Summary
Nathan Tanner is an assistant professor of Education Leadership at the University of Nevada, Reno. Dr. Tanner is a non-Native settler scholar of education history, education leadership and policy, and Native American and Indigenous Studies, specializing in archival, oral history and community-based research methodologies. He is particularly interested in research that draws educators’ and policymakers’ attention to the historic intersections, influence, and impact of colonialism, racism, and religion on American educational structures and society to begin addressing their contemporary challenges.
Dr. Tanner earned his Ph.D. in Education Policy, Organization and Leadership with a concentration in the history of education, and a graduate minor in American Indian and Indigenous Studies from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. He has worked as an educator since 2012; as an ESL teacher in Tianjin, China, as a middle school social studies teacher in Salt Lake City, Utah, and as an instructor in the College of Education at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.
Select Publications
Tanner, M. N. (2025). Shadow resistance: White parents’ resistance to school desegregation initiatives in Seattle School District, 1950-2007. Whiteness & Education.
Tanner, M. N. (2025). Resisting termination: Native American college student activism and the National Indian Youth Council, 1953-1970. History of Education Quarterly, 65(2), 1-30.
Osworth, D., & Tanner, M. N. (2025). From public good to private gain: Charter schools and the racialized enclosure of public education. The Urban Review, 1-22.
Tapaha, O. G., & Tanner, M. N. (2024). Hazhó’ó baa ntsáhákeesgo: Considering insider-outsider perspectives on navigating a tribal IRB process for education research. Ethics & Behavior, 1-14.
Tanner, M. N. (2022/2024). Navajo practices of language ontologies: An historical case of language socialization at Intermountain Indian School. Wicazō Ša Review, 37(1-2), 68-102.
Virella, P. M., Tanner, N., & Thompson, D. A. (Eds.). (2023). Preparing to lead: Narratives of aspiring school leaders in a “post”-COVID world. Information Age Publishing.
Tanner, M. N. (2022). Hauntological pedagogies: Confronting the ghosts of whiteness and moving towards racial and spiritual justice. MDPI: Religions, 13(1), 1-14.