Professor Susan Edwards
Research Director, Early Childhood Futures; Head of Discipline, Early Childhood
Institute for Learning Sciences and Teacher Education, Faculty of Education and Arts
Areas of expertise: early childhood education and care (ECEC) curriculum, pedagogy, and theory; play and play-based learning; playgroups; wellbeing and sustainability education; digital play pedagogies and practices in the early years; digital media and popular culture; educational technologies; philosophy of technology; cyber-safety and online safety education; artificial intelligence (AI) for ECEC; enhancing adult capabilities about play; developmental work research; design intervention; participatory design; quasi-experimental research and case-study; child-centred research methods; survey implementation; randomised control trials; information retrieval in early childhood.
Phone: +613 9953 3531
Email: Suzy.Edwards@acu.edu.au
Location: ACU Melbourne Campus
HDR Supervisor accreditation status: HDR Supervisor (Full)
ORCID ID: 0000-0002-5945-0597
Professor Susan Edwards is Director of the Early Childhood Futures research program in the Institute for Learning Sciences and Teacher Education at Australian Catholic University. Her group investigates the role of play-based learning in the early childhood and care (ECEC) curriculum for the 21st century and the everyday digital life-worlds of young children. Professor Edwards is also Head of Discipline in the Faculty of Education and Arts at Australian Catholic University and lead Chief Investigator on the Australian Research Council (ARC) Linkage Project, Young children in digital society: An online tool for service provision (see www.youngchildrendigitalsociety.com.au for more information about this project). She was recently awarded a major ARC Discovery Project, Artificial Intelligence (AI) for the Early Years, which aims to inform adult decision-making about supporting young children’s use of age-appropriate AI technologies in ways that are safe, equitable, and trustworthy.
Select publications
- Edwards, S., & Straker, L. (Eds.) (2025). Young children in digital society: Now and into the future. Routledge
- Edwards, S., Nolan, A., Henderson, M., Grieshaber, S., Highfield, K., Salamon, A., Skouteris, H., & Straker, L. (under review). Pedagogical practices for online safety education in ECEC. Technology, Pedagogy and Education.
- Young, S., Edwards, S., & Nuttall, J. (2024). Teacher participation in young children’s dramatic play. Journal of Early Childhood Research, 22(4), 598–611. https://doi.org/10.1177/1476718X241258604
- Edwards, S. (2023). Concepts for early childhood education and care in the postdigital. Postdigital Science and Education, 5(3), 777–798. https://doi.org/10.1007/s42438-022-00356-7
- Edwards, S., McLean, K., & Minson, V. (2022). From technology as tool to digitally mediated contexts for learning in early childhood education and care (ECEC). In Y. Friesem, U. Raman, I. Kanižaj, & G. Y. Choi (Eds.), The Routledge handbook of media education futures post-pandemic (236–243). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003283737
- Edwards, S., McLean, K., Bartlett, J., Nolan, A., Evangelou, M., Henderson, M., Skouteris, H., & Tarasuik, J. (2022). School playgroups: Which features of provision matter? British Educational Research Journal, 48(3), 598–616. https://doi.org/10.1002/berj.3785
- Edwards, S. (2021). Cyber-safety and COVID-19 in the early years: A research agenda. Journal of Early Childhood Research, 19(3), 396–410. https://doi.org/10.1177/1476718X211014908
- Edwards, S. (2021). Digital play and technical code: What new knowledge formations are possible? Learning, Media and Technology, 46(3), 306–319. https://doi.org/10.1080/17439884.2021.1890612
- Nolan, A., Edwards, S., Salamon, A., Straker, L., Grieshaber, S., Skouteris, H., Henderson, M., Highfield, K., & Bartlett, J. (2021). Young children’s agency with digital technologies. Children and Society, 36(4), 541–563. https://doi.org/10.1111/chso.12512
- Edwards, S., Mantilla, A., Grieshaber, S., Nuttall, J., & Wood, E. (2020). Converged play characteristics for early childhood education: Multi-modal, global-local, and traditional-digital. Oxford Review of Education, 46(5), 637–660. https://doi.org/10.1080/03054985.2020.1750358
