Paul Sutton

Associate Professor of Education

Paul Sutton

Phone: 253-535-7285

Email: suttonps@plu.edu

Office Location: Hauge Administration Building

  • Professional
  • Biography

Additional Titles/Roles

  • Director, First Year Experience Program

Education

  • Ph.D., Curriculum & Instruction: Teacher Education, University of Washington, 2014
  • M.I.T., Secondary English, Seattle University, 2001
  • M.A., English, University of York, UK, 1997
  • B.A., Portland State University, 1996

Areas of Emphasis or Expertise

  • Secondary Teacher Education
  • Teacher Collaborative Learning
  • Social Foundations of Education
  • History of Education

Books

  • A teacher’s guide to instructional resistance: Overcoming curricular challenges to do what’s best for your students. (Routledge. 2026) : View Book
  • In A. Webb & M. Shoffner (Eds.), Care after COVID: Restructuring understandings of care in teacher education, Smith, R., Sutton, P. S., Tierney, G. Redefining care in teacher education: Responding to student needs after COVID. (Routledge. 2022) : View Book

Selected Articles

  • Smith, R., Sutton, P.S., Tierney, G.. "Reconstructing a Critical Framework of Care in Teacher Education." Teachers and Teaching: Theory and Practice Vol. DOI:10.1080/13540602.2026.2642682, 2026:
  • Jones, S., Sutton, P. S. "Doing equity work while black in a culturally white school district." Phi Delta Kappan 2021: 103(1), 38-42.
  • Sutton, P. S., Shouse, A. W. "Tending to the “deep rules” of teacher collaboration." Commentary found in Teachers College Record 2020:
  • Sutton, P. S., Knuth, R. "How high school departments impact school improvement initiatives." Journal of Curriculum Studies 2020: 52(1), 118-137.
  • Sutton, P. S., Shouse, A. W. "Investigating the role of social status in teacher collaborative groups." Journal of Teacher Education 2019: 70(4), 347-359.
  • Sutton, P. S., Knuth, R. "A schoolwide investment in problem-based learning." Phi Delta Kappan 2017: 99(2), 65-70.
  • Sutton, P. S., Shouse, A. W. "More than a strategy: Building a culture of collaboration in schools." Phi Delta Kappan 2016: 49(7), 69-73.

Accolades

  • 2024 PLU Faculty Excellence Award: Mentoring
  • 2023 PLU Spirit of Diversity Award

Biography

Paul S. Sutton has been a teacher and educator for over 25 years. He started his career teaching English as a Second Language in Istanbul, Turkey, spent time teaching in various community colleges in the Puget Sound area, and taught high school English for 8 years before returning to school to earn a doctorate in curriculum and instruction and teacher education.

He is currently an Associate Professor of Education at Pacific Lutheran University where he teaches courses on secondary humanities methods, secondary literacy, and the sociocultural foundations of education in the United States. He also directs the First Year Experience Program to help first year students transition to university life and find spaces of social, emotional, and academic belonging on campus.

He is the author of the book, A Teacher’s Guide to Instructional Resistance: Overcoming Curricular Challenges to Do What’s Best for Your Students. Additionally, he co-hosts the podcast, “Coffee With A Little Bit of Cream,” in which he and his co-host discuss issues of equity and educational justice in the public school system and across the broader culture.

Research interests include issues of race and diversity in the K-12 system, problem- and project-based learning, how the concept of care manifests in teacher educator programs, and ways to best serve Native and Indigenous students in American public schools.