Bio

Ruth Herrin is a M.Ed. candidate in Secondary Social Studies at Vanderbilt University and a fifth grade apprentice teacher at Valor Collegiate Academy in Tennessee. After working as an international teacher in Shanghai, China, she moved to Kathmandu, Nepal to work at the country's first International Baccalaureate school. While there she spearheaded the IB Social and Cultural Anthropology program and served as an academic counselor and the Extended Essay coordinator. Her current research interests include student-teacher identity politics, the creation of inclusive classrooms, discourse analysis with a focus in Feminist and Critical Race Theory as well as how the context of poverty interacts with education. Her professional experience has led her to believe that learning should be student-centered and exciting, with emphasis on cooperative learning and inquiry-based principles in the classroom. Successful teaching - in any subject - employs multiple instructive techniques that identify and respond to individual learning styles.