Ruth Vinz
Enid & Lester Morse Chair and Program Coordinator, English Education/The Teaching of English
212-678-3191
Personal Website
Office Hours: SPRING 2010 Monday: 3:00pm-5:00pm Tuesday: 2:30pm-4:00pm
Office Location: 416-A Main Hall
Expertise
- Adolescence
- English Education
- High School
- Multilingual/Multiculturalism
- Teacher Education/Professional Development
Ruth Vinz
Professional Background
Educational Background
Scholarly Interests
Teacher Preparation and the Professional Education of Teachers. Culturally Responsive Teaching. The Teaching and Learning of Secondary School Literacies.
Selected Publications
Composing A Teaching Life (Heinemann, Boynton/Cook).
On Writing Qualitative Research: Living by Words (Falmer).
"Horrorscapes: (In)Forming adolescent identity and desire" (Journal of Curriculum Theorizing).
"Opening moves: Conversations on the first year of teaching" (English Education).
"The things we carry: Working ‘In Relation' to the past" (English Education).
"Cautions against canonizing (an) other literature" (Becoming (Other)Wise: Critical perspectives on reading literature, Calendar Island).
biographical information
Ruth Vinz taught middle and high school students for twenty-three years before coming to Teachers College. She is a Professor in the English Education Program and the Enid and Lester Morse Endowed Chair in Teacher Education. She directs the Center for the Professional Education of Teachers. Ruth is the co-author of several books, Inside Out, Recasting the Text, Learning the Landscapes and Writing Qualitative Research. Her book, Composing A Teaching Life, received the Richard Meade award for outstanding research published in English education in 1997. She is co-author of the Houghton Mifflin Daybooks, a new 6-12 grade series of reading and writing literature books used in thousands of secondary classrooms, both nationally and internationally. In the most recent book, Becoming (Other)Wise, Ruth Vinz collaborated with other Program faculty and New York City teachers-Greg Hamilton, Juliette LaMontagne, Erick Gordon and Bill Lundgren-in an examination of multicultural literature education and cultural criticism as literacy events. Her research interests include cultural literacies, particularly focused on adolescent readers' practices, constructed and constructing identities of teachers, and traditions and representations of research-in-practice. Various articles or book chapters demonstrate this range of interests. See, for example, "Cautions Against Canonizing (An)Other Literature" in C. McCarthy, Social Epistemology and Multicultural Education. New York: Routledge (2000); "Learning The Blues: Beyond Essentialist Readings of Cultural Texts" in C. McCarthy. Sound Identities: New York: Peter Lange (2000); "You Can't Tame a Polecat By Caging It" in Joseph Trimmer (Ed.). Narration As Inquiry. Portsmouth, New Hampshire: Heinemann, Boynton/Cook (1999); "Horrorscapes: (In)Forming Adolescent Identity and Desire" in Journal of Curriculum Theorizing. 12(4); and "Opening Moves: Conversations on the First Year of Teaching" in English Education. 27(3).
office location
office hours
A&HE 4157: Writing: Fiction and personal narrative
A fiction writing class combined with close readings of selected contemporary writers. Special fee required.
A&HE 4550: Teaching of poetry
Experience in reading and writing poetry, designing curriculum, and determining effective teaching practices. Special fee required.
A&HE 4904: Independent study in teaching English
Permission of instructor required. Research and independent study under the direction of a faculty member. Students work individually or with others.
A&HE 5149: Writing research: Methods and assumptions
Examines assumptions that undergird the range of philosophies, intellectual traditions, and points of view that influence research writing. Special fee required.
A&HL 5204: Fieldwork in Teaching of English
Opportunity for qualified students, individually or in small groups, to develop and pursue projects, in consultation with an advisor, in schools, communities, and other field settings.
A&HE 5504: Research paper: teaching of English
Required of all Ed.M., Ed.D. and Ph.D. students. This course seeks to facilitate the writing of the paper representing a refined presentation of a students research question and area of inquiry. Special fee required.
A&HE 6404: Internship in college teaching of English
Permission of instructor required. Opportunities to work in various field-based sites. Students must inquire to see if opportunities are available during any given semester.
A&HE 6450: Internship in teaching English
Permission of instructor required. A forum designed to offer students an opportunity to explore key issues in the field through their involvement with students, teachers, and classroom settings throughout the city. Special fee required.
A&HE 6504: Doctoral seminar: Teaching of English
(Must be taken at least once during course of doctoral study.) Doctoral seminar acquaints students with the uses and history of the field of English Education, and helps students focus on issues that will shape their own research. Special fee required.
A&HE 6514: Postmodern textual theories
Teachers will examine literary and theoretical texts central to postmodern theory. Students will explore, through a diverse range of means and media, texts deemed pivotal to postmodern approaches and principles. Special fee required.
IND 6520: Youth Std:Poss Selves Mult Wrl
A&HE 6904: Research and independent study
Permission of instructor required. Advanced research and independent study under the direction of a faculty member. Students work individually or with others.
A&HL 6904: Rsch & Ind Stdy:Tchng English
A&HE 7504: Dissertation: teaching of English
Permission of instructor required. Designed to help students shape the writing of the review of literature, research methodology, data analysis and implications of the research. Special fee required.
