Coolie Verner Prize: Made in honour of UBC’s first Professor in the Department of Adult Education (from 1961 to 1977), and awarded annually to a graduate student in EDST for research potential and/or impact in the field of adult education.
Natalia Bussard is the successful recipient of this year’s Coolie Verner Prize. Natalia’s EdD dissertation research examined the transformative learning of adults who have learned and who use multiple languages (pluringuals). In this creative narrative analysis, which melds narrative inquiry and reflexive thematic analysis, Natalia brings together transformative learning theory and sociocultural theory in exploring the stories and experiences of plurilingual adults. Her findings reveal some of the complexities in different forms of transformative learning related to plurilingualism and the role of interculturality in transforming the ways plurilingual adults see themselves, others, and the world. Due to her own adult learning and perseverance, Natalia has completed a dissertation which is insightful and rich, and which makes a distinct contribution to the scholarship of adult learning and education.
We believe these award recipients honour the legacies of the adult education scholars and UBC adult ed professors after whom these endowed awards were named.
Gordon Selman Award: Made in honour of adult education scholar and UBC professor (at UBC between 1964-1992), and awarded annually to a graduate student in EDST for their contributions to understanding the diverse forms and locations of adult learning and education in Canada and its contributions to society.
Jiin Yoo is the successful recipient of this year’s Gordon Selman Award. Jiin’s PhD dissertation research explores immigrant parents’ learning experiences in supporting their children’s education in Canada, an underexamined yet crucial area within ALE scholarship. Using critical ethnography and sociocultural learning theories, she examines how immigrant parents navigate systemic barriers and construct learning strategies to engage with Canadian education systems. Her contributions have already been recognized in receiving a SSHRC doctoral fellowship, and in publications and presentations. As a research assistant, Jiin has also been involved in other research and writing on immigrant adult education in Canada.
We believe these award recipients honour the legacies of the adult education scholars and UBC adult ed professors after whom these endowed awards were named.
Please join us in congratulating Gail Markin who successfully defended her EdD Dissertation on May 26 of 2025.
Title: Principal and Vice Principal Psychological Safety in British Columbia: An Institutional Ethnography
Abstract: Institutional practices and social relations are impacting the psychological safety of principals and vice principals in British Columbia (BC). Psychological safety is the belief that the environment is safe for people to share their perspectives or to ask questions without fear of being rejected, shamed, or punished in some way for doing so. Despite communication with district leaders being essential to driving school change, BC principals and vice principals are experiencing relatively low levels of psychological safety in their communication with district leaders. This inquiry set out to discover under what circumstances principals and vice principals do and do not speak up, ask questions, and share their ideas with district leaders. This research looks particularly at institutional practices and social relations and how they impact the psychological safety of principals and vice principals, because little is known about the impact of these practices. The findings of this research suggest what supports, services, or practices would increase psychological safety for principals and vice principals. Institutional ethnography was used as a methodology to explore how principals’ and vice principals’ experiences of psychological safety are being socially constructed. Research methods included interviews with nine principals and vice principals, the exploration of texts that impact their work, researcher reflections, and subsequent interviews with four superintendents. The institutional practices and social relations that were found to be impacting psychological safety included meeting structures and practices, hierarchical power differences, the understanding of principals’ and vice principals’ fiduciary duty, and unwritten and often unexamined workplace rules. This research found a disjuncture between the role and responsibility of school administrators—to be a connection between schools and the district office—and what is actually playing out in their day-to-day work. Embedding institutional factors that promote psychological safety will open up this vital communication between schools and district offices. When principals and vice principals feel safe to share ideas and ask questions at a district level, it is possible to open up creativity, learning, and success for school administrators themselves, their teams, and the school district as a whole.
Chair of Examination Committee:
Dr. Jennifer Vadeboncoeur
University Examiners:
Dr. Guofang Li, Department of Language and Literacy Education
Dr. Alison Taylor, Department of Educational Studies
External Examiner:
Dr. Randolph Wimmer, University of Alberta
Supervisory Committee:
Dr. Fei Wang Dr. Shauna Butterwick Dr. Sabre Cherkowski Dr. Chris Kennedy
Please join us in congratulating Mary DeMarinis who successfully defended her EdD Dissertation on May 13 of 2025.
Title: Using Institutional Ethnography to Explicate the Story of Student Affairs Professionals Doing the Work of Supporting Students with Disabilities
Abstract: This study explores the practices of student affairs professionals as they do the work of accommodating students with disabilities within one BC post-secondary institution. It examines the widely used accommodation model that is based on the idea that disability is a medical condition that needs to be remediated. The very model that is intended to assist students with disabilities access higher education acts as a barrier to their participation. Students report that accessing accommodations is complicated, and invariably makes them more visible or “othered” in the classroom. The number of students using accommodations, and the complexity of their needs, is increasing at an alarming rate, and the accessibility offices are not adequately resourced to meet the demand. Faculty also feel overwhelmed by the growing diversity in their classrooms and the volume and complexity of accommodation requests. Both staff and faculty recognize that change must happen. However, they report being so busy maintaining the accommodation apparatus that they lack the time to explore how they could change the ways they do their work. An “expectant inertia” exists, whereby administrators are waiting for the accessibility staff to lead change, accessibility staff are waiting for faculty and curriculum designers to embrace change, and faculty and staff are looking to administrators to lead the change. This research uses institutional ethnography (IE) to explicate the invisible rules that explain this expectant inertia. IE is both a conceptual framework and a methodology that explores the rules and regulations that structure and limit day-to-day work, making it an ideal framework to explicate this phenomenon. What I discovered through this research is that the accommodation model is based on human rights law and is maintained because it is a system that works for the institution. The various forms and work tools that have been developed help workers process students as cases, but have negative and unintended consequences for students. This research revealed that the desire to change is not enough; it will take the concerted effort of administrators who align their exposed values on equity, diversity, and inclusion with resources to champion change.
Chair of Examination Committee:
Dr. Cynthia Nicol
University Examiners:
Dr. Rachelle Hole, School of Social Work, UBCO Dr. Shauna Butterwick, EDST, UBC
