Mainland China and Japan) as well as South-East Asian countries (e.g.,Brunei Darussalam, Singapore and Vietnam) . This international experience has provided her with an extensive appreciation of the complexities of working with diverse cultures and diverse religions (e.g., the Islamic, Hindu and Buddhist faiths).

Kathleen has over 100 publications; received five tertiary Excellence in Teaching Awards and has successfully supervised 25 Master and PhD students. Over the course of her career, she has recevied research funding of $2-million - including recent Australian Government funding of $440,500 in an ARC Discovery project.

Kathleen enjoys work environments where there is a strong focus on collegial team approaches with particular reference to projects supporting student complex communication disorders and improving the quality of life of families raising a child with disability.

In addition to her educational qualifications, Kathleen has post graduate psychology qualifications in Applied Behaviour Analysis, Higher Degree Education and is a registered graduate psychologist with the British Psychological Society. 

Areas of Expertise: (1) Disability Studies, Communication Disorders, and the impact on vulnerable and ethnically diverse families raising individuals with additional needs.

A/Professor Tait's expertise is in the fields of special and inclusive education; communication disorders, assessment, intervention and developmental disability: specifically physical, intellectual and multiple disorders. She has extensive expertise in Research Methods, Research Design and Qualitative Data Analysis. 

Areas of Expertise: (2)  Ethnic Diversity, Family impact, and Cross-cultural Disability Studies.

A/Professor Tait has a strong history of leading cross-cultural inclusive/special education projects. In addition to her psychology and education qualifications, Kathleen has qualifications from the UNSW – Institute of Languages. Dr. Tait has had  over 7 years tertiary experience in East Asia (Hong Kong, China, Japan, Brunei Darussalam). She has researched and published widely in the field of family impact raising children with developmental disabilities in rural, remote and ethnically diverse environments.

Publications:

A/Professor Tait has published over 130 peer reviewed publications including 30 chapters in books with high quality publishers (e.g., Oxford University Press, Springer, Routledge and Palgrave Macmillan). She has over 50 peer reviewed journal articles in high impact publications (e.g., the Journal of Autism and Developmental Disabilities, Disability and Rehabilitation, the American Journal of Speech-Language-Pathology, and the British Journal of Educational Psychology). She has published 15 refereed conference papers and opinon pieces in the Sydney Morning Herald.  A/Professor Tait is co-edtior of the Oxford University Press text: Diversity, Inclusion and Engagement, 4th Edition which is used as a required text in over 27 Australian Universities.

Kathleen is Australian representative on the International Association for the Scientific Study of Intellectual and Developmental Disability (IASSIDD) Academy. Through the IASSIDD Academy, Kathleen offers virtual education training to an international audience of allied health, education specialists, family support teams, families and NGOs. She is also Australian representative on the IASSIDD Profound Intellectual and Multiple Disability (PIMD) Special Interest Research Group committee.

Most recently, Kathleen presented two indivdiual papers at the 2024 IASSIDD World Congress held in Chicago: "The impact of Filial Piety, cultural values and stigma on the coping strategies of Chinese parents' raising autistic children in HKSAR" and " Accessing the active engagement and responsiveness of children with PIMD".  Over 800 delegates attended this international event.  Kathleen is currently working with international colleagues on social impact research projects located in Australia, Japan and Europe and supervises HDR projects for students with expertise in disability and special education work environments.