Bec Neill

Research Interests

Early Childhood Education Cultural responsiveness and working with Pacific Peoples communities education Embedding Pacific Peoples knowledges, histories, culture, country, perspectives and ethics in education Pacific Peoples early childhood education Equity and access to education Social ethics Poverty, inclusivity and wellbeing Rural Sociology Sociological Methodology and Research Methods Systems Theory Pacific Peoples Information and Knowledge Systems

Teaching Strengths

Culturally Responsive Pedagogies
Integrated Teaching and Personalised Learning
Child Protection Curriculum and Educator Practice
Digital Technologies and Pedagogies
ICT & Education Capstone Project Mentoring

Dr Bec Neill

Lecturer

School of Education

College of Education, Behavioural and Social Sciences

Eligible to supervise Masters and PhD (as Co-Supervisor) - email supervisor to discuss availability.

Dr Bec Neill is an academic specialising in early childhood education, relational and culturally responsive pedagogy, digital equity, and the schooling experiences of children and families experiencing disadvantage. Her work centres on creating socially just learning environments in which children and pre-service teachers are recognised as capable, agentic participants within complex socio-cultural education systems.
 
She has led major program initiatives—including the rapid design and launch of UniSA’s Bachelor of Early Childhood (Birth–5) intial-teacher-education program—and contributes to institutional governance through her role as Deputy Chair of the Adelaide University Human Research Ethics Committee.
 
Dr Neill’s scholarship focuses on the nexus of learning, wellbeing, and equity. Her publications span multilingual literacy, early years wellbeing, regional and hyper-diverse schooling, culturally responsive digital practice, and community-led educational partnerships across Australia and the Pacific. Her research has informed state policy, supported national program reform, and received international recognition, including a 2025 UNESCO policy citation and multiple publication excellence awards.
 
Through her teaching, leadership, and engagement, Dr Neill advances high-quality, inclusive education for children, educators and communities.

Dr Neill’s research investigates how education systems can better support children, families and communities experiencing disadvantage, cultural marginalisation and systemic inequity. Her scholarship focuses on multilingual literacy practices, wellbeing in early childhood, community-led partnerships, and culturally sustaining pedagogies across Australia and the Pacific.

Her research has shaped policy, underpinned program reform, and informed state and national education sectors. Notably, her co-authored 2024 article on multilingual children’s social and emotional development was cited in UNESCO’s Languages Matter (2025) global policy guidance, reflecting international uptake of her work.

She has co-led projects on wellbeing transitions, early years mathematics in regional schools, homeless children’s experiences of emergency housing, and international service-learning to enhance initial-teacher-education students' culturally responsive teaching practice. Her methods foreground participatory, dialogic and strengths-based approaches, are framed by holistic-systems and indigenist ontologies and epistemologies, and privilege community-led research design.

Date Position Institution name
2024 - 2025 Program Director, Early Childhood Education Programs University of South Australia
2023 - 2025 Deputy Chair, University Human Research Ethics Committee University of South Australia
2021 - 2025 Lecturer, Integrated Vocational and Digital Education University of South Australia
2021 - 2024 Research Ethics Advisor University of South Australia
2018 - 2020 Research Fellow/Teaching Staff University of South Australia
2017 - 2017 Consultant: Strategic Planning and Connected Beginnings Program Start-up Department for Education
2013 - 2017 Research Associate/Tutor University of South Australia
2006 - 2013 Consultant: Strategic Planning, Facilitation of Transition to Federal Curriculum and Regulation, Staff Professional Development . TAFE SA
2006 - 2010 Consultant: Management Information Systems Strategy, Analysis and Acquisition SA Government Justice Portfolio
2006 - 2007 Consultant: Business Process Improvement and Information and Process Analysis Professional Development University of South Australia
1999 - 2007 Course Coordinator, Tutor, Industry Project Supervisor, & PhD Candidate University of South Australia
1992 - 1998 Project Manager, Business Analyst, System Designer and Developer FH Faulding & Co. Limited

Language Competency
English Can read, write, speak, understand spoken and peer review

Date Institution name Country Title
University of South Australia Australia Doctor of Philosophy
University of South Australia Australia Bachelor

