Awards & Achievements
Excellence in Teaching
2004 Recipient - Judith Robertson
“Literature opens ways of knowing that are different”
As a little girl, she discovered “university” by reading a Nancy Drew book. Immediately, she knew that she wanted to be part of this remarkable world of knowledge and learning.
Who could have suspected that a story for children would trigger
an ardour in Judith Robertson, associate professor at the Faculty
of
Education, that would drive her to become an award-winning professor,
earning the 2003 Faculty of Education Award for Excellence in Teaching,
the
2004 University of Ottawa Award for Excellence in Teaching and the
2004 Ontario Confederation of University Faculty Association Teaching
Award - one of
the most prestigious awards for teaching excellence in
Canada.
“I'm a passionate lover of literature,” says Robertson, who
completed
a baccalaureate and a master's in English before obtaining
her doctorate in Education. “It is distinctive and exemplary. It opens
ways of knowing that
are different. Not better, but different. Books
give you access to a whole new world that you may never have been able
to experience otherwise. A book
can change your life.”
This belief in the power of literature has also led her to work on
books presenting ideas and guidelines for
teaching about intolerance
and genocide, to help other educators tackle challenges such as how to
explain Nazism to young
children.
Robertson chooses to work on these and other difficult subjects
because she sees teaching as a way of giving back to the
community. She
believes that it helps to heal a world that requires repair. This level
of care and devotion makes an impression on the minds and hearts
of
students, including the one who wrote her this note: “I am thankful to
have had the opportunity to encounter some of your ideas and
convictions
as they not only helped to diminish some of the isolation I
felt with respect to my own thoughts and beliefs, but they inspired me
toward new ways of
thinking.”
Robertson learned a lot about being a guide and an inspiration
from a few exceptional professors that she had herself when
she was a
student: “I guess I'm really paying tribute to three or four teachers
who have played that key and fundamental role in terms of keeping me
on
track and helping hone my life skills,” Robertson says. “I have had
teachers who were mentors to me and played a very important role in my
life.
I somehow internalized the model and now I extend the same
graciousness and generosity that was extended to me.”
Despite her multiple
high-profile awards, her distinguished career
and glowing praise from colleagues and students, Robertson remains
humble and focussed on what matters
most to her. “Receiving these
awards is quite humbling and somewhat embarrassing. But there's also
something deeply satisfying about contemplating the
possibility that I
may understand something of what is good teaching - that maybe I'm
doing something
right.”