My Teaching Philosophy

“You have a plum job,” an acquaintance said to me recently when we met at a book launch. And she was right: I have been teaching creative non-fiction and journalism in the University of Victoria’s Department of Writing since 1997. UVic students are lively and committed, my colleagues are talented and congenial, and the university is a dynamic place to work.

I’ve always thought that education flourishes best in an atmosphere of congenial but focused inquiry which allows students to take command of their own learning process. It is a professor's job to ascertain what the world will require of students but also to temper that knowledge with a reasoned, informed critique of the "ways of the world." I hope my teaching approach combines pragmatism with idealism. I try to demonstrate that one requires both qualities to succeed in the classroom and in the wider community.

Since I spent the early part of my life working as a journalist, I believe the pursuit of knowledge must be placed within a community context and shared with as broad a public as possible. When I was 20, I became a newspaper reporter because I wanted to disseminate information and help to create an educated and critical public. I still adhere to that belief, though it may be considered old-fashioned in some circles.

My four goals as a teacher of non-fiction within the Department of Writing are:

1. To advance students' writing abilities by making them aware of the best work in their genre;
2. To teach undergraduates how to analyse contemporary culture, based upon an understanding of historic and economic forces shaping current events;
3. To help students to acquire the skills they will need as professional writers in a highly competitive working environment;
4. To impress upon students that they must adopt habits of enlightened curiosity and lifelong learning if they are to sustain both a satisfying career and a worthwhile private life.

Cardinal Newman's "idea of a university" articulated in 1852 still seems relevant 177 years later:

Newman wrote that role of a university should be to give a student "a clear conscious view of his [her] own opinions and judgments, a truth in developing them, and a force in urging them. . . . it prepares him [her] to fill any post with credit and to master any subject with facility."