Amy Ryken

In my teaching, advising, research, and service I’m deeply interested in the life long journey of becoming the teacher each of us hopes to be, in engaging teaching and learning as intellectual and humanizing acts, and in confronting biases and inequities in the personal and institutional relations of our daily lives. I study teacher learning, how to create equitable classroom spaces, and partnerships that foster connections between schools and community resources. 

The School of Education at the University of Puget Sound is a strong and active learning community with a Master of Arts in Teaching (M.A.T.) program, a Master of Education in Counseling (M.Ed.) program, and minor in Education Studies. What attracted me to the School of Education is the commitment to reflective teaching practices, collaboration, and engaging the dilemmas of the profession. I feel very fortunate to engage daily with students and colleagues who pose challenging questions and are willing to make themselves vulnerable by making their teaching practices public for critique and analysis. I love working with a cohort of students over a year; I get to know students well and very much enjoy contributing to, and witnessing, their growth as professionals. It is very rewarding to learn and grow as an educator in collaborative dialogue.

I teach a masters’ seminar focused on culturally responsive and antiracist teaching and an undergraduate course focused on multiple perspectives on classroom learning and teaching.

Throughout my time at Puget Sound I have actively pursued culturally responsive practice and contributed collaboratively to the ongoing work of equity. I have been significantly involved with diversity and inclusion initiatives on campus such as serving as chair of the Committee on Diversity and co-leading the initiative to add the Knowledge, Identity, and Power (KNOW) graduation requirement; serving on the Diversity Advisory Council, co-founding the Transgender Advocacy and Inclusion Committee; supporting the work of the Race and Pedagogy Institute; serving on the Gender and Queer Studies Advisory Board; and leading the Advancing Systemic Equity grant work to center race and community in the MAT curriculum. 

For more information about the courses I teach see the syllabi. For more information about my research and professional engagement see my curriculum vitae and publications.