Year Citation
2024 MacGill, B. M., Jattan, S., Lal, D., Narain, B., Neill, B., Nayaca, T., . . . Camaitoga, U. (2024). Ethics of care: pedagogical encounters from Oceania. Qualitative Research Journal, 24(1), 39-48.
DOI Scopus1 WoS1
2024 McInnes, E., Whitington, V., Neill, B., & Farndale, A. (2024). Professional learning supporting multilingual children's social and emotional development in diverse Australian early childhood education and care settings. Early Childhood Education Journal, 53(3), 779-790.
DOI Scopus1 WoS1
2023 Brass, T., Kennedy, J. P., Gabriel, F., Neill, B., Devis, D., & Leonard, S. N. (2023). Learning analytics for lifelong career development: a framework to support sustainable formative assessment and self-reflection in programs developing career self-efficacy. Frontiers in Artificial Intelligence, 6(1173099), 10 pages.
DOI Scopus7 WoS6 Europe PMC1
2022 Jarldorn, M., Neill, B., & Fisk, L. (2022). The complexities of accessing and keeping housing for formerly incarcerated women in South Australia. Parity, 35(1), 40-41.
2022 Wrench, A., Neill, B., & Diamond, A. (2022). International service-learning: possibilities for developing intercultural competence and culturally responsive pedagogies. Asia-Pacific Journal of Teacher Education, 50(2), 215-228.
DOI Scopus7 WoS3
2022 Harris, P., Camaitoga, U., Brock, C., Diamond, A., McInnes, E., & Neill, B. (2022). Co-creating multilingual books with children to foster their literacies. The Reading Teacher, 75(5), 555-565.
DOI Scopus6 WoS5
2021 McInnes, E., Harris, P., Neill, B., Diamond, A., Brock, C., & Camaitoga, U. (2021). Supporting preschool age children's wellbeing through home-based literacy development in three Fijian communities. New Zealand International Research in Early Childhood Education Journal, 23(2), 36-51.
2020 Harris, P., Brock, C. H., McInnes, E., Diamond, A., Neill, B., Carter, J., & Giannakis, E. (2020). Co-constructing culturally sustaining practices for fostering young children's literacy in Fiji. Journal of Research in Childhood Education, 34(1), 127-152.
DOI Scopus5 WoS3

