Rate My Professor Kathy Cologon

Dr Kathy Cologon is a Senior Lecturer in Inclusive Education at the Department of Educational Studies, Macquarie University. With extensive experience in the field, her research specializations include inclusive education practices, disability studies, and early childhood education. She focuses on critical areas such as family perspectives on inclusion, human rights in education, representations of disability in children's literature, and communication strategies like Key Word Sign to enhance participation for children with disability.

Cologon has produced a substantial body of scholarly work, including editing the anthology Inclusive education in the early years: right from the start (Oxford University Press, 2014). Key publications encompass Inclusion in education: Towards equality for students with disability (2013), Towards inclusive education: A necessary process of transformation (2019), Is inclusive education really for everyone? Family stories of children and young people labelled with ‘severe and multiple’ or ‘profound’ ‘disabilities’ (2022), Increasing inclusion in early childhood: Key Word Sign as a communication partner intervention with Zinnia Mevawalla (2018), Child participation and disaster risk reduction with Yany Lopez, Jacqueline Hayden, and Fay Hadley (2012), and Do teachers’ years of experience make a difference in the quality of teaching? with Linda J. Graham, Sonia L.J. White, and Robert C. Pianta (2020). She has also authored chapters such as Growing up with 'difference': inclusive education and the portrayal of characters who experience disability in children's literature (2013), ‘Not just being accepted, but embraced’: family perspectives on inclusion (2014), and Ableism, disablism and the early years (2014). Recent outputs include "But Marley can't play up here!" Children designing inclusive and sustainable playspaces through practitioner research (2024) and contributions to A study on the effectiveness of the School Readiness Program – Timor-Leste: final report (2025).

Cologon’s research promotes social relational understandings of disability, anti-oppressive pedagogies, and universal design for learning. She has supervised theses on early childhood inclusion, toys representing impairment, and practical applications of disability models, influencing academic discourse and educational practices.