Contact
166 LRCC | 307-766-3166 | Cynthia.Brock@uwyo.edu
Curriculum Vitae
Education
Biography
Cynthia Brock is a professor at the University of Wyoming where she holds the Wyoming
Excellence in Higher Education Endowed Chair in Literacy Education. She taught elementary,
middle, and high school for nine years in Oregon, California, Florida and Michigan
before returning to graduate school to earn a doctorate in educational psychology
with a focus in literacy and an emphasis on second language learners. Before coming
to UW, Dr. Brock was at Texas Woman’s University (3 years), University of Nevada,
Reno (14 years) and the University of South Australia (2 years). Dr. Brock’s scholarly
research agenda centers on the study of opportunity to learn, and her various studies
have explored children’s learning, pre- and in-service teachers’ learning, and her
learning and the learning of her colleagues. Dr. Brock is particularly interested
in exploring the literacy learning opportunities of elementary children from diverse
cultural, linguistic and economic backgrounds, and she explores ways to work with
pre- and in-service teachers to foster the literacy learning opportunities of children
from non-dominant backgrounds. She has conducted qualitative research in cross-cultural
contexts including the United States, Australia, England, Fiji, Thailand, Laos, Spain,
Chile and Costa Rica. She has published her work in journals such as Reading Research
Quarterly, Teaching and Teacher Education, The International Journal of Qualitative
Studies in Education, Curriculum Inquiry, Urban Education, The Elementary School Journal,
Pedagogies: An International Journal and Peace and Conflict: Journal of Peace Psychology.
She has also published her work in numerous books and handbooks. Dr. Brock has taught
courses at the undergraduate, masters and doctoral levels on topics such as literacy
instruction for children in the elementary grades, literacy and diversity, educational
psychology and qualitative methods. Dr. Brock has provided service at the local, state,
national and international levels across her career. For example, she has been (1)
an Area Chair for the Literacy Research Association (LRA) and served on LRA’s Early
Career Award Committee, (2) a member of the International Literacy Association’s (ILA)
Nominating Committee and ILA’s Research Grants Program, (3) a member of the National
Council of Teachers of English’s (NCTE) Standing Committee on Research and a member
of NCTE’s Promising Researcher Award Committee and (4) a member of the local council
(South Australia) of the Australia Literacy Educators’ Association (ALEA).
Research Interests
Teaching
Affiliations
