Marie Hammer

Marie Hammer is a Senior Lecturer in Early Childhood Education at Monash University’s School of Educational Psychology & Counselling. With a career spanning decades, she has held leadership roles including Early Childhood Course Leader for 5 years, President of the Kindergarten Teachers Association of Victoria (5 years), and member of the ECA Victorian Branch Qualifications Approval committee until 2011. Her work contributes to UN Sustainable Development Goals related to quality education and wellbeing.

Her research focuses on:

• Social and emotional development of young children
• Impacts of trauma, abuse, and neglect
• Teachers’ legal responsibilities
• Professionalism in early childhood education
• Cultural-historical applications to teaching (e.g., Vygotsky’s theories)
• Children’s social competence
• Educator wellbeing initiatives

The 15 most recent publications highlight trends in:

• Using dialectic pedagogies for inclusion
• Advancing wellbeing through Delphi studies
• Exploring perezhivanie (emotional experiences) in institutional settings
• Developing digital inclusion frameworks
• Creating conditions for peer relationships
• Systematic reviews of teacher wellbeing programs
• Transition challenges in bi-cultural contexts

Scientific awards include the Inter-Faculty Transformation Seeding Grant (2016). She actively contributes to consultancies and public seminars like Educator Care: Moving Beyond Self Care (2021), and has led projects including the Be You Pre-service Educator Capacity Building initiative and Respectful Relationships Professional Learning program. Her work spans collaborations in Australia, Russia, and China.