About
Research Interests
Bio
I retired July 2017 after 25 years of teaching and research at UBC. Before joining the Department of Educational Studies in 1997, I worked in the Teaching and Academic Growth unit (TAG; now CTLT), coordinated a national research network, and taught in women’s studies at UBC and at SFU. In my EDST position, my main area of teaching was in the field of Adult Learning and Education (ALE) and I taught courses in the foundations (history and philosophy) of adult education, community-based adult education. I also taught in other EDST programs including leadership and policy, feminist approaches to social justice, research methodology, and teacher education. I advised many masters and doctoral students. My research interests are diverse with much attention given to studies of women’s learning in a number of contexts including government employment programs, on-the-job learning, as well as social movements. I also have undertaken critical policy studies, examining how policy shapes everyday experiences and practices of education and have been a research associate of the Canadian Centre for Policy Studies since 1997. Community-based, participatory, and arts-based methodologies are a strong interest of mine that I bring to both my research and my teaching.
I currently have a post-retirement position offering online doctoral dissertation writing support sessions.
Research and Education
Education
Research Projects
Current:
Tales from the Field:
The goal of this project, a partnership with several adult education colleagues including Jude Walker (UBC), Amea Wilbur (UFV) and Suzanne Smythe (SFU), is to gather stories from adult educators who have been working for many years in the broadly defined field of adult literacy in order to honour and share the skills and wisdom of these practitioners. We are exploring the possibility of sharing these stories via a podcast and website. The project is in its first stage of consulting potential participants and obtaining ethical approval.
Climate Justice Education
I am active member of an international network of adult educators called PIMA (Promoting, Interrogating and Mobilizing Adult Education and Learning)(https://www.pimanetwork.com) and part of a working group concerned with the role of climate justice education (CJE). We have run several online webinars and published special issues of the PIMA bulletin on the topic of CJE. The latest bulletin (Nov 2023) can be found at https://www.pimanetwork.com/bulletinjanuary2023.
Completed:
Community Service-Learning in Canadian Higher Education
I was the co-investigator (working with Dr. Alison Taylor) of this project which is funded by a SSHRC Knowledge Synthesis Grant which explored Community Serve Learning literature to determine the following: 1) How can service learning be delivered in universities and colleges to enhance student engagement and outcomes? 2) How does CSL contribute to new ways of learning fostering greater knowledge and competency in critical and analytical thinking, problem solving, and communication of complex ideas and data? 3) What are promising practices to ensure access to and/or mobility within Canadian education for a diverse student body including persons with disabilities, adult learners, international students and immigrants? 4) What institutional structures and supports are necessary for CSL to flourish?
You can download the SSHRC report at URL: https://open.library.ubc.ca/cIRcle/collections/facultyresearchandpublications/52383/items/1.0226035″>here.
This project led to a TLEF funded initiative beginning in 2017 that is documenting the experiences of students, faculty, and community partners of service learning. Working in partnership with the UBC Learning Exchange, the goal is to generate principles for building and sustaining successful partnerships.
The Arts-Based Social Movement Learning of the Philippine Women Centre of BC
The purpose of this SSHRC funded (2010-2014) action-oriented case study was to explore the arts-based social movement learning, specifically the visual and performance art created by Filipino activists in Canada, to understand: a) how and why particular creative genres were chosen and how they inform learning, b) how these creative processes and products contribute to the development of artists’ political consciousness, identity and a sense of community, and c) the link between arts-based learning and political activism. My study in partnership with the Philippine Women’s Centre of BC with Kim Villagante a PWC member who served as the main Research Assistant throughout the project; we focused on the creation of three political fashion shows. Multiple conference presentations and publications were created. Please contact me for a list.
Women’s Alternate and Informal Learning Pathways to Jobs in the IT Sector
This was a case study women’s alternate and informal learning pathways to IT jobs, one of 12 case studies in of an Initiatives for the New Economy network grant (SSHRC). I partnered with a non-profit organization in Ontario (ACTEW).
Welfare Reform and Access to Adult Education
I have completed two studies as a Research Associate of the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA); both studies examined welfare reform in BC and the impact of such policy on access to adult education and learning opportunities for recipients of welfare support. They can be downloaded from the CCPA website.
