Welcome to the first installment of our new column, Know Your Profs, where we find a Camosun instructor and ask them 10 questions. Got a teach you want to know more about? Let us know at editor@nexusnewspaper.com and we’ll put ‘em in the hot seat!
For our maiden voyage, we cornered Francis Adu-Febiri. Read on to find out why he takes the weekends off and what he wishes his students knew about him.
1: What do you teach and how long have you been a teacher at Camosun?
I have taught at Camosun since September 1994. Over the years the courses I have taught include Introduction to Social Sciences, Sociology 100 (Social Structure & Organization), Sociology 101 (Social Processes & Institutions), Sociology 104 (Indigenous People and Canada 1), Sociology 106 (Indigenous People and Canada 2), Social Sciences 203 (Service-Learning and Global Issues), Sociology 220 (Sociological Theory), Sociology 211 (Introduction to Africa), Sociology 230 (Indigenous Research Methodology), Sociology 280 (formerly SSRM 280) (Social Research Methods).
2: What do you personally get out of teaching?
Excitement about the potential positive impact of my teaching on the lives of my students.
3: What’s one thing you wish your students knew about you?
That I care deeply about their success.
4: What’s one thing you wish they didn’t know about you?
I don’t have any specific answer to this question.
5: What’s the best thing that’s ever happened to you as a teacher here?
A couple of times students have clapped for me at the end of my last lecture in some of my classes.
6: What’s the worst thing that’s ever happened to you as a teacher here?
About 15 years ago I taught an Introduction to Social Sciences course that had only International Asian students. Most of the students dropped the course. An informal investigation I did showed that they didn’t expect a “black’” teacher with a non-mainstream Canadian accent to be the instructor.
7: What do you see in the future of postsecondary education?
Academic knowledge and skills connected more to our common humanity through experiential learning.
8: What do you do to relax on the weekends?
I am a Sabbath keeper so I don’t do any work from sunset on Friday to sunset on Saturday: I go to church with the family, I play Boggle games with my wife, I go to the gym on Sundays, and sometimes I play golf.
9: What is your favourite meal?
Beans stew, brown rice and salad.
10: What’s your biggest pet peeve?
When a student emails me that she/he was not in class and wants to know what she/he missed.