Our International Ambassadors are responsible for:
- showcasing research from their countries;
- encouraging new members to join UKLA;
- supporting colleagues who wish to become part of a SIG (special interest group);
- suggesting colleagues attend the ‘friendliest’ of international literacy conferences.
Our International Ambassadors also advise the International Sub-Committee on how UKLA can make links with other local literacy organisations, share upcoming events, and highlight key policy issues from their own countries.
Ambassador Profiles:
William Bintz, USA
William P. Bintz is a UKLA International Ambassador for the United States. He is professor of Literacy Education at Kent State University in Kent, Ohio. He has extensive classroom teaching experience including teaching high school English in Chicago, Illinois and San Juan, Puerto Rico and middle school language arts in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia. In addition, he has been a Visiting Lecturer in Language Education at the Armidale College of Advanced Education in Armidale, Australia, as well as an assistant professor at Western Kentucky University in Bowling Green, Kentucky, James Madison University in Harrisonburg, Virginia, and the University of Kentucky in Lexington, Kentucky. His professional interests include literacy across the curriculum K-12, teacher research, interdisciplinary curriculum, and creating a personal library of award-winning literature. Dr. Bintz has published numerous articles and book chapters, presented at many international, national and state conferences, and conducted professional development workshops throughout the United States and abroad.
Judy Parr, New Zealand
Judy Parr is the UKLA International Ambassador for New Zealand. She is a regular conference contributor and has been a member of UKLA for 10 years. Originally a secondary History/English teacher (who later studied psychology), then an academic, Judy’s research focuses particularly on writing, its development and assessment and on enhancing teacher knowledge and practice in order to improve student literacy. Much research is undertaken collaboratively with practitioners and is designed to inform practice. Judy publishes widely in areas of literacy, assessment, professional learning and school change. Recent publications include:
PARR, J.M., & JESSON, R. (2019). Relationships between literacy research and practice in New Zealand. The Reading Teacher. (invited article) doi:10.1002/trtr.1868
PARR, J.M. (2019). Noticing as key to meet the needs of developing writers. In Alyson Simpson, Francesca Pomerantz, Douglas Kaufman and Susan Ellis (eds.). Developing habits of noticing in literacy and language classrooms: Research and practice across professional cultures (Chapter 3). Oxfordshire, UK: Routledge
JESSON, R., & PARR, J.M. (2019). Writing interventions that respond to context: Common features of two research practice partnership approaches in New Zealand. Teaching and Teacher Education, 86. doi: 10.1016/j.tate.2019.102902
YANG, C., ZHANG, L.J., & PARR, J. (2019). The reactivity of think-alouds in writing research: Quantitative and qualitative evidence from writing in English as a foreign language. Reading and Writing. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11145-019-09970-7
GADD, M., PARR, J.M. et al (2019). Portrait of the student as a young writer: Some student survey findings about attitudes to writing and self-efficacy as writers. Literacy, 53(4), 226-235 3. DOI: 10.1111/lit.12178
Jan Lacina, USA
Jan Lacina is a UKLA International Ambassador for the United States. She has worked in a range of settings including as a 2nd grade public school teacher in Texas, a 1st-6th grade pull-out ESL teacher in Texas, and as an ESL teacher in an intensive English program for college students in Kansas. For the past twenty years, she has served as a teacher educator in both public and private universities. Currently, Jan is Professor and Interim Dean in the College of Education at Texas Christian University (TCU). Jan contributes regularly to the UKLA Conference, and she serves on the Editorial Board for the UKLA’s journal, Literacy. Her teaching and research experiences are in the areas of literacy instruction for English language learners and in writing instruction. Jan has authored more than 100 publications, including four books. Routledge (2020) published her most recent edited book, Preparing Globally Minded Literacy Teachers: Knowledge, Practices, and Case Studies. She served as Associate Editor and then Editor-in-Chief for the Journal of Research in Childhood Education (JRCE). She now serves as Co-Editor of the International Literacy Association’s journal The Reading Teacher from June 2015-2021.
Jill McClay, Canada
Jill McClay is International Ambassador for Canada. She is currently Publications Sub-committee Convenor and formerly Editor of Literacy, as well as a regular presenter at our international conferences. Jill has long regarded the UKLA as her home community. She values the dynamic roles that UKLA plays in literacy education and the association’s engagement in public policy issues.
Before emigrating to Canada in 1984, Jill’s taught English language arts at schools in the USA and Mexico. In Canada, she earned her doctorate and later took up a faculty position at the University of Alberta, from which she is now a Professor Emerita. She served as Associate Dean of the Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research for the University as well as taking on administrative roles in the Education Faculty. She was a founding editor of the highly successful peer-reviewed Canadian journal, Language and Literacy. Editorial work has always blended her passion for writing pedagogy, mentorship, and contemporary scholarship.
Jill’s research program focuses upon two primary areas: the theory and pedagogy of written composition, and the professional development of teachers. Her research has focused on young people’s preferred literacy practices, avid writers, teachers’ perspectives and practices in new literacies pedagogies, a national study of the teaching of composition, and case studies of new literacies pedagogies in contemporary Canadian classrooms. In more recent years, combining an interest in graduate education with a lifelong passion for writing development, she investigated how Education graduate students learn to “do” scholarly writing. Her professional interests include young adult literature and picturebooks.
All UKLA International Ambassadors
Mary Roche, Ireland
Judy Parr, New Zealand
Rúnar Sigþórsson, Iceland
William Bintz, USA
Jan Lacina, USA
Mary Ann Wolpert, USA
Paul Gardner, Australia
Jill McClay, Canada
Dr Malai Zeiti, Brunei
Veronika Rot Gabrovec, Slovenia
If you would like to know more about the role with a view to representing your own country, then do contact Liz Broad, Convenor of the International Sub-Committee via the UKLA Office.