Judith Maree Duncan (1963 – 26 March 2015) was a New Zealand academic, and was a full professor at the University of Canterbury, specialising in early childhood education.

[1] During her time as a teacher, the National government brought in bulk funding of kindergartens, which led to cutbacks in resourcing.

The publicity from the protests led to the end of Duncan's teaching career, and precipitated her move into academia.

[2][1] Duncan completed a PhD titled Restructuring lives: kindergarten teachers and the education reforms 1984–1996 at the University of Otago in 2001, supervised by Mark Olssen and Peter Rich.

At her memorial service, collaborator Professor Atushi Nanakida of the University of Hiroshima paid tribute to Duncan by presenting a copy of her latest book in Japanese.