1. Meaningful Training Programs for BC Welfare Recipients with Multiple Barriers: Help First, Not Work First http://www.policyalternatives.ca/publications/reports/meaningful-training-programs
2. A Path Out of Poverty – Helping Income Assistance Recipients Upgrade Their Education http://www.policyalternatives.ca/publications/reports?page=33
Selected Publications
Butterwick, S. & Selman, J. (forthcoming 2025). Process and performance: Matters of quality in community-based theatre. Arts Research International.
Butterwick, S. (2024). Working the paradox with Dorothy Smith: a reflective account. Canadian Journal for the Study of Adult Education, 36(1), 39-55.
Butterwick, S., Von Katze, A. & Walter, S. (2025). Editorial: Responding to the great unravelling: And still they dance. PIMA Bulletin, 52, 4.8.
Butterwick, S. & Munro, J. (2025). Moonlight and darkness: The dance of poetry. PIMA Bulletin, 52, 24-27.
Butterwick, S. (forthcoming 2024). Book Review of Denise Nadeau’s Unsettling spirit: A journey into decolonization. (McGill University Press). Canadian Journal for the Study of Adult Education.
Butterwick, S. & Lawrence, R. (2023). Stories of hope, imagination and transformative Learning: A dialogue. C. Hogan & F. Finnegan (Eds) New Directions for Adult and Continuing Education, Special Issue on Transformative Learning (pp. 31-60). Wiley.
Butterwick, S & Smythe, S. (2021) Learning from a decade of CJSAE publications: Community-based research with marginalized adults. Canadian Journal for the Study of Adult Education, 33(2), 45-63. Butterwick, S. (2021). Building creative and artistic engagement into adult learning: Expanding conversations with adult learners. In S. M. Brigham, R. McGray, & K. Jubas (Eds.) Adult education and learning in Canada: Advancing a critical legacy (pp. 125-135). Thompson Educational Publishing.
https://cjsae.library.dal.ca/index.php/cjsae/article/view/5633
Butterwick, S. & Selman, J. (2020). The potential of participatory theatre for museum education. In D. Clover, S. Dzulkifi, H. Gelderman, & K. Sanford (Eds.) A Feminist Adult Educator Guide to Aesthetic, Creative and Disruptive Strategies in Museums and Community Settings (pp. 247-292). Victoria, BC: Gender Justice, Creative Pedagogies And Arts-Based Research. https://onlineacademiccommunity.uvic.ca/comarts/feminist-adult-educators-guide/
Butterwick, S. (2020). Bringing creative and artistic engagement into adult learning. In S. Brigham, R. McGray, & K. Jubas (Eds.) Adult education and learning in Canada: Advancing a critical legacy (pp. 125-135). Toronto: Thompson Publishing.
Walker, J. & Butterwick, S. (2020). Education to change the world: Learning within/ through social movements. In T. Rocco, M.C. Smith, R. Mizzi,, L. Merriweather, & J. Hawley (Eds.) 2020 Handbook of adult and continuing education. Sterling (pp. 322-329). VA: Stylus Publishing.
Butterwick, S., & Roy, C. (2020). Finding voice and engaging audiences: The power of arts-based community engagement. In Grummell, B., & Finnegan, F. (Eds.), Doing Critical and Creative Research in Adult Education (pp. 89-99) Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill | Sense. doi: https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004420755
Taylor, A., Taylor-Neu, R. & Butterwick, S. (2020). Trying to square the circle: Research ethics and Canadian higher education. of European Educational Research Journal, 19(1), 56-71. https://journals.sagepub.com/eprint/ZE98yVgq5pX9VvcYaU5I/full
Butterwick. S. (2020). Coming to our Senses: COVID-19 as Teacher. PIMA Bulletin, Volume 30. https://pimamembers.wixsite.com/network
Butterwick, S. & Selman, J. (2020). Community-based art making: Creating spaces for changing the story. New Directions for Adult and Continuing Education, Special Issue, Adult Learning in the Age of Brexit and Trump.165, 35-47. https://doi.org/10.1002/ace.20366
Butterwick, S. & Selman, J. (2020). Disrupting reactive and divisive public discourse through adult education. In J. Egan (Ed.) Proceedings of the Canadian Association for the Study of Adult Education conference (pp. 91-97).
