College of Education and Human Development

Department of Curriculum and Instruction

Ryan Oto

  • Assistant Professor

Areas of interest

Critical civics education, racial literacy, anti-racist pedagogies, youth activism and organizing, youth-adult solidarity, abolition, Youth participatory action research (YPAR), teacher action research, ethnography

Degrees

Ph.D, University of Minnesota

M.A., University of Minnesota

B.A. Carleton College

Biography

I am an assistant professor in social studies education, where I also serve as the licensure program lead for social studies. I earned my Ph.D. in curriculum and instruction from the University of Minnesota where I examined the ways that educators and youth resisted anti-Black racism through enactments of intergenerational solidarity. My research is grounded in my thirteen years of experiences in K-12 schools, ten as a classroom educator and three as a teacher leader. As such, my research is guided by the philosophy that the purpose of research is to improve communities. This has led me to engage in an array of community-rooted issues, including examining the politics of engaging in anti-oppressive pedagogies as well as youth activism and organizing through youth participatory action research (YPAR). My most recent work examines how youth-led organizing and activism re-imagines the boundaries of civic education beyond the confines of classrooms to embrace the concepts of intergenerational and interracial solidarity, healing, and collective action.

Publications

Oto, R. & Smaller, A. (2024). Reclaiming Civic Life in Schools: Lessons on Contesting Anti-Black Adultism through Acts of Solidarity. Taboo: The Journal of Culture and Education. 22(1). 194-213. https://taboo-journal.com/2024/03/10/taboo-the-journal-of-culture-and-education-volume-22-number-1-spring-2024/ 

Oto, R. (2023). “This is for us, not them”: Troubling adultism through a pedagogy of solidarity in youth organizing and activism. Theory & Research in Social Education, 51(4), 530-558. https://doi.org/10.1080/00933104.2023.2208538 

Oto, R., Rombalski, A., & Grinage, J. (2022). The role of racial literacy in U.S. K-12 Education Research: A review of the Literature. Race Ethnicity and Education, 26(1), 94-111. https://doi.org/10.1080/13613324.2022.2047635 

Oto, R., Custer, M., Ericson, P., Liebelt, N., & Nguyen, N. (2021). Becoming critical: Exploring the confluence of justice, belonging, and love with 6th grade youth. Critical Social Educator, 1(1), https://doi.org/10.31274/tcse.11520 

Oto, R., & Chikkatur, A. (2019). “We didn’t have to go through those barriers”: Culturally affirming learning in a high school affinity group. Journal of Social Studies Research, 43(2), 145-157. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jssr.2018.10.001 

Selected Book Chapters

Oto, R. (forthcoming). “I’m with them”: Theorizing a pedagogy of solidarity in social studies education. In B. Varga & E. Adams (Eds.) Always-Already On the Lookout: Searching for, Enacting, and Storying Theory in Social Studies.

García, E., Smaller, A., & Oto, R. (2022). Deconstructing social studies classrooms: Youth participatory action research as a process of radical space-making, empowerment, and imagination. In A. Vickery & N. Rodriguez (Eds.) Critical Race Theory and Social Studies Futures: From the nightmare of racial realism to dreaming out loud (pp. 111-119). New York, NY: Teachers College Press. 

Presentations

Associations and Memberships

American Education Research Association (AERA) 

College and University Faculty Assembly (CUFA) 

National Council of Social Studies (NCSS)

News Stories 

Visions of Education "Supporting youth agency" April 20, 2024 (link: https://visionsofed.com/2024/04/20/episode-202-supporting-youth-agency-with-ryan-oto/ ) 

Leading Equity Center "Creating affinity spaces in predominantly white schools" (link: https://www.leadingequitycenter.com/281 )