Alana Butler
Coordinator of Equity, Diversity & Inclusion, Assistant Professor of At-Risk Learners & Student Success
Graduate Supervisor
BSc, B.Ed., MA (Toronto), PhD (Cornell University, Ithaca, New York)
Assistant Professor of At-Risk Learners and Student Success
Alana Butler is an Assistant Professor in the Faculty of Education at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario. In 2015, she completed a PhD in Education from Cornell University in Ithaca, New York with a specialization in Learning, Teaching, and Social Policy. She has 15 years of teaching experience in a range of settings that includes preschool, ESL, secondary school, adult literacy, and university. In 2011, she was awarded a doctoral fellowship from the Social Sciences and Humanities Council of Canada for her study of Black student experiences in U.S. and Canadian higher education. From 2015-2016, she was a research collaborator on a SSHRC funded study entitled ‘Can We Talk About Race?’ Confronting Colour-blindness in Early Childhood Education’ at Ryerson University. Her current research agenda focuses on at-risk children and their families in elementary and secondary school settings.
Research Interests
- Equity, diversity, and inclusion policies and practices from k-12 to higher education
- At-risk children/youth and their educational attainment
- ‘Race’, culture, and gender studies in education
- Immigration and settlement studies
- Multicultural education
- Qualitative research methodology
Research Funding
2022
SSHRC Partnership Engage Grant
Funder: Social Sciences and Humanities Council of Canada
Project title: Bridging the Gap: Fostering Success for Youth in Care
Role: Co-applicant
Principal Investigator: Dr. Imaan Bayoumi,
Co-applicant: Dr. Lindsay Morcom.
Amount: $24, 518 2021
SSHRC Connections Grant
Funder: Social Sciences and Humanities Council of Canada
Project title: Critical Global Citizenship Education: An Anti- Oppressive Knowledge Sharing Initiative for Secondary School Teachers
Role: Principal Investigator
Co-applicant: Dr. Thashika Pillay
Amount: $ 9122
2021
SSHRC Partnership Engage Grant
Funder: Social Sciences and Humanities Council of Canada
Project title: Creation of an explicit pedagogical tool for de- streaming English classes: A fundamental effort to support anti-oppressive pedagogy.
Role: Co-applicant
Principal Investigator: Dr. Thashika Pillay
Amount: $ 24, 859
SSHRC Connections Grant
Funder: Social Sciences and Humanities Council of Canada
Project title: Give Race its Place: An Anti-Racist Knowledge Sharing Initiative for Early Childhood Educators
Role: Co-applicant
Principal Investigator: Dr. Rachel Berman, Ryerson University
Amount: $9,240
2019
SSHRC Insight Development Grant
Funder: Social Sciences and Humanities Council of Canada
Project title: Beating the Odds: An intergenerational examination of cultural barriers to postsecondary education for low-income Ontario youth
Role: Principal Investigator
Co-applicant: Dr. Liying Cheng, Queen’s University
Amount: $57,304
Dean’s Collaborative Grant
Funder: Queen’s Faculty of Education
Project title: Sistema‐Inspired Music Education: Student Experiences of Social and Emotional Development, Identity and Inclusion
Role: Co-investigator
Principal investigator(s): Dr. Benjamin Bolden, Queen’s University
Amount: $12,500
SHHRC Institutional (Explore) Grant
Funder: Queen’s Faculty of Education
Project title: Sistema Music Education: Low-income Student Experiences of Learning and Social Inclusion in Kingston
Role: Principal Investigator
Co-applicant: Dr. Benjamin Bolden
Amount: $5,000
Selected Publications
Berman, R., Daniel, B., Haile, F., Butler, A., Abawi, Z., Escayg, K., and Royer, N. (2022, accepted). Give Race its Place: An anti-racism knowledge sharing initiative for Early Childhood Educators in Ontario. ECE-Link Journal.
