Prospective Students

Current Students

Department Information

Department Reading Room

Useful Links

TOM, Allison R.

B.A. (Wesleyan), M.A., Ph.D. (Stanford)
Associate Professor. Anthropology of Education. Education & Work; Feminist, Collaborative & Ethnographic Research Methods; Life History; Social Justice Theories and Activism.

Office: Ponderosa Annex G, Room 12
Phone: (604)822-5361
Email: allison.tom@ubc.ca

Office Hours
Courses Taught
Research Interests
Research Activities
Recent Graduate Supervision
Resources for Working Together
Recent Awards
Professional and Community Activities
Publications

Office Hours

By Appointment

Courses Taught

EDUC 503	Ethnography in Educational Research
EDST 565B	Feminism and Social Justice in Education
EDST 575	Work and Education
EDUC 504	Advanced Seminar in Qualitative Data Analysis

Research Interests

Adult Education
Anthropology of Education and Work
Disability
Gender & the Meaning of Work
Life History
Work and Identity Formation in Contemporary Complex Societies

Research Activities

Worklife Histories

I have a career-long fascination with the way individuals' identities are developed and shaped by engagement with paid work.

Recent Graduate Supervision

PhD Students

Victoria Marie (2004)	Transformations: Learning and teaching recovery. Supervisor.
Marina Niks (2004)	The more we get together: Issues in collaborative research between university-based researchers. Supervisor.
Dolores van der Way (2004)	The role of cohorts for First Nations female graduate students: Creating conditions of cross-cultural dialogue. Supervisor.
Euphrates Gobina (2004)	Decision Points and Dilemmas in Girls' Schooling and Occupational Aspirations: Female Secondary Students in Cameroon" Committee Member.
Colleen Reid (2002)	"We don't count, we're just not there": Using feminist action research to explore the relationship between exclusion, poverty and women's health. Supervisor. Now available as The wounds of exclusion: Poverty, women's health & social justice, Qualitative Institute Press. Winner of 2004 Best Qualitative Dissertation Award, International Institute for Qualitative Methodology
Jane Dawson (1996)	"We don't have an education; that's why we're here" Education and status in trades culture. Supervisor.
Mary Brooks	In the aftermath of violence: Women, learning, and higher education. (working title) Committee Member.

Masters Students

Bonnie Soroke (2004)	Doing freedom: An Ethnography of an adult literacy center. Available for download here. Supervisor.
Leanne Fukui (1999)	Tales from the edge: Perspectives on "at-risk" teaching. Supervisor .
Jeannette Villeneuve (1996)	Fanning the teacher fire: An exploration of factors that contribute to teacher success in First Nations communities. Committee Member.
Linette Wright Smith (1996)	Women creating a caring organization: The public dimensions of care. Supervisor.
Marina Niks (1995)	Teaming up in collaborative ethnographic research. Supervisor.
Lynette Harper (1994)	Seeing things from different corners: A story of learning and culture. Supervisor.

Resources for Working Together

What goes in a Literature Review?

Stages of writing (November 1, 2002)

Recent Awards

Killam Teaching Prize, 2002

Sociologists for Women in Society, Feminist Mentoring Prize, 2002 (an award given to an outstanding North American feminist mentor)

Professional and Community Activities

Chair, Status of Women Committee UBC Faculty Association (2003-04).

Hampton Committee, member (2000-2003)

Member & co-chair, Ad-hoc committee on Faculty with Disabilities (September 1999, ongoing).

Faculty Associate, Center for Research in Women's Studies and Gender Relations

Publications

Recently Published Works

JOURNAL ARTICLES AND BOOK CHAPTERS

Reid, Colleen and Allison Tom (2006). "Poor women's discourses of legitimacy, poverty, and health." Gender & Society 20(3): 402-421.

Reid, Colleen, Allison Tom & Wendy Frisby (2006). "Finding the 'action' in feminist participatory action research." Action Research 4(3): 313-330.

Tom, Allison (2004). "Good work in Canadian childcare: Complicating the love/money divide." Atlantis 29(1): 33-41.

Tom, Allison, and Carol Herbert. The "near miss": A story of relationship. Qualitative Inquiry, 2001 8(5) pp. 591-607.

Tom, Allison. "The Deliberate Relationship: A Frame for Talking about Faculty-Student Relationships." Alberta Journal of Educational Research, 1997 XLIII (1) pp. 3-21.

Tom, Allison. "Challenges in Inclusive Research." Journal of Educational Thought, 1997, 31 (3) pp. 239-258.

Tom, Allison. "Building Collaborative Research: Living the Commitment to Emergent Design." International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education 9, No. 4, 1996, pp. 347-359.

Tom, Allison. "The Messy Work of Child Care: Addressing Feminists' Neglect of Child Care Workers." Atlantis 18, Nos. 1 & 2, 1993, pp. 70-81.

Tom, Allison. "Women's Lives Complete: Methodological Concerns." In B. Long and S. Kahn (Eds.), Coping and Working Women: An Integration. McGill-Queen's University Press, 1993, pp.32-50.

CONFERENCE PRESENTATIONS

Reid, Colleen & Allison Tom "How we feel is not the point" 5th Advances in Qualitative Methods Conference. January 14, 2004.

Harper, Lynette, Marina Niks and Allison Tom "Collaboration Anxiety: What do we do about it?" Proceedings of the 41st Annual Adult Education Research Conference. Vancouver, BC. 2001.

Tom, Allison, "Child care work as good work." Third Annual Conference on Mothering, Brock University, St. Catherines, ON. 1999.

Tom, Allison and Carol Herbert. "The willingness to belong: The relationships necessary for collaboration in qualitative research." Fourth International Multi-disciplinary Qualitative Health Research Conference. February 20, 1998. Vancouver, BC. 1998.

Shu, Ning and Allison Tom. "Reframing motherhood in a cultural transition: The experiences of immigrant Chinese mothers." York University Conference on Mothers and Daughters, North York, ON. 1997.

Tom, Allison and Linette Wright Smith. "Love and caring practices as transformative ideas." Early Childhood Educators of British Columbia Annual Conference. Vancouver, BC. 1997.

Tom, Allison, "Bringing the Political Home: Analyzing Relations Between Child Care Workers and Non-profit Boards of Directors". Meetings of the Canadian Sociology and Anthropology Association, Calgary, Alberta. 1994.

Butterwick, Shauna and Tom, Allison, "I'm not a feminist, but: Child care workers' view of feminism." Meetings of the American Educational Research Association, New Orleans, Louisiana. 1994.

Tom, Allison, "The Politics of Child Care: Shifting Boundaries of Public and Private". Western Anthropology and Sociology Association Annual Meetings, Vancouver, BC. 1993.

Tom, Allison, Workshop presenter, "Feminism and Early Childhood Education". Early Childhood Educators of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC. 1992.

BOOKS AND MONOGRAPHS

Tom, Allison, Fingeret, Hanna Arlene; Niks, Marina; Dawson, Jane; Dyer, Patricia; Harper, Lynette; Lee, Deborah; McCue, Mark & Morley, Anne. Suspended in a Web of Relationships: Collaborative Ethnographic Evaluation. Peppercorn Press: Raleigh, North Carolina, 1994, 164 pp.

Fingeret, Hanna Arlene; Tom, Allison; Niks, Marina; Dawson, Jane; Dyer, Patricia; Harper, Lynette; Lee, Deborah; McCue, Mark & Morley, Anne. Lives of Change: An Ethnographic Evaluation of Two Learner-Centred Literacy Programs. Peppercorn Press: Raleigh, North Carolina 1994, 160 pp.

top