Nehal El-Hadi, former UTSC faculty, recalls her experience teaching at UTSC, explaining the importance of actively fostering connections with students and the significance of inclusivity to effective pedagogical practice.
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[Nehal:] I love being a TA at UTSC. I love teaching there, I love the students, and because I am, I don’t really actually know exactly how to identify myself, but I am both black and brown.
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I am, like I’m Canadian of Sudanese origin, I am culturally Arab, and I am visibly black. And so I relate on very different levels to a whole bunch of different identities and cultures. So for example the Muslim students
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would be able to talk to me about it being Ramadan and the frustrations they were having or not being able to focus and to concentrate and I wouldn’t really need it explained or broken down because it’s also my own lived experience.
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Same with the everyday reality of being the child of immigrants and what your role is in a family that has immigrated to Canada when you’re older. So there’s many many things that don’t have
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to be sort of explained to me, because I know them intimately. And I’ve found that the students that I come across or interact with while I’m TA-ing find that such a relief. Do you know the poet Warsan Shire? [Maria:] No.
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[Nehal:] So she has a beautiful, beautiful line about naming and it is: “My name does not allow me to trust anyone who does not pronounce it right.” And I have heard this on more than one occasion that,
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“Oh, thank god, you know how to say my name”. Makes a huge difference.
