Tanner, Paul
Paul Tanner received a bachelor’s degree in Political Science and International Relations from Goucher College and a master’s in the Classics from St. John’s College.
He has extensive experience as an educator both in the United States and overseas. Domestically, Paul has served as Director of Vocational Services at the Cayuga County Action Program in Auburn, NY and on the staff of John Hopkins University’s Institute for the Academic Advancement of Youth. He has also taught writing and literature at Lansing Community College and Central Texas College.
Internationally, Paul has taught foreign language and ESL in South Korea, and served as an Instructor of English (through Central Texas College) with the United States Department of Defense. He spent several years teaching in Mexico with both the American Overseas School system and three different campuses of the Instituto Tecnológico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey (ITESM) system. During this time, he was a frequent presenter at national and regional conferences.
Paul’s research interests include linguistic, cultural, and socioeconomic impediments to educational access in the United States and Latin America, indigenous education, bilingual education, international development, and comparative teacher education policy. He is supported at MSU by an Erickson Research Fellowship.
He has worked with Professor Lynn Paine on a multinational study of teacher education, and also engaged in policy analysis at the Michigan Department of Education. He has studied the language of Yucatec Maya in Mexico and Kaqchikel Maya in Guatemala until Title VI Foreign Language and Area Studies Fellowships. He served as an instructor for the course TE 250, Human Diversity, Power, and Opportunity in Social Institutions. Most recently, he has conducted field work in comparative teacher education in Mexico, Peru, and Bolivia with the funding help of the College of Education, The Tinker Foundation, and the Graduate School.
