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 200 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 $2.5-million - including recent Australian Government funding of $440,500 in an ARC Discovery project (2024-2027), $43,000 from an ACT Ed Dept Contract (2024-2025) and $83,000 from a National Disability Research Program grant (2025-2026).

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 is a registered educational psychologist. She also has post graduate qualifications in Applied Behaviour Analysis (Penn State University - USA), Higher Degree Education (USyd), TESOL (UNSW) and Academic English (USyd). 

Areas of Expertise: (1) Inclusive Education, Complex Communication Disorders, and the impact on vulnerable and ethnically diverse families raising students with additional needs (SWANs).

A/Professor Tait's expertise is in the fields of inclusive education; complex communication disorders, assessment, intervention and developmental disability: specifically physical, intellectual and developmental 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, Mainland China, Japan, Brunei Darussalam). She has researched and published widely in the field of family impact and carer burden experienced raising children with developmental disabilities in rural, remote and ethnically diverse environments.

Publications:

A/Professor Tait has published over 200 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 and the Australian Financial Review.  A/Professor Tait is the lead author of the Oxford University Press text: Diversity, Inclusion and Engagement, 5th Edition (2026). In 2025, the 4th edition of this textbook was used as a recommended text in over 40 x Australian University tertiary units of study in 20 x Australian Universities (including MQU). In 2026, this text will be distributed to universities in New Zealand and Australia.

Kathleen is Australian representative on The Academy of the International Association for the Scientific Study of Intellectual and Developmental Disability (IASSIDD). 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 the Australian representative and executive board member of the IASSIDD Profound Intellectual and Multiple Disability (PIMD) Special Interest Research Group committee.

Most recently, Kathleen moderated the Plenary Session on "Supporting Families" to over 500 participants from 28 different countries and presented two indivdiual papers at the 2025 IASSIDD Asia Pacific World Congress held in Singapore. 

In February 2025, Kathleen lead the round table discussion on the topic: "Special Education and AI"at the Generative AI for Education Leaders Summit 2025 held at UTS. Kathleen was the only speaker to be invited to this International event from MQU.

Kathleen offers multiple national and international webinars and presentations on publishing techniques for ECRs in her role as screening editor for HERDS Journal and for the IASSIDD Academy. She also holds the elected role of Treasurer for NSW HERDSA Branch executive committee.

In 2024, supported by her successful application for $6000 from the FoA Conference Travel Fund, Kathleen presented the results of two of her NCP funded grants as Principal Investigator on inclusion and diversity at the IASSIDD World Congress 2024 which was 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 Indigenous Australia children with PIMD".  Over 800 delegates attended this international event. 

Kathleen is currently working with national and international colleagues on social impact research projects located in Australia, Japan and the UK and supervises HDR projects for students with expertise in disability, inclusive education and diverse work environments.