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Associate Professor Laura Scholes

Associate Professor, Gender and Literacy in the Digital Age Educational Semiotics in English and Literacy Pedagogy

Areas of expertise: Fields of educational expertise; Reading and digital media; Boyhood, masculinities and reading; Evaluative reading and sourcing in the digital age; Epistemic cognition for critical reading; Masculinities and schooling; Reading and social disadvantage; Expertise in qualitative, quantitative and mixed research design methodologies; Survey design and analysis; Interview research design and analysis; Large scale longitudinal mixed method design; Stimulated recall interview methods; Scenario based interview methods; Ethnography – early childhood, primary and middle school settings

ORCID ID: 0000-0002-8849-2825

Phone: +61 07 3861 6177

Email: laura.scholes@acu.edu.au

Location: ACU Brisbane Campus

Laura Scholes is an Associate Professor researching Gender and Literacy in the Digital Age at the Institute for Learning Sciences and Teacher Education, ACU, Brisbane. Her research contributes to gaps in knowledge about literacy with a focus on gender and literacy, reading in the digital age, the development of critical thinking, and student learning in changing social contexts.

Implementing mixed method approaches to answer critical questions in education she draws on theories of masculinity, media stusdies, social justice frameworks, place-based theory, and epistemic cognition. A/Professor Scholes has contributed to over 90 scholarly works, including five books. Her sole-authored 2018 book Boys, masculinities and reading: Gender identity and literacy as social practice, was published by Routledge. Her most recent book is titled Boyhood in the Digital Age and is due in 2025. She has published in high quality journals including Teaching and Teacher Education, Learning, Media and Technology, Review of Educational Research, Cambridge Journal of Education, British Educational Research Journal, International Journal of Educational Research, Research in Reading Research, British Journal of Sociology of Education, and Critical Studies in Education.

A/Professor Laura Scholes was previously awarded a prestigious 3-year Australian Research Council, Discovery Early Career Research Award (DECRA DE 170100990) that funded a project to investigate to how to challenge masculinities associated with boys’ failure in reading. As part of this program of research she implemented mixed methods to identify the multiplicity of influences on boys' masculine reading identities and critical pedagogies to improve disadvantaged boys' reading outcomes. A/Professor Scholes has also led funded research projects examining student sourcing of information online, boys’ and girls’ experiences of reading in middle school science classrooms, the influence of teaching pedagogies on literate identities, children’s development of critical thinking, and futures focused schooling to foster literacies for the digital age.

A/Professor Laura Scholes is currently Lead Investigator on Australian Research Council funded project (ARC LP230200003, 2025-2027), Utilising digital texts to foster volitional, proficient readers in Australian schools. As part of this program of research she is working with schools to implement mixed methods to identify how to enrich teacher pedagogies to foster both volitional reading and reading proficiencies for boys. She is also a Chief Investigator on an Australian Research Council Discovery project (ARC DP250100105, 202502027), Critical pedagogies for AI and XR literacies.  

A/Professor Laura Scholes serves as a research grant assessor for the Australian Research Council (ARC), was recently past co-president of an American Education Research Association (AERA) SIG, and has held editorial positions on the International Journal of Educational Research, Language and Education, Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, and Frontiers in Developmental Psychology and Australian Journal of Language and Literacy. She also maintains a strong public voice translating educational research for impact through national radio, news and social media, in Australia and internationally including The Conversation, Financial Review and teaching practitioner outlets.

Curriculum Vitae

Select publications

Books (Select only)

• Scholes, L., Stahl, G., & McDonald., S. (2025). Boyhood in the Digital Age, Palgrave Macmillan.
• Mills, K., Unsworth, L. & Scholes, L. (in press 2022). Literacy for digital futures: Mind, body, text. New York, NY:  Routledge. 
• Scholes, L. (2018). Boys, masculinities and reading: Gender identity and literacy as social practice. Critical studies in gender and sexuality in education series. New York, NY: Routledge.

Book Chapters (select only)

• Scholes, L., Pink, E., & McDonald, S. (2025). Girls and boys as readers: Challenging binary beliefs. In Reading for pleasure: International perspectives (pp. 16–29). Routledge.
• Scholes, L. (2022). Critically evaluating multiple sources for digital futures. In Mills, Unsworth & Scholes, Literacy for digital futures: Mind, body, text. New York, New York: Routledge. http://doi.org/10.4324/9781003137368-4
• Scholes, L. (2022). Why video gaming is an important digital literacy practice. In Mills, Unsworth & Scholes, Literacy for digital futures: Mind, body, text. New York, New York: Routledge. http://doi.org/10.4324/9781003137368-5

Journal articles (select only)