Butterwick, S. (2020, March). Book Review of Spaces of political pedagogy. Occupy! And other radical experiments in adult learning by Cassie Earl (Routledge). Adult Education Quarterly. https://doi.org/10.1177/0741713620912927
Butterwick, S. (2018). Community as teacher: Who’s learning? Who’s teaching? In D. Lund & K. Grain (Eds.) The Wiley International Handbook of Service-Learning for Social Justice (pp. 299-318). Hoboken, NJ: Wiley & Sons.
Butterwick, S. (2018). Out of the shadows: Women’s adult education leadership in Canada. Trends and Issues in Canadian Adult Education. Special Issue of International Yearbook of Education: Adult Education (pp. 51-70). Bielefiled, Germany Media GmbH & Co.
Butterwick, S., & Roy, C. (Eds.) (2016). Working the margins of community based adult-learning: The power of arts-making in finding voice and creating conditions for seeing/listening. Rotterdam, The Netherlands: Sense Publisher.
Clover, D., Butterwick, S. & Collins, L. (Eds.) (2016) Women, adult education, and leadership in Canada. Toronto: Thompson Educational Publisher.
EDST Activity
Students Supervised
| Name | Degree | Title | |
|---|---|---|---|
|
Gabriella Maestrini |
PhD April 2022 | “A Life Well Lived Is a Life In Pieces: A Comic Poetic Exploration in Life, Disaster, and Pedagogy” | |
| Gina Buchanan | EdD 2020 | Reflecting on My Practice: An Accidental Journey | |
| Dawn Smith | EdD 2018 | hiił kʷiiʔił siƛ (bringing something good from way back): A Journey to Humanize Post-Secondary Education | |
| Sharon Jarvis | MEd 2017 | A WOE Worldview: One Métis Woman’s Story | |
| Kapil Regmi | PhD 2017 | Lifelong learning in least developed countries: The case of Nepal | |
| Erin Graham | PhD 2015 | More than condoms and sandwiches: A feminist investigation of the contradictory promises of harm reduction approaches to prostitution | |
| Cathy Robinson | EdD 2015 | Can memoir contribute to a more collaborative approach to treating eating disorders that respects and includes the family? | |
| Erin Graham | PhD 2014 | More than condoms and sandwiches: A feminist investigation of the contradictory promises of harm reduction approaches to prostitution | |
| Kathy Fukuyama | PhD 2013 | Negotiating the education and practice disjuncture in nursing clinical placements: Nursing faculty’s perspectives | |
| Tom Weegar | PhD 2013 | Excellence in educational leadership: Appreciative leadership within BC community colleges | |
| Currently President, Cumberland College, Saskatchewan. | |||
| Janine Hadfield | PhD 2012 | Gadamer and praxis: Towards a dialogic praxis in nursing curriculum | |
| https://circle.ubc.ca/handle/2429/37961?show=full | Genevieve Creighton | PhD 2011 | Troubled masculinity: Exploring gender identity and risk-taking following the death of a friend |
| http://hdl.handle.net/2429/28065 | Fiona Lee | MA 2010 | learning to be a mother, to be a mother learning, a mother learning to be |
| http://hdl.handle.net/2429/27096 | (Kuljinder) Bob Atwal | MA 2010 | ‘Indo-Canadian’ experience: A performance of voices of a socialization process of a ‘brown’ man in Canada |
| http://hdl.handle.net/2429/20575 | Mok Escueta | PhD 2010 | Popular Education in Collective Recovery and Reconstruction from Continuing Complex Traumatic Stress: A Collaborative Psycho-education Approach |
| Shannon McCune Dickerson | MEd 2009 | Training Needs of Parent Educators: A Needs Assessment of BC Practitioners | |
| Suzanna Huebsch | MEd 2009 | Computer Clubs for Women on Low Income: Moving From the Digital Divide to Digital Equity | |
| http://hdl.handle.net/2429/7699 | Marilynne Waithman | EDD 2009 | The Politics of Redistribution and Recognition: A Retrospective Case Study of One Inner-city School |
| (2010 TB Greenfield Dissertation Award) | |||
