Barbara Comber

Barbara Comber is an Adjunct Professor at the University of South Australia (UniSA), affiliated with UniSA Education Futures. Her work focuses on literacy education, particularly in disadvantaged communities, equity in education, and spatial approaches to learning. She has contributed to over 15 peer-reviewed articles and edited books, advocating for pedagogies that challenge deficit discourses and empower marginalized students.

Comber’s research emphasizes the interplay between literacy, poverty, and schooling, with a focus on how spatial and sociomaterial factors shape learning. She has led projects exploring literacy assessment policies, teacher workloads, and the role of critical literacies in fostering social justice. Her collaborations include international studies on global literacies and participatory research with children.

Key publications include International Handbook of Research on Children’s Literacy (2013) and Literacy, Leading and Learning (2017), which critique educational inequities and propose alternative pedagogical strategies. Comber has secured grants such as ARC DP0986449 and contributes to policy discussions on literacy standards and high-stakes testing.