Rate My Professor Linda Henderson

Dr. Linda Henderson is a Senior Lecturer in Early Years in the Faculty of Education at Monash University, where she has held this position since 2015. Her academic background includes a PhD from the University of Melbourne in 2012, a Master of Education (Research) from the University of Melbourne in 2004, a Graduate Certificate in Special Education from Charles Sturt University in 2004, a Graduate Certificate in Gifted Education from the University of New South Wales in 2000, a Bachelor of Education from La Trobe University in 1998, and a Bachelor of Teaching from RMIT in 1996. Prior appointments encompass Senior Lecturer and Postdoctoral Research Fellow at Australian Catholic University from 2012 to 2015, and Lecturer at Monash University from 2009 to 2011. Henderson's research centers on early childhood teachers' work, learning, and identities, utilizing feminist poststructuralist methodologies to investigate institutional cultures, policy implementation, reform measures, and their impacts on educators. She emphasizes social justice, equity, and collaborative research approaches to innovate teacher practices.

Henderson has authored and co-authored influential works, including the books Leadership in Early Childhood Education: A Cultural-Historical Theory of Practice Development (2024, with Joce Nuttall, Elizabeth Wood, and Jenny Martin) and Early Childhood Education and Care in a Global Pandemic: How the Sector Responded, Spoke Back and Generated Knowledge (2022, editor with Katherine Bussey and Hasina Banu Ebrahim). Key articles include "Therapy dogs in educational settings: Guidelines and recommendations for implementation" (2021, with Christine Grové et al., 81 citations), "Formative interventions in leadership development in early childhood education: The potential of double stimulation" (2018, with Joce Nuttall and Lisa Thomas, 50 citations), "The potential of ‘leading identity’ as an analytic concept for understanding Educational Leadership development in early childhood education" (2022, with Joce Nuttall et al.), and "Positioning ourselves in our academic lives: Exploring personal/professional identities, voice and agency" (2019, with Alison L. Black and Gail Crimmins, 46 citations). As Chief Investigator, she secured an Australian Research Council grant in 2018 for "Learning Rich Leadership for Quality Improvement in Early Education." Her scholarship advances leadership development, professionalisation, and policy analysis in early childhood education, evidenced by over 450 citations across her publications.