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. His interdisciplinary research agenda is concerned with examining the historical relationships among education, law, and policy in the United States and beyond to begin addressing their contemporary challenges. He is interested in questions concerning Indigenous education, Native American student activism, the role of Tribal Sovereignty in educational federalism, diverse forms and processes of educational governance, as well as the role that historical narratives and memory play in the creation and implementation of education policy.
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). Resisting termination: Native American college student activism and the National Indian Youth Council, 1953-1970. History of Education Quarterly, 65(2), 1-30.
- Tapaha, O. G., & Tanner, M. N. (2025). Hazhó’ó baa ntsáhákeesgo: Considering insider-outsider perspectives on navigating a tribal IRB process for education research. Ethics & Behavior, 35(8), 579-592.
- Tanner, M. N. (2025). Shadow resistance: White parents’ resistance to school desegregation initiatives in Seattle School District, 1950-2007. Whiteness & Education, 1-26.
- Osworth, D., & Tanner, M. N. (2025). From public good to private gain: Charter schools and the racialized enclosure of public education. The Urban Review, 57, 833-854.
- 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. Emerald 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.