Know Your Profs is an ongoing series of profiles on the instructors at Camosun College. Every issue we ask a different instructor at Camosun the same 10 questions in an attempt to get to know them a little better.
Do you have an instructor who you want to see interviewed in the paper? Maybe you want to know more about one of your teachers, but you’re too busy, or shy, to ask? Email editor@nexusnewspaper.com and we’ll add your instructor to our list of teachers to talk to.
This issue we talked to Camosun English instructor Maureen Niwa about students, spirituality, and smoothies.
1. What do you teach and how long have you been at Camosun?
I am fortunate to both teach in the English department and work in Assessment. Teaching first-year academic writing and literature courses allows me to help students develop their own style and voice in writing. Helping students craft their voices is like listening to an ever-changing, floating symphony: each voice is distinct and personal, interwoven with its unique inflections and characteristics. Strengthening voices and clarifying views by removing clutter is one of my thrills in teaching writing. Learning about the sheer diversity and endless range of voices is also one of the pleasures of working in the area of Assessment at the College. I’ve been at Camosun as long as my first daughter, Musa, has been alive: 21 years. She was a baby when I had my first interview at Camosun for substitute teaching. I actually held her in my arms during that first interview. I knew Camosun was the place for me, since the interviewers didn’t seem to mind that I came with a baby!
2. What do you personally get out of teaching?
Students, who have open hearts and minds, generously give me a part of themselves. I learn the highs and lows of their joys as well as their challenges and the breathtaking scale of their dreams. When I am teaching, I am learning from my students. I experience non-stop adrenaline highs that shift the ways I usually think when engaging with them. I am grateful for these moments—these sublime gifts—that students may not even realize they are giving me.
3. What’s one thing you wish your students knew about you?
I want students to know that I genuinely care about them—not just about their academic success but also about their commitment to make tangible, positive differences in the world. Once I know what moves them, I work tirelessly to engage and support them. I constantly create and adapt class materials and assignments to make these relevant for each class. Each class has its own community and culture, and I respect this reality. Also, I would like students to know that I can help them brainstorm career opportunities and advise them about career paths that might surprise them, and even inspire them.
4. What’s one thing you wish they didn’t know about you?
[Laughs] I’m extremely shy and self-conscious. I grew up in a small prairie town with long empty gravel roads, pop-up gophers, and decrepit barns leaning into the wind. There were very few people on the landscape. I’m still not used to large groups of people, and honestly, I dislike crowds. Every time I walk into a class, I am extremely nervous and blushing on the inside.
5. What’s the best thing that’s happened to you as a teacher here?
I received a letter from an English 151 graduate. I was her first teacher. Because she worked all day, every day, during the week, and had two young children, we had to invent creative ways to meet outside of class. In the letter, she let me know that I became her teacher at the lowest point of her life. She had just lost her husband; she felt alone and overwhelmed with new responsibilities. She felt that she had no skills or job prospects. She was terrified about starting her education. In the letter, she said that my support and encouragement helped her to turn her life around. She completed her college courses, as well as a degree at UVic in the health field. She now had a job she loved. She included a photo in which she was surrounded by her daughters, who are now teenagers, and her new husband. I could see her happiness shine out. I felt honoured to be acknowledged as someone who had played a part in making that happen.
6. What’s the worst thing that’s happened to you as a teacher here?
A while back, Camosun Physics instructor Elizabeth Ploughman and I became obsessed with the idea of starting a seniors’ college at Camosun. We travelled and researched extensively to put together a concept presentation. However, we only had a handful of Camosun people show up at our presentation, while the presentation on clickers, next door, was full. I laugh about it now, but I still think the seniors’ college is a great idea. Our community is blessed with many lively seniors who have much to offer, but very few are found on our campuses. We could learn much from them.
7. What do you see in the future of post-secondary education?
Building spirituality is the future of post-secondary education. Many students today are choosing to take psychology, and I think that’s a beautiful thing. Millennials realize that something very important is lacking in western society, and they are not afraid to look inside. They value spiritual growth as a viable way to confront the world’s pressing problems. For me, spirituality is rooted in generosity and creativity—maybe even in creative ways to be generous. Spirituality can open doors in post-secondary education and confront, in incremental ways, the heinous acts and effects of settler culture, including colonialism and climate change. I also believe that trans-disciplinary skills and knowledges with the power to direct political decision-making will be in high demand in the future. We may even have to employ artificial intelligence to this end, since some of human intelligence seems to be on a slippery slope these days.
8. What do you do to relax on the weekends?
Step aerobics. I teach it; I love it. It’s my creative outlet. I write step choreography like poems and stories—that is to say, with many drafts. Step routines have segments with complications, rises, falls, emotional plunges, soaring heights, and unexpected twists, all spun to a stable underlay of the rhythm in super-loud music. You can get as crazy or as lyrical as you want.
9. What is your favourite meal?
A smoothie!
10. What’s your biggest pet peeve?
Injustice. My adherence to justice is reflected in my approach to marking. Students say I am a fair marker, and I am. But isn’t it more than just letter grades and percentages? It’s assessing the constructedness of variable situations, collaborating, communicating, exchanging views, and contemplating the best choices for everyone involved. Even as a young child, I have been outraged by injustice. When there is an obvious way to reverse injustice, and nothing is done, we all fail. Even those who benefit from injustice—and of course, such awful things do happen—fail, miserably, on the inside. Recently, I heard CBC’s Rosanna Deerchild mention a white settler who decided to give back the land stolen by his ancestors to the Aboriginal people from whom it was taken. I wish that every instance of injustice could be handled in this way.