Catherine McTamaney

An award-winning teacher and author, Professor McTamaney works primarily with undergraduates in Peabody's teacher licensure programs, focusing on the social and political context of public education and the integration of education and the arts. A three time graduate of Peabody College, Professor McTamaney has been at Vanderbilt for most of the last 25 years.

In addition to her teaching at Vanderbilt, she is the author of two books on Montessori education and compassionate teaching, The Tao of Montessori and A Delicate Task, and noted Montessori lecturer across the U.S. and abroad. McTamaney was a member of the Social Computing Group at the MIT Media Lab from 2013 until the lab's closing in 2016, where she helped to establish the design principles of the Wildflower Schools project.

McTamaney is the Faculty Head of House for Crawford House at the Martha Ingrams Commons. She regularly teaches EDUC 1220: Society, School and Teacher and HMED 2150/2250/3250 Children's Development in the Arts. In addition, McTamaney has offered three Commons Seminars, Mean Girls and Dead Poets: Teachers on Film, Work Hard/Play Hard, and Vampires, Werewolves and Demons: The "Other" in Young Adult Literature, which she cotaught with Melanie Hundley. McTamaney's most recent text is Picasso in the Preschool: Children's Development in and through the Arts, which evolved for her teaching at Peabody and is illustrated by Peabody undergraduate, Cynthia Vu. She authors Montessori Daoshi (www.montessoridaoshi.com), a daily blog for parents and teachers interested in Montessori education.