Year Citation
2023 Neill, B. (2023). Pre-enchanting young people in learning and employment: building safe-relations for diverse students. In D. Price, B. MacGill, & J. Cater (Eds.), Source details - Title: Arts-based Practices with Young People at the Edge (pp. 193-224). Switzerland: Palgrave Macmillan.
DOI
2023 Neill, B. (2023). Pacific digital learners and culturally responsive digital education: a critical systems synthesis of Pacific practice. In L. -I. Rigney (Ed.), Source details - Title: Global Perspectives and New Challenges in Culturally Responsive Pedagogies: Super-diversity and Teaching Practice (pp. 176-196). UK: Routledge.
DOI
2023 Harris, P., Camaitoga, U., Krishna, M., Brock, C., McInnes, E., Diamond, A., & Neill, B. (2023). Co-constructing opportunities for shared, collective literacies learning in communities in Fiji. In C. Brock, B. Exley, & L. -I. Rigney (Eds.), Source details - Title: International Perspectives on Literacies, Diversities, and Opportunities for Learning: Critical Conversations (pp. 212-227). UK: Routledge.
DOI
2021 Harris, P., Diamond, A., Neill, B., McInnes, E., Brock, C., & Camaitoga, U. (2021). Fostering young children's literacy in home and community settings: a dialogic approach to developing culturally relevant and sustaining practices. In L. A. Henry, & N. A. Stahl (Eds.), Source details - Title: Literacy Across the Community: Research: Research, Praxis, and Trends (pp. 73-88). UK: Routledge.
DOI
2020 McInnes, E., Whitington, V., Diamond, A., & Neill, B. (2020). Embedding wellbeing and creating community in classrooms - 2nd edition. In K. Brettig (Ed.), Source details - Title: Building Stronger Communities with Children and Families (2nd ed. ed., pp. 123-149). UK: Cambridge Scholars Publishing.
2020 Harris, P., Brock, C., McInnes, E., Neill, B., Diamond, A., Carter, J., . . . Giannakis, E. (2020). In Wavu: Collaborating with Children and Families in a Culturally Diverse Community in an Urban Setting. In International Perspectives on Early Childhood Education and Development (Vol. 31, pp. 243-268). Springer Singapore.
DOI
2020 Harris, P., Brock, C., McInnes, E., Neill, B., Diamond, A., Carter, J., . . . Giannakis, E. (2020). Language and Literacy Learning in Multilingual Settings. In International Perspectives on Early Childhood Education and Development (Vol. 31, pp. 41-75). Springer Singapore.
DOI Scopus2
2020 Harris, P., Brock, C., McInnes, E., Neill, B., Diamond, A., Carter, J., . . . Giannakis, E. (2020). On Effective Community Capacity Development and Sustainability. In International Perspectives on Early Childhood Education and Development (Vol. 31, pp. 305-323). Springer Singapore.
DOI
2020 Harris, P., Brock, C., McInnes, E., Neill, B., Diamond, A., Carter, J., . . . Giannakis, E. (2020). Introduction – In Children’s Words. In International Perspectives on Early Childhood Education and Development (Vol. 31, pp. 1-9). Springer Singapore.
DOI
2020 Harris, P., Brock, C., McInnes, E., Neill, B., Diamond, A., Carter, J., . . . Giannakis, E. (2020). Exploring Stakeholders’ Perspectives of Young Children’s Multilingual Literacy. In International Perspectives on Early Childhood Education and Development (Vol. 31, pp. 139-168). Springer Singapore.
DOI
2020 Harris, P., Brock, C., McInnes, E., Neill, B., Diamond, A., Carter, J., . . . Giannakis, E. (2020). Fostering Children’s Multilingual Literacy in Home and Community Settings. In International Perspectives on Early Childhood Education and Development (Vol. 31, pp. 269-303). Springer Singapore.
DOI Scopus1
2020 Harris, P., Brock, C., McInnes, E., Neill, B., Diamond, A., Carter, J., . . . Giannakis, E. (2020). In Dovubaravi: Collaborating with Children and Families in an Indo-Fijian Rural Community. In International Perspectives on Early Childhood Education and Development (Vol. 31, pp. 209-242). Springer Singapore.
DOI Scopus1
2020 Harris, P., Brock, C., McInnes, E., Neill, B., Diamond, A., Carter, J., . . . Giannakis, E. (2020). In Duavata: Collaborating with Children and Families in an Indigenous Fijian Semi-Rural Community. In International Perspectives on Early Childhood Education and Development (Vol. 31, pp. 169-208). Springer Singapore.
DOI
2020 Harris, P., Brock, C., McInnes, E., Neill, B., Diamond, A., Carter, J., . . . Giannakis, E. (2020). Conducting Research as Transformative Encounter in Cross-Cultural Collaborations. In International Perspectives on Early Childhood Education and Development (Vol. 31, pp. 99-138). Springer Singapore.
DOI
2020 Harris, P., Brock, C., McInnes, E., Neill, B., Diamond, A., Carter, J., . . . Giannakis, E. (2020). Conceptualising Language, Literacy and Learning as Sociocultural Practices. In International Perspectives on Early Childhood Education and Development (Vol. 31, pp. 77-97). Springer Singapore.
DOI
2020 Harris, P., Brock, C., McInnes, E., Neill, B., Diamond, A., Carter, J., . . . Giannakis, E. (2020). In Fiji. In International Perspectives on Early Childhood Education and Development (Vol. 31, pp. 11-39). Springer Singapore.
DOI Scopus1
2018 Harris, P., Brock, C., Diamond, A., McInnes, E., Neill, B., Camaitoga, U., & Krishna, M. (2018). "You, us and a bus": exploring analysis as cross-cultural collaboration in Fiji. In S. Akpovo, M. J. Moran, & R. Brookshire (Eds.), Source details - Title: Collaborative cross-cultural research methodologies in early care and education contexts (pp. 169-186). US: Routledge.
DOI Scopus3