| http://hdl.handle.net/2429/2813 | Kaela Jubas | PhD 2008 | Promise and Trouble, Desire and Critique: Shopping as a site of Learning about Globalization, Identity and the Potential for Change (IIQM 2009 Dissertation Award) |
| MJ Moran | EDD 2008 | Searching for the Good in My Teaching Practice | |
| Marc Legacy | MEd 2008 | Conscientizing Prevention and Awareness – An Ecological Model for Halting Violence Against Women and Family Violence | |
| Jocelyn Wong | MEd 2008 | Autobiography, Learning and Inquiry in Adult Education | |
| http://hdl.handle.net/2429/433 | Val Peachey | EDD 2007 | Staying the Course: Stories of Eight Entrepreneurial Women |
| http://hdl.handle.net/2429/270 | Tanya Brann-Barrett | PhD 2007 | The Way We See It: An Analysis of Economically Disadvantaged Young People’s Experiences and Perceptions of Social and Economic Health in Their Semi-Rural Community |
| Carol Ng | MEd 2007 | Rethinking Patient Education in Rehabilitation Settings: A Critical Perspective | |
| http://hdl.handle.net/2429/31647 | Genevieve Creighton | MA 2007 | Remaining Patient: How health care constitutes the identities of teen mothers |
| Caroline Lindholm | MEd 2007 | Podcasting and Its Potential Use in Adult Education | |
| Virginia Wong | MEd 2007 | Culturally Relevant Adult Education | |
| Garnett Bucknor | MEd 2007 | An Overview of Provincial and Territorial Welfare Policies and Employment Assistance Training Programs | |
| http://hdl.handle.net/2429/31197 | Linde Zingaro | PhD 2007 | Rhetorical Identities: Contexts and Consequences of Self-disclosure for ‘Bordered’ Empowerment Practitioners |
| (2008 IIQR Dissertation Award) | |||
| http://hdl.handle.net/2429/31623 | Jackie Amsden | MA (CCFI) 2007 | Youth as Citizens, Youth as Workers: An Action Research Approach to Community Mapping |
| Lee Price | MEd 2006 | Caring: A Homecare Support Program | |
| http://hdl.handle.net/2429/17746 | Deborah Prieur | MA 2006 | Discourses of Concealment and Resistance: A Critical/Feminist Disability Analysis of BC’s Disability Designation Review |
| http://hdl.handle.net/2429/17766 | Dave Smulders | MA 2006 | Whither PACE? The Pacific Association for Continuing Education and the Transformation of Adult Education |
| http://hdl.handle.net/2429/18384 | Lynnette Harper | PhD 2006 | A Multi-site Ethnography Exploring Culture and Power in Post-Secondary Education Partnerships |
| http://hdl.handle.net/2429/18229 | Amanda Benjamin | PhD 2006 | Grown-Ups Have Careers: Discourses of Career and Adulthood in British Columbia High Schools |
| http://hdl.handle.net/2429/17528 | Sarah Evans | MA 2005 | Limits of the possible: The theory and practice of worker-centred literacy in the context of global capitalism. |
| http://hdl.handle.net/2429/17594 | Anna Treadway | MA 2005 | The Revolution Begins in the Heart: Exploring the Spiritual Lives of women Activists for Social Justice |
| http://hdl.handle.net/2429/17237 | Morna McLeod | MA 2005 | In Search of a Democratic Participation Structure |
| http://hdl.handle.net/2429/17054 | Begum Verjee | EDD 2005 | Women of Colour Talk Back: Towards a Critical Race Feminist Practice of Service-Learning |
| http://hdl.handle.net/2429/16880 | Jennifer Rodrigues | EDD 2005 | Presence, Clarity and the Space of Receptivity in Counselling: Shambhala Buddhist Counsellors’ Narratives of Experiences |
| http://hdl.handle.net/2429/16874 | Martha Jean Cockell | EDD 2005 | Making Magic: Facilitating Collaborative Processes |
| Cleo Whiting | MEd 2004 | The Sheway Project for Drug And Alcohol Using Pregnant Women and Mothers: A Portfolio for Critical Reflection | |
| http://hdl.handle.net/2429/17252 | Joan McArthur Blair | EDD 2004 | The Inner Life: A Conversation with Leaders |
| Carolanne Oswald | MEd 2004 | Creating a Brighter Future: Promoting a Global Civil Society Through Education on Social Responsibility | |
