Jocelyne Morin-Nurse
“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.”