• Scholes, L., McDonald, S., Stahl, G., & Comber, B. (2024). Many truths, many knowledges, many forms of reason: Understanding middle‐school student approaches to sources of information on the internet. British Educational Research Journal, 50(1), 53–72. https://bera-journals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdfdirect/10.1002/berj.3909
• Cremin, T., & Scholes, L. (2024). Reading for pleasure: scrutinising the evidence base–benefits, tensions and recommendations. Language and Education, 38(4), 537–559. https://doi.org/10.1080/09500782.2024.2324948.
• Stahl, G., Asplund, S. & Scholes, L. (2024). Investigating the role of identity versatility in the discursive production of working-class boyhood, learner identities and educational engagement. Review of Education, Pedagogy, and Cultural Studies. https://doi.org/10.1080/10714413.2024.2326391 Open Access.
• Scholes, L. (2023). Reading for digital futures: a lens to consider social justice issues in student literacy experiences in the digital age. Cambridge Journal of Education, 54(1), 71–88. https://doi.org/10.1080/0305764X.2023.2281695
• Scholes, L., Rowe, L., Mills, K. A., Gutierrez, A., & Pink, E. (2023). Video gaming and digital competence among elementary school students. Learning, Media and Technology, 49(2), 200–215. https://doi.org/10.1080/17439884.2022.2156537
• Scholes, L., Mills, K. A., & Wallace, E. (2022). Boys’ gaming identities and opportunities for learning. Learning, Media and Technology, 47(2), 163–178. https:doi.org/10.1080/17439884.2021.1936017
• Scholes, L., & McDonald, S. (2022). Year 3 student career choices: Exploring societal changes in constructions of masculinity and femininity in career choice justifications. British Educational Research Journal, 48(2), 292–310. https://doi.org/10.1002/berj.3767
• Scholes, L., & Asplund, S. B. (2021). The making of male reader identities across generations: assemblages of rural places in shaping life as a male reader in Australia and Sweden. British Journal of sociology of Education, 42(8), 1192–1209. https://doi.org/10.1080/01425692.2021.1990016
• Scholes, L. (2021). Year 3 boys’ and girls’ enjoyment for reading across economic demographics in Australia. Implications for boys and students from lower SES communities.  International Journal of Inclusive Education. https://doi.org/10.1080/13603116.2021.1941319
• Scholes, L., Mills, K., & Wallace, E.  (2021). Boys’ gaming identities and opportunities for learning. Learning, Media and Technology. https:doi:10.1080/17439884.2021.1936017
• Scholes, L., Stahl, G., Comber, B. & McDonald, S. (2021). We don’t read in science. Student perceptions of reading for learning in science classrooms. Cambridge Journal of Education. https://doi.org/10.1080/0305764X.2020.1860192
• Scholes, L., Spina, N. & Comber, B. (2020). Disrupting the “boys’ don’t read” discourse: Primary school boys’ stories of a love of reading fiction. British Educational Research Journal. https://doi.org/10.1002/berj.3685
• Scholes, L. (2020). Recognition of boys as readers through a social justice lens. British Journal of Sociology of Education. 41 (7), 975-991. https://doi.org/10.1080/01425692.2020.1802227
• Scholes, L, (2019). Differences in attitudes towards reading and other school-related activities among boys and girls.  Journal of Research in Reading.  42 (3-4), 485–503. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-9817.12279
• Scholes, L. (2019). Working-class boys’ relationships with reading: Contextual systems that support working-class boys’ engagement with, and enjoyment of, reading, Gender and Education, 31 (3), 344-36. https://doi.org/10.1080/09540253.2018.1533921

Projects

• 2024-2027 Australian Research Council, Linkage LP230200003: Lead CI Scholes, L., Cremin, T., [OU England], Nagel, M.,  [UniSC], Utilising digital texts to foster volitional, proficient readers in Australian schools, [540,000 ARC; 135,000 Industry Parter contributions], Funding $675,000.
• 2025-2027 Australian Research Council, Discovery DP250100105; Mills, K., Unsworth, L., Falloon, G., Scholes, L., Cope, W, Critical pedagogies for AI and XR literacies, Funding $548,626.
• 2024 National Institute of Education, Singapore, International Research Collaboration grant, Scholes, L., with Loh C.E [Singapore], Cremin, T. [UK], Scholes, L. [ACU], McGeown, S. [Scotland] & Kuzmicova, A. [Czechia]. Coalition for international research on young people’s lived experiences of reading, $9,900.
• 2024-2025 ACU university partnership grant. Gutierrez, A., Scholes, L.  & Mills, K. Pedagogical transformation for digital futures, $9,966.
• 2021 Education Horizon Grant, Department of Education, Queensland. Lead CI Scholes, L., Mills, K., Gutierrez, Friend, L. Future Education: Evidence-based innovations for Queensland schooling and workforces, $129,000.
• 2017-2021 Australian Research Council. Discovery Early Career Research Award (DECRA) DE170100990: Lead CI Scholes, L. Investigating how to challenge masculinities associated with boys' failure in reading, $377,900. https://www.acu.edu.au/research/our-research-institutes/institute-for-learning-sciences-and-teacher-education/our-research/projects/challenging-masculinities-associated-with-boys-failure-in-reading
• 2018-2021 Brisbane Catholic Education: Lead CI Scholes, L., Lunn, J., Walker, S. Johansson, E. PI: Lawson, V. Helping children to reason about moral values for social inclusion: A longitudinal study, $10,000.
• 2018-2019 URIPA Funding, University of Adelaide: CI Stahl, G., Scholes, L., Comber, B & Lunn, J. The nexus of literacy and science epistemic beliefs: Understanding students' gendered science participation, $10,000.
• 2018 QUT Seed Funding: CI Walker, S., Lunn, J. & Scholes, L. Executive function and epistemic cognition in early childhood, $10,000.
• 2013-2015 Australian Research Council. Discovery Scheme DP130102136: Lunn, J., Walker, Johansson, E & Berthelsen, D with Scholes, L. Changing relationships between children's moral reasoning for inclusion and epistemic beliefs in early years primary classrooms, $380,000.
• 2014 QUT Faculty Project: CI Lunn, J., Davis, J., Farrell, A. & Scholes, L. Understanding teaching, learning and leadership in elementary teacher education in Papua New Guinea.
• 2013 Young and Well Cooperative Research Centre. CI Johnson, D, Jones, C., & Scholes, L. Gaming in the lives of boys, $53,850.
• 2012-2013 Telstra Foundation: CI Jones, C., Scholes, L. et al. Orbit: The feeling safe sexual abuse prevention project, $538,000. http://orbit.ht.dstier2.com/csa/the-orbit-approach/

