Dr Victoria Minson
Senior Lecturer
School of Education, Faculty of Education and Arts
Areas of expertise: early childhood education, children’s play and learning, assessment, digital technologies, immersive learning
Email: Victoria.Minson@acu.edu.au
Location: ACU Melbourne Campus
ORCID ID: 0000-0001-9999-0582
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Victoria completed her PhD at Monash University in 2019 and joined Australian Catholic University (ACU) in the Faculty of Education and Arts as a Lecturer in 2020. In 2024, Victoria was promoted to Senior Lecturer. Presently, Victoria is the Course Coordinator for the Bachelor of Early Childhood Education (Birth to Five Years) (Accelerated), an Early Childhood Innovative Initial Teacher Education (IITE) program funded by the Victorian Department of Education and Training. Victoria played a unique role in securing $25 million in IITE funding and establishing the program within an ambitious three-month timeframe. She now leads the groundbreaking integration of Virtual Reality (VR) into the early childhood pre-service teacher curriculum, setting a new standard for VR in early childhood initial teacher education.
Victoria began her career as an early childhood educator, working in long day care for five years. This experience grounded her understanding of early childhood practice and sparked a lifelong interest in early learning. While completing her postgraduate studies, she transitioned to parenting services in local government, where she facilitated playgroups and developed parent education programs.
Before entering academia, Victoria worked in practice and quality improvement for Australia’s largest not-for-profit early childhood education provider. This experience sharpened her focus on service delivery, educational leadership, and policy implementation. Victoria is deeply committed to ensuring every child has access to high-quality early learning. Her research and teaching are driven by a belief in the transformative power of education, and she is passionate about preparing the next generation of early childhood educators to lead with knowledge, care, and innovation.
Select publications
- Sun, Y., Blewitt, C., Minson, V., Bajayo, R., Cameron, L., & Skouteris, H. (2024). Trauma-informed Interventions in Early Childhood Education and Care Settings: A Scoping Review. Trauma, Violence, & Abuse, 25(1), 648-662. 14/611. Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health
- Minson, V., & McLean, K. (2023). Playgroup Families’ Experiences of Play-Based Remote Learning. Australasian Journal of Early Childhood, 48(2), 117-133. https://doi.org/10.1177/18369391221139316.
- Edwards, S., McLean, K., & Minson, V. (2022). From Technology as Tool to Digitally Mediated Contexts for Learning in Early Childhood Education and Care in Australia. The Routledge Handbook of Media Education Futures Post-Pandemic.
- Minson, V., & Nuttall, J. (2022). Assessment for learning within Australia's Early Years Learning Framework: What is the place of Learning Stories? Contemporary Issues in Early Childhood, 14639491221133464.
- Minson, V., Veresov, N., & Hammer, M. (2022). Development; The Alchemy of Learning: The Case of Andy. In Assessing and Evaluating Early Childhood Education Systems (pp. 111-124). Cham: Springer International Publishing.
- Minson, V., Hammer, M., & Veresov, N. N. (2016). Rethinking assessments: creating a new tool using the zone of proximal development within a cultural-historical framework. Cultural-Historical Psychology, 12(3), 331-345.
Projects
- Australian Research Council Government, Discovery Program 2025
Australian Research Council Discovery Program, ARCDP25, ‘AI for the Early Years’. Professor Susan Edwards; Professor Michael Henderson; Professor Jane Page; Professor Amanda Third; Dr Victoria Minson; Professor Andrew Manches; Associate Professor Sherri Hope Culver
Project finding awarded over three years, $929,546
- Victorian Government Early Childhood Innovative Initial Teacher Education Program
Tender Authors, Professor Marina Papic, Dr Gretchen Geng and Victoria Minson
Contributed to securing funding of $25 million ($13.5 million 2022-2024 & $12.3 million 2024-2026). Victoria was part of the team that conceptualised the accelerated degree in the 2021 tender submission, led the 'Pedagogical Innovation' section of the tender and wrote a position paper conceptualising a framework for integrating VR within the curriculum.
- Technology, Innovation, and Entrepreneurship Skills (TIES)
While not listed as an author on this tender, Victoria developed the framework for integrating virtual reality (VR) into the pre-service teacher education curriculum, which was used in the successful TIES grant application. The TIES grant supported several technology-enhanced projects, including the allocation of funding for immersive learning experiences tailored to the New South Wales accelerated early childhood education cohort.
Total project funding $997,317.
Awards
- 2023: Faculty of Education and Arts, 2023 Excellence in Teaching Award
- 2022: ACU Teaching Development Grant 2022, Expanding Virtual horizons: Virtual Reality in Teacher Education
- 2017: Best presentation at the International Society of Cultural-historical Activity Research (ISCAR) Student PhD Day, Quebec
- 2017: Australian Scholarship Group Winner, Travel Grant
- 2015: Nominee for Victorian Young Achiever of the Year
- 2015: Australian Research and Training Scholarship, PhD funding
Appointments and affiliations
- The Institute of Child Protection Studies (ICPS) Affiliate
- Parent Committee of Management, East West Childcare Association
Editorial roles
- Assistant Editor: Australasian Journal of Early Childhood (AJEC) July 2021 – August 2022
- Assistant Editor: November 2017– June 2020 International Research in Early Childhood Education
- Cultural Historical Reading Group Leader: Monash University November 2017–March 2019
Public engagement
