Dr Peter Walker has worked in both general education and special school settings for over 20 years, both in South Australia and New South Wales. Following five years as a school principal, Peter returned to Adelaide to teach in both undergraduate and postgraduate programs at the School of Education, Flinders University. In 2016 Peter presented a Ted Talk at Tedx Adelaide on the theme of 'inclusive education' and in 2018 he was invited to speak at the Adelaide Festival of Ideas. He is the past national president of the Australian Association of Special Education (AASE) and current South Australian president of AASE. His current research interests include spatial research for inclusion.
Peter’s educational research has focused on inclusive education. His educational doctorate explored the “Super Schools” reform in South Australia, which saw the co-location of special schools alongside large mainstream settings. Peter’s research utilized Soja’s ThirdSpace approach to consider whether new spatial designs for special schools appeared likely to generate new connections and meaningful relationships between schools. This research has been published in multiple journals and presented nationally, including at the Australian Association of Special Education conference and the Inclusive Education Summit. Peter is co-editor of the book ‘Inclusive Education is a right, right?’ published by Brill.
