{"id":20662,"date":"2018-01-08T08:30:45","date_gmt":"2018-01-08T13:30:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/edc\/?p=20662"},"modified":"2022-01-13T15:37:55","modified_gmt":"2022-01-13T20:37:55","slug":"mira-sucharov-unconventional-educator-pedagogical-acclaim","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/tls\/2018\/mira-sucharov-unconventional-educator-pedagogical-acclaim\/","title":{"rendered":"Mira Sucharov: From unconventional educator to pedagogical acclaim"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Bianca Chan, TLS staff writer<\/em><\/p>\n

For Mira Sucharov, becoming a teacher was not always on her radar. Pedagogy was just one step towards her goal.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt didn\u2019t start with a career goal of going into teaching, per se,\u201d Sucharov says. \u201cIt was a clear goal of wanting to be a PhD.\u201d<\/p>\n

But her innate passion to educate was ignited after she had a taste of interacting with students and an early opportunity to create a dynamic learning environment.<\/p>\n

Now, she is recognized as one of the most influential and compelling educators in Ontario, as a 2017 recipient of the Ontario Confederation of University Faculty Associations (OCUFA) Teaching Award.<\/p>\n

Sucharov, a professor in Carleton\u2019s Department of Political Science, was one of five teaching award recipients in 2017. Her teaching style and philosophy are anything but orthodox. Stripping her class of lectures and exams are just some of the ways her classes stand out from the others.<\/p>\n

\u201cThose decisions [to get rid of exams and lectures] have liberated my teaching space from being a gathering space, and instead I\u2019ve turned it into a learning space,\u201d Sucharov says.<\/p>\n

The adoption of guided conversation enables her students to speak freely, Sucharov says, which encourages debate. As a result, her students can bring their own experiences to the classroom.<\/p>\n

\u201cStudents are coming to the classroom with political and ideological ideas of their own,\u201d she says. \u201cRather than try to banish those ideas, I try to work with them and engage in ideas that sometimes seem taboo.\u201d<\/p>\n

Making the classroom a safe place is another thing Sucharov says she prides her pedagogical philosophy on.<\/p>\n

Apart from ensuring the class is an open and tolerant space where students can speak their minds, Sucharov makes mental health and wellness a priority. She actively tries to advance the conversation on mental health, so that \u201cstudents realize that I see them as whole people and that I\u2019m also a whole person.\u201d<\/p>\n

With this approach to mental health, Sucharov says she hopes to bring overall subjectivity to the classroom.<\/p>\n

Sucharov is also a proponent of bringing in curricular innovation into her classrooms, using experimental mediums – such as graphic novels, memoirs and opinion writing – to teach.<\/p>\n

Her fresh approach has had a wildly popular response and now her career has taken a path towards writing. In addition to developing a standalone course on political writing, Sucharov herself is writing a book, delving into the importance and power of op-ed writing and social media.<\/p>\n

Although becoming an educator was not Sucharov\u2019s initial career goal, she has managed to create a space at Carleton that encourages teaching in a wonderfully unorthodox way. As a bastion of empowerment for her students and a passionate and innovative educator, Sucharov has certainly proven herself a more-than-worthy recipient of the most prestigious teaching award in Ontario.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Bianca Chan, TLS staff writer For Mira Sucharov, becoming a teacher was not always on her radar. Pedagogy was just one step towards her goal. \u201cIt didn\u2019t start with a career goal of going into teaching, per se,\u201d Sucharov says. \u201cIt was a clear goal of wanting to be a PhD.\u201d But her innate […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":"","_mi_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[646],"yoast_head":"\nMira Sucharov: From unconventional educator to pedagogical acclaim - Teaching and Learning Services<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"By Bianca Chan, TLS staff writer For Mira Sucharov, becoming a teacher was not always on her radar. 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