Academy Fellow

Across her 45-year career, Professor Comber has been widely recognised as an eminent educational researcher and delivered invaluable research outcomes across Australia and globally. Her international and national research has included studies that investigated: reengaging youth in learning through filmmaking; place-based and water literacies and learning; socio-material text production; longitudinal inquiry into graduate teachers experiences in low socio-economic status schools; ethical educational leadership; “turn-around” pedagogies; professional development networks; school-to-work literacy and numeracy; middle years literacy; early schooling intervention for improving higher-education success; and re-imagining and re-designing early childhood education.

Professor Comber has an outstanding publication record, including 13 books, 84 book chapters and 90 refereed journal articles. Her work has been cited more than 9625 times with an H-Index of 54 (Google Scholar, 30/09/24). Professor Comber has held 31 externally funded research grants and contracts, including 5 ARC Linkage grants, 3 ARC Discovery grants and 1 ARC Large Grant totalling over $2M. 

Professor Comber was awarded the Australian Association for Educational Research Doctoral Thesis Award in 1997. In 2008, she was recognised as a Distinguished Scholar by the Division of Education, Arts and Social Sciences, UniSA. She served as Honorary Professor at the University of Nottingham from August 2015-July 2018, and as Honorary Professorial Fellow at the University of Wollongong in 2021. She has held 16 Visiting Fellow positions at universities in the US, UK, Canada, Singapore, South Africa, New Zealand and Colombia, reflecting the truly global reach of her research.

Professor Comber has delivered 98 invited keynote lectures, invited seminars and refereed conference papers, including recent lectures in the United States of America, Colombia and Canada. In 2015, she presented the prestigious Radford Lecture at Australian Association for Educational Research Annual Conference, which recognises the outstanding research and leadership of Australian educational researchers.

Professor Comber’s research has been undertaken in partnership with governments, organisations and schools across Australia and internationally, including, New South Wales Department of Education and Training; Education Queensland; Catholic Education Queensland, South Australian Department for Education; Catholic Education Office South Australia; and UNICEF.

Advisory Board ARC Centre of Excellence for the Digital Child, QUT, Q

Advisory Board Education Futures, UniSA, SA 

Advisory Board, Centre for Literacy and Social Justice, Open University, UK

Advisory Board, Teachers and Teaching Research Centre, University of Newcastle, NSW

Emeritus Professor, University of South Australia, April 2023

Order of Australia Medal, January 2022

Honorary Professorial Fellow with the Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Wollongong, May 1, 2018-April 30, 2021.

Distinguished contribution to Research in Educational Leadership Award, SA Branch Australian Council of Educational Leaders. 

Appointed Australian Literacy Educators Association, Principal Fellow, January 2017 -

Appointment as Honorary Professor, School of Education, University of Nottingham, August 2015-July 2018

Radford Lecture, Australian Association for Educational Research Annual Conference, December 2015

International Reading Hall of Fame Member, July 2015

Nomination to the 2008 South Australian Women’s Honour Roll, 2008

Distinguished Scholar 2008, Division of Education, Arts & Social Sciences, UniSA

Life Membership of the Primary English Teaching Association, October 2007

Australian Literacy Educators Association, Inaugural Research Award, July 1999

Australian Association for Educational Research Doctoral Thesis Award, 1997

Canadian Commonwealth Visiting Fellowship Award 1994-1995

1. Hayes, D. Hattam, R. Comber, B. Kerkham, L. Lupton, R. & Thomson, P. 2017, Literacy, leading and learning: beyond pedagogies of poverty, London, Routledge.

2. Comber, B. 2016), Literacy, place and pedagogies of possibility, New York & London, Routledge. 

3. O’Keeffe, L. Clarke, C. McDonald, S & Comber, B. 2023, Mathematics homework and the potential compounding of educational disadvantage. British Journal of Sociology of Education, https://doi.org/10.1080/01425692.2023.2240530.

4. Comber, B. & Hayes, D. 2022, Classroom participation: Teachers’ work as listeners. Journal of Curriculum Studies. DOI: 10.1080/00220272.2022.2134738.

5. Scholes, L. Spina, N. & Comber, B. 2020, Disrupting the “boys don’t read” discourse: Primary school boys who love reading fiction, British Educational Research Journal. https://doi.org/10.1002/berj.3685.