Andrée-Anne Guénette
The University of Ottawa's Education Excellence Awards honour gifted educators who treat their students to exceptional teaching while managing to keep up a solid research focus.
Lucie Joubert is a feminist at heart, and everyone taking her courses knows it. Each year, when classes begin, she tells her charges:" I'm 125% feminist...and I'm going to do my best to convert you." Certainly a rascally intro, but for Joubert, a French-literature professor interested in women-centred writing, the quip points to a deep love of literature and feminist issues that is the lifeblood of her teaching.
This year's winner of the Education Excellence Award has been teaching at the Département de lettres françaises since 2003. Before moving to the National Capital Region, Professor Joubert taught Quebec literature for 10 years at Queen's University. She was of course happy to move to the same city as her spouse, himself a uOttawa professor, but an added thrill was the chance to work in a bilingual setting. "I'm more at ease dealing with committees and the administration in my first language," explains the native of Trois-Rivières. Her transition has been a happy one indeed, as Joubert has found an institution with a deep respect for feminist issues and where the open-mindedness of students provides her with incredible teaching opportunities.
Oddly enough, Lucie Joubert came that close to never taking the lectern. "I had promised myself I'd never teach. But one day, out of the blue, they needed a prof---and the moment I set foot in the classroom, I was hooked." But by what, exactly? "Well, the spark in the eyes of a student who's just caught on to a concept...and by the mere fact that, in my dealings with students, I so often get the impression that I'm the one who's learned something."
Is this what makes her an "outstanding" professor? Not quite at ease with the superlative, Lucie Joubert measures her response: "I don't know, maybe because I really try to see things from the students' perspective? Or maybe I question what's worked before and try to improve on it anyway or do something even better?" Ask around, and folks will tell you that her sense of humour, her intriguing array of teaching approaches, and her focus on candid student-professor exchanges are all part of the winning formula as well.
Clearly moved by her award, Professor Joubert stresses just how important it is for universities to recognize teaching excellence as much as research.