Butler, A. (2021). Low-income Black parents Supporting their Children’s Success Through Mentoring Circles. Canadian Journal of Education, Vol. 44, Issue 1, pp. 93-117. https://doi.org/10.53967/cje-rce.v44i1.4979
Bolden, B., Corcoran, C. & Butler, A. (2021). A scoping review of research that addresses El Sistema music education programs. Review of Education. Vol.9, Issue 2, pp. 1-23. https://doi.org/10.1002/rev3.3267
Butler, A. (2021). Low-income, racialized children and access to quality ECE in Ontario. In Z. Abawi, R. Berman, and A. Eizadirad (Eds.) Equity as Praxis in Early Childhood Education and Care (pp.. Toronto: Canadian Scholars Press.
Butler, A. and Abawi, Z. (2021). Deconstructing Citizenship and Belonging: Refugee Student Integration and Microaggressions in Ontario Schools. In J. Corkett, C. Cho, and A. Steele (Eds.).The Manifestation of Microaggressions and Lateral Violence in Education: A Global Perspective. (pp. 78-92). New York: Routledge.
Teasley Severino, C. and Butler, A. (2020). Intersecting Critical Pedagogies to Counter Coloniality. In S. Steinberg (Ed.) The SAGE Handbook of Critical Pedagogies. pp. 186-204. London: Sage Publications Ltd.
Butler, A., Teasley Severino, C., and Sánchez Blanco, C. (2019). A Decolonial Approach to Disrupting Whiteness, Neoliberalism, and Capitalist Pedagogy in Western Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC). In Trifonas, P. (Ed.) Handbook of Theory and Research in Cultural Studies and Education. pp.1-18. Singapore: Springer International Publishing.
Luzius-Vanin, C. and Butler, A. (2019). Closing the Gaps: A Compassionate View of Mental Health Beyond the Medical Model. In A. Jule (Ed.). The Compassionate Educator: Understanding Social Issues and the Ethics of Care in Canadian Schools. (pp. 91-111). Toronto: Canadian Scholars’ Press.
Butler, A. (2019). Socioeconomic Inequality and Student Outcomes in Canadian Schools. In L.Volante, S. Schnepf, Jerrim, J., and D. Klinger (Eds). Socioeconomic Inequality and Student Outcomes: National Trends, Policies, and Practices. (pp. 169-187). Singapore: Springer Ltd.
Luzius-Vanin, C. and Butler, A. (2019). Closing the Gaps: A Compassionate View of Mental Health Beyond the Medical Model. In A. Jule (Ed.). The Compassionate Educator (pp 91-111). Toronto: Canadian Scholars’ Press.
Butler, A. (2019). Quiltmaking Among African American Women as a Pedagogy of Care, Empowerment, and Sisterhood. Gender and Education, Vol. 31(5): 590-603.
Guicciardi, E., Nagel, R., Szwiega, S., Chow, B., Nezon, J., Bian, H. and Butler, A.(2019) Evaluation of a Sensory-based, Food-Education Program on Fruit and Vegetable Consumption among Kindergarten Children. The Journal of Child Nutrition and Management. 43(1): 1-13.
Berman, R., Daniel, B., Butler, A., McNevin, M., and Royer, N. (2017). Nothing, or Almost Nothing, to Report: Early Childhood Educators and Discursive Constructions of Colorblindness. The International Critical Childhood Policy Studies Journal, Vol. 6 (1): 52-65.
Ministry Reports
Turner, T., Boyce, T., & Butler, A. (2019). Assessment of the Needs of Black Parents in Ontario. Toronto, ON: Turner Consulting Group Inc.
Turner, T., Campbell, P., Debrah, M., Boyce, T., & Butler, A. (2019). Jurisdictional Scan: Programs and Services for Black Parents in Ontario. Toronto: ON: Turner Consulting Group Inc.
Kutsyuruba, B., De Luca, C., Butler, A., Godden, L., Hussain, A., Youmans, A., Stroud Stasel, R., Shewchuck, S., & Nesbitt, H. (2018). Needs of NEET youth: Pathways to positive outcomes. Kingston, ON: Social Program Evaluation Group, Queen’s University