Getting to Know English Instructor Dr. Swati Mishra

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Faculty play an important role in educational institutions as they are tasked with educating students who will become the future generation of workers and innovators.

In this inaugural faculty interview, we sat down with Dr. Swati Mishra, an English instructor at Alexander College.

With over 10 years of post-secondary teaching experience in Canada and India, Dr. Mishra received the Alexander College Faculty Award for Excellence in Instruction during the 2024 Spring Convocation Ceremony.

*The following interview has been edited for clarity and brevity.

Life and Background

Before coming to Canada, I worked as an Assistant professor in University of Mumbai in India for over seven years.

In the last three years here, I have had the opportunity to be working with diverse learning groups and it has been fun because the environment in here is really diverse and inclusive.

I’ve written around seven or eight papers published across Asia and India mostly, but I would want to tell you about this one publication, which is very close to my heart.

Why I say this is important to me and particularly meaningful is because India is evolving as a nation.

I felt then that even if it was at a miniscule level, I was able to contribute to the national identity, of which national literature is an essential component of. That’s why I feel this is really close to my heart and it also aligns with my PhD research.

Here I would like to give a shout out to my students. Thank you. ‘We are because you are!’ When I say thank you, these two words might seem very small, but I mean them in a very big way. Thank you.

Q. What do you like about Alexander College?

Yes, many things, but off the top of my head, one thing that I often think about is the fact that I love the way structure amalgamates with openness here.

Everything is structured, but we as instructors get enough room for experimentation. We get to experiment with our stuff, with our material, with our teaching methodology. That’s fun.

Second, like I’d said earlier, ‘the best part about my classroom is who I share it with’. I love having conversations with my students and learning about different cultures.

And most important, the support system.

Be it my H.O.D. [Head of Department] Graeme, my colleagues, ISC [Instructional Support Centre], Dean’s office, they have always been so supportive. They’ve helped me understand the Canadian education tapestry so well — I was clueless when I came in here.

I really appreciate this and I’m grateful for this support system that Alexander College offers. I love my department!

Q. What can students expect in your class?

The number one thing that they can expect is fun. I want learning to be fun, specifically in my classes, which are like three, four hours long.

It’s a writing class, so of course, there’s going to be a lot of reading and writing, but it’s my responsibility to at least make it fun. In my class, you’ll find a lot of gamified quizzes, flipped classrooms, interactive presentations, so that learning is fun.

Second, you can expect that when you are in my classroom, your voice will be valued. You will be treated as a responsible adult, which implies that you have to take responsibility.

“No answer is a wrong answer in my class. The class will always be open for diverse discussions and active listening.”

I teach two courses, English 100 and English 101. English 100 essentially is Strategies for University Writing.

One common misconception that I have seen is that the students feel that it is more about English language learning and not about writing. Although grammar is an essential component of the course, it’s just one bit.

The second thing I feel in my writing course is that the students approach this course as a very simple, linear process, so much so that they feel they can actually produce an entire research paper one night before the due date.

I feel that needs to change. They have to understand that writing is a complex process and it’s iterative. Nobody is perfect. Even when I write something, I want to change it and revise it multiple times.

I also teach Introduction to Fiction. It’s a literature course.

Now, one common misconception in this course is that the students tend to think that it’s merely a fun course. You just get to read the stories and it has no real-world application. My students always tell me, “Professor, where will we use this?” It does not get translated, according to them, into real life.

I would say this is kind of true because when you are in an interview, nobody is going to ask you to read a story and produce a paper on it.

But once you crack that interview and are in a real life setting, be it your professional setting or your personal setting, every single time, you will be asked to present the pieces of information effectively.

You will be asked to take a stance and substantiate that stance with evidence. You will be required to argue without fighting and that’s what we learn in here.

Also, in the words of one of my favourite fictional characters,

“Medicine, law, business, engineering, these are noble pursuits and necessary to sustain life. But poetry, beauty, romance, love, these are what we stay alive for.”

Words have transformative power and that’s what they learn in this class, for sure.

This framework puts emphasis on the ever-evolving literacy practices. Students’ attention span has gone down terribly. That’s why it’s important that we bring in visual elements, digital elements, multimodal elements.

This is how we integrate different forms of literacies like digital storytelling, flipped classroom, interactive blogs, role-plays, everything together so that learning becomes a transactional and interactive piece in the whole concept of the teaching and learning process.

Q. If you could give advice to yourself when you were a student, what would it be?

I would say that you don’t have to be perfect. I mean, it’s okay to not know all the answers and that is not a sign of weakness. If anything, it is a sign of strength because when you don’t know an answer, you become a seeker for one.

In the past, I’d always wanted to be the first, you know, I wanted to ace all the races, but I don’t think that’s important.

I would also tell myself that one piece of paper does not determine your success. You might fail a course, but still succeed in life.

Q. Is there anything else you want readers to know about you or just life in general?

What I’ve observed is everybody wants to have an amazing vocabulary and they want to work hard. My piece of advice to them would be if you want to rev up your vocabulary game, start with this magic word.

It is a four letter word. It is R-E-A-D. Read widely, passionately, extensively, and with pleasure.

And I mean, most of my students are always short of time, so I understand. So my advice to them would be, you know, start small. It could be one paragraph, one page every night, but make it count, make it a nonnegotiable. Even these short bursts of reading can have an astounding effect over time!