Barbara Comber
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View article: Love it or hate it: Mothers’ Experience with Mathematics Homework
Love it or hate it: Mothers’ Experience with Mathematics Homework Open
Despite efforts to increase gender equity in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) fields, the perception of mathematics as a masculine domain persists, creating barriers for girls and women. This study explores how moth…
View article: Many truths, many knowledges, many forms of reason: Understanding middle‐school student approaches to sources of information on the internet
Many truths, many knowledges, many forms of reason: Understanding middle‐school student approaches to sources of information on the internet Open
Sourcing information related to socio‐scientific issues requires sophisticated literacies to read and evaluate conflicting accounts often signified by disagreement among experts, multiple solutions or misinformation. Much of the previous w…
View article: Mathematics homework and the potential compounding of educational disadvantage
Mathematics homework and the potential compounding of educational disadvantage Open
Parental involvement in schooling has been shown to have a positive impact on children’s educational outcomes. With changing mathematics curricula and pedagogical approaches as a context, we explore how mathematical dispositions emerge thr…
View article: An interview with Professor Barbara Comber
An interview with Professor Barbara Comber Open
As part of this special issue on ‘Literacy for social justice’, and at this moment of post‐pandemic transitions in education, we invited Professor Barbara Comber to reflect on the needs for and trends in critical literacy education, both i…
View article: Conceptualising Early Career Teachers’ Agency and Accounts of Social Action in Disadvantaged Schools
Conceptualising Early Career Teachers’ Agency and Accounts of Social Action in Disadvantaged Schools Open
This article examines the accounts of actions undertaken by Early Career Teachers (ECTs) recently graduated from a social justice-oriented Initial Teacher Education (ITE) program and employed in complex school settings with high levels of …
View article: Disrupting the 'boys don't read' discourse: Primary school boys who <i>love</i> reading fiction
Disrupting the 'boys don't read' discourse: Primary school boys who <i>love</i> reading fiction Open
This article disrupts dominant discourses around boys and reading that often homogenise young males as reluctant, disengaged and, at times, adversarial readers. Rather than essentialising boys, we argue there is a need for a more sophistic…
View article: Benefits of turnaround programs for disadvantaged youth: Reframing accountabilities
Benefits of turnaround programs for disadvantaged youth: Reframing accountabilities Open
Hundreds of programs around Australia support young people to participate in formal and nonformal learning in order to disrupt cycles of disadvantage. They include accredited alternative schools as well as out-of-school programs which, oft…
View article: Mobilising Critical Literacies: Text Production in Children’s Hands
Mobilising Critical Literacies: Text Production in Children’s Hands Open
The structures, procedures and relationships within schools both constrain and enable the ways that children and teachers can engage with the everyday ‘business’ of literacy learning. In schools and classrooms, the resources available to c…
View article: Community-Based Approaches to Foreign Language Education
Community-Based Approaches to Foreign Language Education Open
Learning how to recognise and make student and community assets the subject of curriculum is at the core of teachers’ designs and enactments of critical and inclusive pedagogies. However, this era of globalisation and standardisation, wher…
View article: Futures in primary science education – connecting students to place and ecojustice
Futures in primary science education – connecting students to place and ecojustice Open
After providing a background to futures thinking in science, and exploring the literature around transdisciplinary approaches to curriculum, we present a futures pedagogy. We detail case studies from a year-long professional learning actio…
View article: Understanding children’s perspectives of classroom writing practices through drawings
Understanding children’s perspectives of classroom writing practices through drawings Open
Examining how young children learn to write is increasingly important as global society moves further towards a knowledge economy, where the production of texts of various kinds is an increasingly ubiquitous practice in everyday life and w…
View article: ‘It’s not about punitive’: exploring how early-career teachers in high-poverty schools respond to critical incidents
‘It’s not about punitive’: exploring how early-career teachers in high-poverty schools respond to critical incidents Open
This article explores how early-career teachers working in high-poverty schools in Australia account for their decision-making during critical classroom incidents. Classroom management solutions are problematized by investigating how two t…
View article: Toward a Sociomaterial Understanding of Writing Experiences Incorporating Digital Technology in an Early Childhood Classroom
Toward a Sociomaterial Understanding of Writing Experiences Incorporating Digital Technology in an Early Childhood Classroom Open
This article examines the resources, tools, and opportunities children enact as they engage with teacher-devised writing experiences within their classroom space. We begin with discussion about classroom writing time from the perspective o…
View article: Literacy and Imagination: Finding Space in a Crowded Curriculum
Literacy and Imagination: Finding Space in a Crowded Curriculum Open
Digital literacies abound in playing a foundational role in the rhythm and pattern of our lives, yet debates continue about how to harness them to teach and learn literacy. In an effort to humanize digital literacies, this department colum…
View article: Literacy, Leading and Learning: Beyond Pedagogies of Poverty
Literacy, Leading and Learning: Beyond Pedagogies of Poverty Open
How might educational leaders and teachers improve literacy achievement in schools serving communities experiencing high levels of poverty? This question is the focus of this book. Drawing on long-term case studies of four primary schools …
View article: The Politics of Quality Teacher Discourses: Implications for Pre-service Teachers in High Poverty Schools
The Politics of Quality Teacher Discourses: Implications for Pre-service Teachers in High Poverty Schools Open
Improving the quality of education for young people growing up in high poverty and culturally diverse communities is an escalating problem in affluent nations with increasing gaps between the wealthy and the poor. Improving the quality of …
View article: The relevance of composing: Children's spaces for social agency
The relevance of composing: Children's spaces for social agency Open
This chapter addresses the relevance of composing for young children in creating spaces for social agency. It begins with a working definition of agency, outlines forms of agency and what might constrain it. Referring to case studies of pa…
View article: Literacy Learning: Designing and Enacting Inclusive Pedagogical Practices in Classrooms
Literacy Learning: Designing and Enacting Inclusive Pedagogical Practices in Classrooms Open
In this chapter we detail our understandings of inclusive pedagogical practices that enable all students to assemble complex literate repertoires. We discuss generative concepts from international related literature (e.g. Au, Dyson, Janks,…
View article: Journal of Sociology and Social Welfare Vol. 42 No. 2 (June 2015)
Journal of Sociology and Social Welfare Vol. 42 No. 2 (June 2015) Open
INTRODUCTION TO THE SPECIAL ISSUE: NEW SCHOLARSHIP IN INSTITUTIONAL ETHNOGRAPHY Paul C. Luken and Suzanne Vaughan