Waves of Wisdom 2026 conference - Southern Cross University

Published: 3 July 2026

Southern Cross University convened the Waves of Wisdom Conference to bring researchers and educators together on the questions shaping early childhood education.

The questions early childhood education needs to answer

Early childhood education and care are navigating a period of significant pressure. Workforce challenges, rapid digital transformation, and gaps in guidance for educators working with diverse children and families are reshaping what the sector needs to know and do.

Southern Cross University's Early Years Research Lab convened the Waves of Wisdom Conference on the Gold Coast - an annual gathering of researchers, educators, and practitioners from across Australia - to examine these challenges together and share what the evidence is showing.

What the sector is grappling with

Some of the most pressing challenges in early childhood education sit at the intersection of practice and policy, where guidance has lagged behind need.

Lecturer and Researcher in Early Childhood Education at Southern Cross University, Nicky Thompson has been examining what happens to professional thinking when generative AI begins to take over tasks that were once the work of educators themselves.

"When technology begins to write educators' reflections, we need to ask what happens to the professional thinking that reflection is meant to develop," Nicky said.

"The question is whether early childhood educators will use generative AI with the critical and ethical infrastructure in place."

Image of Dr Chris Speldewinde, Lecturer at the Faculty of Education

The Waves of Wisdom conference drew together researchers from across the country working on the questions the sector has yet to fully resolve.

Dr Cris Townley, Research Fellow, Transforming Early Education And Child Health Research Centre (TeEACH), Western Sydney University, has been examining how early childhood settings support gender diverse and trans children, finding that acknowledgement of family and gender diversity in principle has yet to translate into embedded, intentional practice.

"There is still little guidance for early childhood educators in supporting gender diverse and trans children and LGBT headed families," Dr Townley said.

"Particularly, educators lack the necessary knowledge regarding language, the relevant definitions, and the law to know how to intentionally bring this work into programming."

“When technology begins to write educators' reflections, we need to ask what happens to the professional thinking that reflection is meant to develop. The question is whether early childhood educators will use generative AI with the critical and ethical infrastructure in place.”

Workforce, professionalism, and the value of complexity

Alongside questions of content and curriculum, researchers are examining what it means to work as an early childhood professional in a sector that has often been undervalued.

Southern Cross University researcher and lecturer in Early Childhood Education, Lucia Stacchiotti presented work focused on relationality of spaces, the ability to notice and pause through micro-moments.

Professor Andrea Nolan, Professor of Early Childhood Education, School of Education, Deakin University argued that narrow definitions of professionalism have reduced complex, relational work to measurable outputs.

"We need to push back against narrowly formed conceptions of professionalism and performativity agendas," Professor Nolan said.

"These agendas have instrumentalised, compartmentalised and oversimplified the nature of early childhood and early childhood work."

Waves of Wisdom Conference at the Gold Coast campus

Distinguished Professor Susan Danby, Professor in the School of Early Childhood and Inclusive Education, Queensland University of Technology (QUT) and Director of the ARC Centre of Excellence for the Digital Child, turned attention to children's digital wellbeing and digital rights, noting that Australia's investment in quality children's television has no equivalent online, and that the same societal standards and principles need to apply to children's internet experiences, including greater cultural and financial investment for high quality and accessible internet experiences for young children.

"We need high quality children's internet experiences through societal and industry standards," Professor Danby said. She called for digital policy grounded in children’s perspectives to better shape their digital worlds. “It is too easy to feel paralysed by the complexity of children’s digital worlds. But respectful engagement with children on issues that affect them is a vital first step.”

Gathering to think together

The Waves of Wisdom Conference exists because impactful thinking can happen when people working on the same problems are in the same room. Southern Cross University's Early Years Research Lab will convene the conference again in 2027. Details will be available through the Waves of Wisdom Conference website in the coming months.