Gopaul, Bryan
Email Address
ORCID
Disciplines
Educational Sociology
Higher Education Administration
Inequality and Stratification
Higher Education Administration
Inequality and Stratification
Position
Post-Doctoral Research Fellow
Introduction
Bryan Gopaul is a native of Toronto, Ontario, Canada and has experienced a profound intersection between his personal and professional contexts. As the son of a former teacher who experienced significant racism in the classroom and broader educational system, Dr. Gopaul explores issues of equity, privilege and hierarchy in various educational contexts. Dr. Gopaul experienced a rich doctoral student experience over his time at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education at the University of Toronto, and the dynamic relationships and experiences at OISE/UT informed his research interests in doctoral education and the academic profession. Further, working as a researcher at the Centre for the Study of Students in Post-Secondary Education at OISE/UT and serving as a graduate student representative for Division J of the American Educational Research Association provided insights into the nature of research and the dynamics of academic life. In 2012, Dr. Gopaul completed a dissertation study that examined the extent to which Pierre Bourdieu’s theory of practice provided novel understandings of the socialization of doctoral students. He is a member of the Association for the Study of Higher Education (ASHE), the Canadian Society for the Study of Higher Education (CSSHE), and the American Educational Research Association (AERA). Dr. Gopaul’s work, broadly articulated, explores how economic, social, and cultural inequities are produced and maintained within and across educational contexts. He continues to study doctoral education and the experiences of doctoral students, with an emerging emphasis on the nature of academic work and implications for the academic profession. Dr. Gopaul utilizes qualitative methodologies, including focus groups, interviews, case studies and policy analyses. Currently, Dr. Gopaul is a member of a research team led by Professors Laura Perna and Matthew Hartley. This project examines higher education reform in Kazakhstan focusing on issues of governance and institutional autonomy, as well as on financial aid policies for undergraduate and graduate student populations in Kazakhstan and Central Asia. Here is a summary of Dr. Gopaul's degrees