Accolades and awards

• 2025 Invited Visiting Research Fellow, Education Futures, University of South Australia 3-30 July.
• 2024 Invited Visiting Professorship, National Institute of Education, Singapore 9-16 November 2024.
• 2024 Wiley “Top Cited Article 2022-2023”. Scholes & McDonald, British Educational Research Journal article.
• 2022 Literacy for Digital Futures, Routledge Knowledge Unlatched Award. Book selected by the KU Selection Committee (comprising  specialist subject librarians from all over the world) to be part of the “KU Select 2023 HSS Books” collection of Open Access scholarly books.
• 2022 Wiley “Top Cited Article 2021-2022”. Scholes, Spina and Comber, British Education Research Journal article.
• 2021 Wiley “Top Cited Article 2020-2021”. Scholes, Spina & Comber, British Educational Research Journal article.
• 2021 “Top Article” selected for international media coverage by Taylor & Francis Newsroom, UK, and ranked in top 5% of all research outputs scored by Altmetrics (https://rb.gy/uko6rc). International Journal of Inclusive Education article.
• 2018 QUT Publication First Award. Faculty of Education. Scholes, L. Sole authored monograph.
• 2017 Discovery Early Career Research Award (2017-2019) ($377,000). Australian Research Council.
• 2014 QUT Vice-Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in the category of “Mixed team” (academic and professional staff) for “Partnerships and Engagement” for the JIFEE (Jiangsu International Foundation for Education Excellence) program at Hongwen College, Suzhou, China. 
• 2011 The University of Queensland Dean’s Award for Research Higher Degree Excellence, Thesis. Fewer than ten per cent of PhD graduates are recognized. 
• 2011 Australian Association for Research in Education (AARE) Postgraduate Student Research Award ($1,000). Award for paper based on originality, contemporary significance and /or scholarly relevance, conceptual, methodological and theoretical innovation.
• 2011 The University of Queensland Carolyn D Baker Research Scholarship ($2,500).
• 2010 The University of Queensland, School of Education, Postgraduate Publication Award, PhD publishing – recognition of quality publications.

Appointments and affiliations

• Associate Professor & Principal Research Fellow ILSTE, ACU and the Australian Research Council DECRA Fellow 2019-present
• Senior Research Fellow Faculty of Education, Queensland University of Technology (QUT) & Australian Research Council DECRA Fellow 2017-2018
• Research Fellow Faculty of Education, QUT 2013-2016
• Senior Research Assistant Faculty of Education, QUT 2010-2012

Editorial roles

• International Journal of Educational Research
• Language and Education
• Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy
• Frontiers in Developmental Psychology
• Australian Journal of Language and Literacy

International journal review panel

• Teaching and Teacher Education
• British Journal of Educational Research
• British Journal of Sociology of Education
• Journal of Reading Research
• International Journal of Inclusive Education
• Pedagogies: An International Journal
• Masculinities and Social Change
• Critical Studies in Education

Grant agency review panels

• Australian Research Council

Select Public Engagement

• LinkedIn

Education Daily

• Is tightening social media access for children a sustainable solution?
• Digital divide impacts reading success.
• Are digital games a legitimate class text? English teachers are divided.
• Preparing 2024 school-starters for a new world of mobile phone bans.

The Educator

• Government’s proposed social media ban for children gets mixed response. How teachers can help you people evaluate content in a post-truth world. Online article.
• There’s a new digital divide in Australia’s schools – here’s what’s driving it.
• How gender stereotypes impact students' reading outcomes.
• Stereotypes impact reading outcomes – study.

The Conversation

• Caring or killing: Harmful gender stereotypes kick in early and may be keeping girls away from STEM.
• Enjoyment of reading, not the mechanics of reading can improve literacy for boys.
• Is it OK to let my kids watch the same show over and over again?
• Australian English teachers think video game are a legitimate text.