Congratulations to professor Saba Alvi winner of the Part-Time Professor of the Year Award for 2019, given by the Association of Part-Time Professors of the University of Ottawa (APTPUO)
The Part-Time Professor of the Year Award was created in 1996 in recognition of the contribution of the members of the (APTPUO) to university education.
Q: Congratulations on winning the APTPUO 2019 Part-Time Professor of the Year Award. What inspired you to become a professor and what can you say about your path to academia?
SA: Thank you. It is an honour to receive the award. I always knew I wanted to be a teacher but pursuing my PhD was never something I considered. When I was doing the B.Ed program here at uOttawa, it was actually one of my professors who encouraged me to pursue my Master’s and then also my doctorate. There were no teaching jobs back then so the timing was perfect! It has been a long and bumpy ride throughout, but I can honestly say graduate studies taught me resilience and grit. It has also allowed me to represent as a woman of colour in a field that is sorely lacking representation. Now I'm the professor who is encouraging my students to pursue graduate studies!
Q: Tell us something about your teaching philosophy.
SA: My teaching philosophy is whole-heartedly immersed in social justice and inclusive education as a right for all. Teaching for me is not about the subjects I teach, but the ways in which I can create spaces for students (young and old) to thrive, make connections with themselves, each other and myself and leave wanting to pay that forward.
Q: What are your main research interests and how do they inform
your teaching?
SA: My research interests are mainly in anti-racism education and feminism. I took a graduate course with Dr. Timothy Stanley when I was doing my Masters and it changed my life. For the first time I felt seen and heard. So much of the research I read during that course validated my desire to pursue research on my own identity as a Muslim woman and the barriers I had encountered growing up that I considered normal, but now realized they were immersed in bias and racism. Using anti-racism as a teaching pedagogy now has informed my teaching practice greatly as it has allowed me to form connections with my students that go beyond the content of any course we explore together.
Q: What about teaching challenging topics in the classroom?
SA: A challenging topic I address every term is on privilege. I ask teacher candidates, who are often racialized white individuals, to reflect on how their identities and constructed norms inform their classroom practices. Given that I am woman of colour, it can be uncomfortable initiating these kinds of conversations. There are often students who are very resistant to this topic. I am also learning how to engage in these topics in ways that don't shut down discussions. If there is one group of people I want to 'call in' to this important conversation, it is our future educators.