Excellence in teaching awards - A staff perspective

Reflecting formally on teaching practices, as award nominations require, is interesting and challenging;being asked to write on these meditations runs the serious risk of meta-critical exhaustion! 

With this caution stated, I would simply like to suggest that the Excellence in Teaching Awards are important for students and staff alike, and for maintaining a vibrant teaching and learning environment at UWA.

I honestly don’t believe that anyone teaches with an eye on the awards: we are far too busy! Yet, as many colleagues would readily attest, it really is an honour that students make the effort to submit a nomination: that the process is a Guild and student initiative is crucial to the spirit of the University awards.

On occasion, I have heard colleagues from across the campus comment on the time it takes to respond to selection criteria: this ‘complaint’ is certainly not unfounded, but the writing of an application does afford an opportunity to think reflexively about teaching (and research), and in practicable terms the document can be ‘re-used’ in portfolios and other contexts. I have also seen animated debates over who includes what (and why and from whom) in their applications. As I understand it (although I should add that I have never ‘judged’ a teaching award), there is no ‘right’ way to put together a submission; the point is to demonstrate how your approaches and strategies work for a particular group of students.

In addition, I have heard concerns voiced about the very concept of an ‘institutionalised awards system’, the veracity of the process, and the conspicuous display of accomplishment it arguably involves. I am inclined to take the view that if the process is student-supported and administered then it is, perhaps, not so easily captive to any perceived professional vanities and politics!! More generally, the awards say something about not only the individuals (or the teams) that come to be involved each year, but also colleagues and the wider scholarly environment: ‘excellence’ in teaching seems to me to be dependent on much more than any one person, the commitment and enthusiasm of that person or team notwithstanding. And while it might be difficult (and indeed undesirable) to quantify exactly what excellence is, the awards are one means by which discussions around this worthy aim are kept open.

Contribution from Dr Tanya Dalziell, Senior Lecturer, English, Communication and Cultural Studies. Tanya Dalziell received the UWA Excellence in Teaching Award in 2002 and was a finalist for the 2003 Australian Awards for University Teaching.