Year Citation
2024 Quane, K., & Neill, B. (2024). Opportunities for hyper-diverse students to communicate their mathematical thinking in multi-year classes. In Surfing the waves of mathematics education. Proceedings of the 46th annual conference of the Mathematics Education Research Group of Australasia (pp. 62-65). Australia: The Mathematics Education Research Group of Australasia.
2019 McInnes, E., Whitington, V., & Neill, B. (2019). A 'classroom as community' approach to supporting student well-being and reducing bullying in primary schools. In 9th International Conference The Future of Education proceedings (pp. 1-5). Italy: Filodiritto.
2019 Mcinnes, E., Whitington, V., & Neill, B. (2019). A 'Classroom as Community' Approach to Supporting Student Well-Being and Reducing Bullying in Primary Schools. In 9TH INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE THE FUTURE OF EDUCATION (pp. 226-231). ITALY, Florence: FILODIRITTO PUBLISHER.
2005 Neill, B., & Thorne, K. (2005). Rediscovering dependency and discovering technological contempt : mothering with disembodied information and communication technologies. In Critical Management Studies Proceedings 2005: 4th International Critical Management Studies Conference. New Zealand: Waikato Management School, University of Waikato.
2001 Metcalfe, M. A., Neill, B., & Marriott, P. J. (2001). Appropriate technology for oral knowledge sharing. In Knowledge Management for Information Communities (pp. 95-109). Australia: Australian Scholarly Publishing.
2001 Neill, B. (2001). Metaphor analysis for improved information systems design. In J. Gross (Ed.), ICIS 2001 Proceedings (pp. 431-436). wysiwyg://41/http:aisel.isworld.org/proceedings/ICIS/2001/: Association for Information Systems.
2001 Grant, S. L., & Neill, B. (2001). Indigenous community information preferences: an interpretive research study. In G. Finnie, D. Cecez-Kecmanovic, & B. Lo (Eds.), Proceedings of the 12th Australasian Conference on Information Systems. http://infotech.scu.edu.au/ACIS2001/Proceedings: Southern Cross University.
2000 Neill, B. (2000). Picturing the Metaphors of an Information System. In 11th ACIS Doctoral Consortium - Conference on Information Systems (pp. 17-25). Australia: ACIS.

Year Citation
- McInnes, E., Whitington, V., & Neill, B. (n.d.). The Wellbeing Classroom as a Whole School Approach.
DOI

Since 2018, in colloboration with research colleagues, Bec has secured over $217,000 in research income across Category 1 and Category 3 funding schemes, to undertake projects in partnership with community, government, and early childhood organisations. In addition, she has secured $78,000 of federal government funding to engage Australian undergraduate students in intercultural study tours in the Asia-Pacific.

Research funding partners include:

  •  Commonwealth Department of Education and Training — $41,118,
  • North West Adelaide Communitues for Children — $89,336,
  • The Salvation Army (SA) Trust — $61,850,
  • Early Childhood Australia (SA) — $19,997,
  • Commonwealth Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, $78,000, and
  • SA Council of Social Services — $5,000. 

Bec is a highly regarded teacher whose practice is grounded in relational, culturally responsive and research-informed pedagogy. She has taught across early childhood, digital technologies, integrated learning in intial teacher education programs, and a range of courses in postgraduate education research programs.

Her curriculum design centres the experience of diverse students and connections to real-world learning, integrating scholarship on multilingual learners, regional schooling, wellbeing, trauma-responsive practice, and digital equity. These designs have been commended by formal peer review for their integration of research and industry knowledge , and creation of safe spaces for diverse learners. 

Students describe her teaching as transformative, supportive and inclusive, noting her accessibility, fairness, academic guidance and relational care.

Date Role Research Topic Program Degree Type Student Load Student Name
2025 Co-Supervisor The curious case of small schools - Master Part Time Mrs Amy Louise Lloyd
2025 Co-Supervisor In what ways do culturally relevant resources support Young Children's Language and Literacy Development? Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Part Time Alessandra Perna
2022 Co-Supervisor Exploring the influencers and influences on middle school students career self-efficacy: a theory of change approach Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Full Time Miss Tamishka Brass
2021 Co-Supervisor An investigation of the impact of STEMfooty: an integrated curriculum to aid motivation, self-regulation and academic performance in Mathematics and Science subjects - Doctorate Part Time Ms Katie Sue Bell

Date Role Board name Institution name Country
2017 - 2020 Treasurer Working Women's Centre of South Australia Management Committee Working Women's Centre of South Australia Australia

Date Title Engagement Type Institution Country
2025 - ongoing Member: Salisbury Early Years Collective Public Community Engagement Salisbury Communities for Children Australia

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