Rate My Professor Kathleen Tait

Associate Professor Kathleen Tait is a registered educational psychologist and Associate Professor in the Macquarie School of Education at Macquarie University, affiliated with the Macquarie University Special Education Centre. Possessing postgraduate qualifications in Applied Behaviour Analysis from Penn State University (USA), Higher Degree Education and Academic English from the University of Sydney, TESOL from the University of New South Wales, and additional qualifications from the UNSW Institute of Languages, she has accumulated over 30 years of practical, administrative, and consultative experience in the United Kingdom, Brunei Darussalam, Hong Kong SAR, and Australia. With more than seven years of tertiary teaching in East Asia, including Hong Kong, Mainland China, Japan, and Brunei Darussalam, Tait specializes in inclusive education, complex communication disorders, assessment and intervention for developmental disabilities encompassing physical, intellectual, and developmental disorders, research methods, qualitative data analysis, ethnic diversity, family impact studies, and cross-cultural disability research. Her work particularly addresses the impact on vulnerable, ethnically diverse families raising students with additional needs.

Tait holds significant leadership roles as the Australian representative on the Academy of the International Association for the Scientific Study of Intellectual and Developmental Disability (IASSIDD), executive board member of the IASSIDD Profound Intellectual and Multiple Disability Special Interest Research Group, screening editor for the Higher Education Research and Development Society (HERDSA) Journal, and Treasurer of the NSW HERDSA Branch executive committee. She has received five tertiary Excellence in Teaching Awards, the Advance Higher Education Senior Fellowship (2018), HERDSA Fellowship (2021, the first for a Macquarie University academic), Best Conference Presentation at the Hong Kong SAR Medical & Health Science Society Conference (2016), University of Sydney Faculty Excellence in Teaching Award (2005), and Highly Commended Finalist in the Vice-Chancellor's Award for Teaching Excellence (2022). Tait has produced over 200 peer-reviewed publications, including 50 journal articles in high-impact outlets such as the Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders and Disability and Rehabilitation, 30 book chapters with publishers like Oxford University Press, Springer, Routledge, and Palgrave Macmillan, and edited Diversity, Inclusion and Engagement (Oxford University Press, 5th edition forthcoming 2026). She has supervised 25 Master's and PhD students, secured $2.5 million in research funding—including an ARC Discovery Project ($440,500, 2024-2027) for developing accessible playgrounds for children with vision impairment—and leads projects in Australia, Japan, and the UK on disability inclusion.