Michelle French, who co-teaches introductory physiology classes at Convocation Hall for 1,000 students, is one of the winners of the President's Teaching Award (photo by Geoffrey Vendeville)
Published: June 2, 2017
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One teaches about Black feminism and African Indigenous knowledge, while the other helps students understand human physiology and regenerative medicine.
Their disciplines are different, but their teaching methods have much in common. Wane, a professor of social justice education at OISE, and French, an associate professor of physiology, know how to engage their students.
For their accomplishments, they both received the President's Teaching Award, the University of Toronto's highest honour for excellence in teaching, research in teaching and the integration of teaching and research.
“The best teachers bring out the best in their students by fostering their creativity and kindling their curiosity,” said President Meric Gertler. “Professors Njoki Wane and Michelle French are doing just that, helping students hone the skills necessary for a lifetime of success and fulfilment.”
The faculty members spoke to U of T News about what drew them to teaching, their mentors and how they get the most out of their students.
Read about last year's winners
Njoki Wane, professor at OISE
There are many different modes of understanding. Wane, who grew up in Kenya, approaches teaching and research through an interdisciplinary lens using qualitative inquiry within an African Indigenous framework. In addition to Black feminist theory and Indigenous knowledge, her research interests include anti-racism pedagogy.
“Indigenous knowledge spoke to me and my African rhythms,” she told U of T News, “while the anti-racism framework enabled me to interrogate the intersections of discrimination or a way to talk about markers of difference.”
“The students in my class could use their marker of difference as an entry point to engage in the discourse of interlocking systems of discrimination,” she added.
At the graduate level, Wane has taught courses on Black feminist thought and the sociology of Indigenous and alternative approaches to health and healing practices and their implications for education.
She has also served as a special adviser on studies of women's issues at U of T, the director of the Office of Teaching Support at OISE and the director of the Centre of Integrative Anti-Racism Studies.
See a Q&A with Professor Wane at Black In Canada
In an interview from Kenya, Wane said that she has wanted to be a teacher since she was eight years old.
“My parents were my most important teachers,” she said. “From an early age, they encouraged me to read widely and to share what I had read.”
She started teaching at a community college in her native country, later taking courses in business studies in teachers' college. She eventually came to U of T and earned a PhD in education in 1996. It was at OISE that Wane became interested in African Indigenous knowledge, particularly the role of rural African women in knowledge production, she said.
In the classroom, her goal isn't just to teach the material. She wants students to learn something about themselves at the same time.
“What I find useful to the students is the notion of finding themselves in my class, identifying what it is they are looking for and going after it,” she said.
“Despite the fact that Indigenous knowledge is a conceptual framework that brings a complex array of theoretical and methodological issues to the table,” she added, “it enables the students to evoke their Indigenous ways of knowing because we are (all) indigenous to a place.”
Michelle French, associate professor, teaching stream, in the department of physiology
French teaches classes for more than a thousand students at a time, as well as seminars for only 30. But whatever her audience, her teaching style comes down to a few basics: "You have to get the students motivated to learn themselves.”
“You have to figure out ways to be enthusiastic and make the material relevant to them," she said. “The other thing is that you have to get students working together – they really learn that way.”
French obtained her bachelor of science and master of science degrees at U of T and has taught at the university for nearly two decades. She co-teaches an introductory course on human physiology in Convocation Hall, U of T's largest classroom.
“It's the most challenging teaching there is,” she said. "I've tried all sorts of things to get the students engaged.”
To keep things lively, she likes to break up her lectures with mini-case studies. It's a strategy she learned from a former teacher and mentor at U of T, Professor Emeritus Sherwin Desser of cell and systems biology, who taught her parasitology.
“He gave me the idea of really starting with a story,” French told U of T News. “I'll never forget this - he would talk about this crazy parasite that lived in someone's eye. How could you not think, 'How the heck are you going to get that out?’”
Last spring, she tried something new in her classroom. She partnered with the Faculty of Kinesiology & Physical Education and Hart House to create a running program to complement her course on human physio. The goal of bringing movement into the class was to re-enforce lessons on exercise and help students build a social network, she explained.
The Varsity in conversation with Michelle French
At the other end of the teaching spectrum, French leads small seminars for undergraduates, including a popular first-year course she designed: Biomedical Research at the Cutting Edge. Leading researchers such as Professor Patricia Brubaker and Professor Michael Salter, who is also the chief of research at the Hospital for Sick Children, come to the class to discuss their work. French then dissects the experts' presentations step-by-step, untangling scientific complexities for her students. The class writes reports about the presentations, learning how to analyze scientific papers and research findings.
French also teaches a seminar for fourth-year students on regenerative medicine, focusing on how to restore body function after injury.
Regardless of class size or subject matter, French says curious students in her courses always get an answer, even if it goes beyond the scope of the lesson.
“I may say it won't be on the test, but I'll never say ‘You don't need to know that,’” she said.