Dr. Shauna Butterwick

Dr. Butterwick retired in July 2017 after 25 years of teaching and research at UBC. She taught in women’s studies and education after she completed her doctorate in 1993. Then she joined the Department of Educational Studies full time in 1997 and taught courses in the foundations (history and philosophy) of adult education, community-based adult education, leadership and policy, feminist approaches to social justice, research methodology, and teacher education. Her teaching included advising many masters and doctoral students, several of whom undertook autobiographical studies. Her 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. She has also 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 hers that she brings to both her research and her teaching. She continues to supervise doctoral students through to their completion.

This module on autobiographical methodology is offered in memory of Professor Carl Leggo, a faculty member in the Department of Language and Literacy who passed away in March 2019. Carl and Shauna co-supervised many graduate students who undertook autobiographical and poetic inquiry. He was a poet and faculty member who inspired hundreds of students and colleagues to live life poetically. He was a leader and inspiring scholar who made transformative contributions to narrative and poetic inquiry, life writing, autobiography, teacher education, and arts-based research.