| http://hdl.handle.net/2429/15144 | Cynthia Low | MA 2004 | Multiculturalism, Immigration and Citizenship: A View of Social Relations in Canada |
| http://hdl.handle.net/2429/15996 | Kyleen Myrah | EDD 2003 | A Study of Public Post-Secondary Entrepreneurship Education in British Columbia: The Possibilities and the Challenges of an Integrated Approach |
| Eleanor Pang | MEd 2003 | Arts & Textiles: A Portfolio about Teacher Professional Development | |
| Susan Hamilton | MEd 2003 | Adult education and the Humanities 101 Storefront Project: My Personal and Academic Journey | |
| Kathy Musial | MEd 2003 | Towards a Critical Freirian Approach to Working with Adults with Learning Disabilities | |
| http://hdl.handle.net/2429/12772 | Kathy Coyne | EDD 2002 | Listening for the Words and the Music: Learning about Community Development from Low-Income Residents of Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside Strathcona |
| http://hdl.handle.net/2429/13472 | John Egan | PhD 2002 | Examining Practice, Understanding Experience: AIDS Prevention Workers and Injection Drug Users in Vancouver, Canada |
| http://hdl.handle.net/2429/12175 | Cheryl Magnusson | MA 2002 | The meaning of Self-Care for Women with Rheumatoid Arthritis |
| http://hdl.handle.net/2429/16779 | Lu Ripley | MA 2002 | It’s Not About Being Male, It’s About Being Cool: A Case Study of Male Sexual Health Educators |
| http://hdl.handle.net/2429/13006 | Joanna Ashworth | EDD 2001 | Understanding Educational Leadership Anew: Adult Educators’ Stories in Conversation |
| Sarah Bains | MEd 2001 | Career Paths of UBC MA & MEd Adult Education Graduates | |
| Joanne Eaves | MEd 2001 | Vampire Capitalism the “Dependency” Discourse and HRDC Policy: A Feminist Examination of an HRDC Policy Document and Critical Reflection on Taking this Policy to Practice | |
| Coralie Fisher | MEd 2001 | Construction of a Crisis: The “Billion-Dollar Boondoggle” | |
| Sue Murphy | MEd 2001 | Prior Learning Assessment and Physiotherapy Assistants: A Dynamic Duo for the New Millennium | |
| http://hdl.handle.net/2429/11107 | Donna Brockmeyer | EDD 2000 | Education to Nurture the Soul: An Interpretive Study of a Professional Leadership Institute for Librarians |
| Shirley Kammerling-Roberts | MEd 2000 | The Changed Place of Higher Education: Helping You Get There | |
| Diego Marchese | MEd 2000 | The Development of a School-Based Heart Health Program: From Conception to Outcome | |
| Deirdre Maultsaid | MEd 2000 | Open Spaces/Nurturing Places: Stories of Learning and Teaching | |
| http://hdl.handle.net/2429/10974 | Raimund Stamm | MA 2000 | Déjà Vu: An Overview of 20th Century Adult Education in BC as Reported by the Mainstream Press |
| Lara Taylor | MEd 2000 | Affairs of State: The Case of the New Degree Approval Process in B.C. | |
| Pat Thom | MA 2000 | Places Around the Table: A Qualitative Enactivist Exploration of Food Practices in a Familial Context | |
| Louise de Bruijne | MEd 1999 | Feminist Networks and Institutional Change: A Case Study of the BCTF Provincial Status of Women Committee | |
| http://hdl.handle.net/2429/8927 | Susan Diane | MA 1999 | Amazing Grace(s): A Qualitative Study of Lesbian Helping Professionals |
| http://hdl.handle.net/2429/9285 | John Egan | MA 1999 | Interdictions and Benedictions: An Analysis of AIDS Prevention Materials in Vancouver Canada |
| Carol Hansen | MEd 1999 | In Search of the Heart of a Curriculum for Practitioners in Gerontology | |
| http://hdl.handle.net/2429/9750 | Deborah MacNiel | MA 1999 | Conversations of Privilege: Exploring with Diversity Educators “White Culture”, Dominance and Oppression |
| Barbara Knox | MEd 1998 | Using Stories of Women and Work in an Individualized ABE Curriculum | |
| Laurie Campbell | MEd 1997 | Queering the Air: Lesbians in Higher Education | |
Courses taught