- Edwards, S., Nolan, A., Henderson, M., Grieshaber, S., Highfield, K., Salamon, A., Skouteris, H., & Straker, L. (2020). Rationale, design and methods protocol for participatory design of an online tool to support industry service provision regarding digital technology use ‘with, by and for’ young children. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 17(23), Article 8819. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17238819
Projects
- 2025 – 2028 Australian Research Council (ARC) Discovery Project. Edwards, S., Henderson, M., Minson, V., Page, J., & Third, A. Artificial intelligence for the Early Years (DP250100134). ARC Funding $929,000
- 2024 – 2027 Australian Research Council (ARC) Centre of Excellence for the Digital Child. Straker, L., Edwards, S., Kervin, L., Cliff, D., & Sefton-Green, J. Parental Guidance: Understanding what technology use guidelines parents would find useful. Innovation and Strategic Funding $128,620
- 2024 – 2027 Australian Research Council (ARC) Discovery Project. Blewitt, C., Skouteris, H., Edwards, S., Morris, H., & Kirk, H. Educator-child interactions and social emotional learning (DP240102540). ARC Funding $525,095
- 2020 – 2024 Australian Research Council (ARC) Linkage Project. Edwards, S, Straker, L., Nolan, A., Henderson, M., Grieshaber, S., Highfield, K., Salamon, A., & Skouteris, H. Young children in digital society: An online tool for service provision(LP190100387). ARC Funding $556,000. Partner Organisation Funding $650,976
- 2017 – 2021 Australian Research Council (ARC) Linkage Project. Edwards, S., McLean, K., Skouteris, H. Henderson, M., & Nolan, A. A best practice framework for playgroups-in-schools(LP160101759). ARC Funding $156,000; Partner Organisation Funding $150,000
- 2015 – 2017 Australian Research Council (ARC) Discovery Project. Edwards, S., Nuttall, J., Grieshaber, S., & Wood, E. New play pedagogies for teaching and learning in the early years (DP5010204). ARC Funding $191,000.
- 2014 – 2016 Australian Research Council (ARC) Discovery Project. Skouteris, H., Edwards, S., Cutter-Mackenzie, A., & Rutherford, L. Promoting healthy eating, active play and sustainability awareness in early childhood curricula (DP1400938). ARC Funding $232,000.
- 2010 – 2012 Australian Research Council (ARC) Discovery Project. Edwards, S., & Cutter-Mackenzie, A. Examining play-based approaches to teaching and learning in early childhood education and care (DP1092606). ARC Funding $60,000.
Awards
- 2023 Centre of Excellence for the Digital Child, Research with Impact Award (Team)
- 2020 Australian Catholic University, Vice Chancellor’s Awards for Staff Excellence – Excellence in Research and Research Partnerships (Team)
- 2018 Australian Catholic University, Institute for Learning Sciences and Teacher Education. Research Award for Early Career Research Mentoring. Internally competitive award $5,000
- 2010 Monash University, Teaching and Learning Lead Fellowship. Leading 3 University Fellows to advance the scholarship of teaching across the university including the discipline areas of nursing, health sciences and arts. Culminating in Scholarship of Teaching Symposium featuring the Deputy Vice Chancellor Education and all three Fellows. Internally competitive awards $35,000
Appointments and Affiliations
- 2024 Education University of Hong Kong Distinguished Visiting Professor (May). Fully-funded and awarded by invitation only. Awarded to four international academics with a distinguished research profile per year (Keynote address on young children in digital society; two seminars; mentoring academic staff in writing for publication)
- 2020 – ongoing Digital Foundations(Research Centre on Digital Data and Assessment in Education) Program Director
- 2020 – 2027 Australian Research Council (ARC) Centre of Excellence for the Digital Child Associate Investigator (investigating digital play-pedagogies in the early years)
- 2020 – 2022 Playgroup Australia Co-chair (with Dr Karen McLean) National Advisory Group (developing Australia’s first Playgroup Declaration informing policy, practice, and research in playgroup provision)
- 2019 – 2020 Office of eSafety Commissioner Expert Advisor, Early Years Online Safety program (informing national design and development of resources for children, families and educators concerning cyber-safety for children aged birth to five years)
- 2019 University of Edinburgh, Institute of Education, Community and Society Visiting Research Scholar (November). Fully-funded by ACU and awarded by University of Edinburgh via external application (one seminar on ECA Statement on Young Children and Digital Technologies; one workshop with HDR candidates)
