2012 marks Prof Anthea Garman’s 16th year as an indispensable part of the Rhodes School of Journalism and Media Studies. This month, she is to receive the Vice Chancellor’s Distinguished Teacher’s Award.
“Rhodes takes teaching seriously and there are so many excellent teachers at the university so I felt quite strong disbelief when I heard that I was to receive the award,” she said. “Teaching can be quite ‘heads down’ in a way so it’s surprising to think about the impact I’m having, but people must be seeing something, while I’m buried in the work!”
Prof Garman supervises Masters students, teaches writing and editing to third and fourth year Journalism students, and the introductory Media Theory course to the first years.
One of the most significant changes since she joined the university in 1994 is how the internet has changed the face of journalism worldwide. Now, in contrast, she finds that the students are teaching her more about the online environment, especially cultural trends. She says by “acknowledging their interests, knowledge and ideas and how they can make use of these talents and skills make the classroom experience much richer”.
“As a teacher, I think it is important to be open and flexible, to not assume you know who the students are, and to keep listening to them. It constantly surprises me how much they know. What they are confronted with, what they are grappling with. It’s challenging ?especially with large classes ?you can get focused on the subject or skills you are teaching and forget to be open.”
To apply for the award, she submitted a detailed teaching portfolio which made her think differently about the various aspects of teaching, such as the diversity of the student body, and how to bring diversity into her teaching.
“I’m an expert in Journalism but I need to think about education as a whole, if I am to be a self-reflexive teacher,” she says.
Acknowledging the importance of the Centre of Higher Education, Research, Teaching and Learning (CHERTL), she says it really useful to attend the centre’s courses and talks as these offer opportunities to immersed oneself in the latest research about education.
She says she has learned so much about herself through teaching, especially how she loves knowledge and how encountering new knowledge can be surprising and interesting in so many ways.
“If you let students talk and you listen to them, they tend to deal with knowledge in unexpected ways. This happens from first year to PhD level ?suddenly you are given an entirely different take on something you thought you knew so well. It’s about questioning, debating and examining ideas together.”
Story by Anna-Karien Otto
Picture by Sophie Smith