This idea of reflection is integral to the message that Vera conveys in her article. “A lot of my article was about reflecting on our practice. The essence was about taking a step back and thinking about why we do what we are doing. Teaching is not just about giving lectures but also about how and why you do it”. The same goes for us as students, however; we should think more about why we enrolled at University to begin with and how we want to enrich ourselves as people. She went on to say that “it happens in other professions. If you’re a doctor you end up otherising your patients in some way because they are your work, so this process is probably not a university specific thing. In fact, it is a human thing but sometimes work overtakes our human side and we forget to think about this human aspect.”
In her article, Vera speaks about students as partners and we asked her about why this is important. She told us all about the value of students as partners to teachers, whether it be in coteaching or co-researching, where not everything is teacher-led. We benefit mutually and we have things to teach each other so, in the end, it is imperative that both teachers and students recognise each other as humans and as someone that we can both work with.
Perhaps we, as students, see coming to University like a chore, but we have to remember that we have all made a conscious decision to come and study what we do. In linking to what Vera said about our new demands, maybe we don’t see how lucky we are to study at UK universities. We asked Vera if she thought that the problem was the same in Italian universities, but she highlights to us that it’s a completely different ball game altogether. “In order to otherise someone you need to have at least some contact”, she said, talking about how at Italian universities there is a lot less interaction between students and teachers in the first place, so even though this problem of otherisation does not manifest itself in the same way there, we have to bear in mind how lucky we are here to have these relationships to begin with, and this goes both ways.
dipartimento
dipartimento