- 2018 Institute of Education, Hong Kong (HKIED) Invited Visiting Scholar (June). Fully-funded and awarded via internationally competitive application (one seminar on the pedagogical play-framework and one recorded webinar on using the pedagogical play-framework in early childhood STEM education to be used with 300 pre-service teachers in Hong Kong)
- 2016 – 2018 Early Childhood Australia (ECA) Co-chair (with Professor Leon Straker) Digital Policy Group (producing the first national Statement on Young Children and Digital Technologies for best-practice technology use in the early years)
- 2014 – 2016 Department of Education and Training; Education Services Australia Expert Advisor, Early Language Learning Australia program (informing pedagogical design of play-based language learning apps for young children, reaching 85,000 children nationwide)
- 2014 Institute of Education, Hong Kong (HKIED) Invited Visiting Scholar (March). Fully-funded and awarded by HKIED via invited application (two seminars on the scholarship of teaching and integrating online learning with problem-based learning; mentoring of academic staff in the writing for publication from the scholarship of teaching)
- 2009 University of Oxford. Department of Educational Studies Visiting Research Fellowship (August–November). Fully-funded by Monash University and awarded by University of Oxford via external application (Seminars on play-based learning; Seminar on digital play; reading of complete works of Vygotsky with the Oxford Centre for Socio-cultural and Activity Theory Research)
- 2008 University of New England, Faculty of Education Invited Visiting Scholar (April). Fully-funded and awarded by Faculty of Education, University of New England via invited application (Seminar on the concept of ‘teaching-through-assessment’; Course redesign of units of study in the Bachelor of Education, Early Childhood for the integration of online and problem-based learning)
- 2011 – ongoing Digital Education Research @ Monash Research Fellow
Editorial roles
- 2021 – 2023 Australasian Journal of Early Childhood Editor-in-chief (Competitive application). Role: Ensuring publication of high-quality research, supporting increased engagement and publication by First Nations and Indigenous scholars, promoting diversification of methodology in published research, increasing journal citations, assessing manuscripts, and assigning reviewers. Increased IF from 0.4 to 1.8 in first two years of Editorship. Achieved highest IF in the history of the journal
- 2019 – 2020 Australasian Journal of Early Childhood Deputy Editor. Role: Ensuring publication of high-quality research and increasing journal citations
- 2016 – 2019 Australasian Journal of Early Childhood Editorial board. Role: Increasing quality of peer-reviews (and consequent publications) and supporting movement of journal from Early Childhood Australia (ECA) inhouse to commercial publisher
- 2012 – 2015 Asia-Pacific Journal of Teacher Education Co-editor (competitive application). Role: Assessing manuscripts, assigning reviewers, communicating with authors, checking proofs, writing editorials, managing budget, and liaising with host organisation (Australian Teacher Education Association). Increased IF from 0.667 to 0.964
- 2011 – ongoing Journal of Early Childhood Research Editorial board (Invited membership). Role: Peer-reviewing manuscripts and promoting journal in Australasia.
- 2011 – ongoing Early Years: International Journal of Research and Development. Editorial board (Invited membership). Role: Peer-reviewing manuscripts and promoting journal in Australasia
International journal review panels
- Australian Journal of Early Childhood
- British Journal of Educational Technology
- Cambridge Journal of Education
- Computers and Education
- Contemporary Issues in Early Childhood
- Early Years Journal of International Research and Development
- Educational Research Review
- European Early Childhood Education Research Journal
- International Journal of Early Childhood
- International Journal of Play
- Journal of Early Childhood Research
- Teaching and Teacher Educator
- Teaching and Teachers
- Technology, Pedagogy and Education
Grant agency review panels
- Australian Office for Learning and Teaching
- Australian Research Council [DECRA; Discovery; Linkage; Laureate]
- Canadian Social Science and Humanities Research Council
- Ontario Early Career Research awards
Public engagement
