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Introduction: My Background
Becoming an educator was unavoidable for me, as the passion for teaching runs in my family – both my grandmother (Fig. 1) and great-grandmother from my dad’s side were University professors with life-long teaching careers; both my aunts from my mom’s side are educated school teachers. Even though I have a strong natural inclination to Humanities, I am the first one in my family who has chosen a teaching career in Sciences. Through my upbringing, I was surrounded by very talented educators who were truly dedicated to children’s needs. Apart from lessons, my school teachers spent much of the recreational time with students – organizing camping and hiking trips, excursions, exhibits, and other extracurricular activities.
Figure 1. My grandmother, Moiseeva Sofia Achmetovna: Doctor (Habilitation) of Philology, Professor at the French Department.
My personal teaching path started almost twenty years ago when I was a 2nd-year geology student at the Lomonosov Moscow State University (MSU). The Faculty of Geology at MSU was (and is) managing a “GeoSchool” – an organization where geology students and lecturers organize extramural geology and mineralogy classes for school kids. From 2006 to 2008, I taught the basics of mineralogy to high school students. During the semester, I lectured once or twice a week; and during the school holidays, I organized field trips to geologically interesting places for my school kids group (Fig. 2). At the end of each school year, I participated in the GeoSchool students’ examination and was admitting oral exams to see how the students’ progress in their knowledge of geological processes.
Figure 2. My teaching partner explains the principles of the geological compass to our school group during one of the geological field trips that we co-supervised.
When I was a 3rd-year student in 2007, I joined an evening program at the Faculty of Education at MSU. Every day, after my morning lectures, I attended the evening lectures on education techniques, philosophy, and psychology (Table 1). In 2010, I defended the MSc thesis titled “Using game techniques in mineralogy lessons for the high school students” and gained an (additional to higher education) Diploma with a specialization "Geography Teacher."
During my senior student years (4th and 5th years of integrated degree), I worked part-time in the company “Mineral Land.” My primary role there was public communication; I was responsible for developing a website with information on minerals (Fig. 3), their properties, and their origin, designing the hand-out material, and participating in mineral exhibitions. My favorite project was designing a catalog with rock samples and rock art – I still have a hard copy of it. As a hobby, I also gave private lessons in English during that time.
Figure 3. Office space of Mineral Land.
After graduating, I had a break in teaching and focused on obtaining my Ph.D. degree at the University of Vienna before I moved to South Africa for a Postdoctoral fellowship. During my time as a Postdoc, I assisted the Geochemistry course given by late Prof. Marian Tredoux for the 3rd year students at the University of the Free State (UFS), March-April 2017. During my time at the UFS, I also helped organize student field trips 2016-2018 around South Africa (Fig. 4). I have drafted the code of conduct for field trips, with the main goal of protecting students within the field trip environment. This document was accepted as a departmental policy at the Department of Geology, UFS. Three Honors students successfully completed research projects (mini-theses) under my supervision, one with distinction. I was also co-mentoring a Postdoctoral fellow, Dr. Martin Clark, with whom I continue scientific collaborations.
Figure 4. I am walking (in a red shirt) amongst the students during the field trip to the Vredefort impact structure, Free State.
It took me 13 years from the onset of my teaching path to finally become a lecturer. In 2019, I was hired as a Senior Lecturer at the Department of Geology, UFS, where I lectured Practical Mineralogy to the 2nd year students and Plate Tectonics to Honors students.
In 2021, I was appointed as a lecturer at the University of the Western Cape, where I am lecturing Structural Geology to the 2nd year students (a component of the APG231), Geotectonics to the 3rd year students (a component of the APG322), and Advanced Structural Geology to Honors students (a component of the APG721). Moreover, I co-organize and co-lead an Honors field trip (in the frames APG721 module) to the Northern Cape and supervise Honors and MSc students.
From 2020, I am enrolling MSc students under my supervision; one finished with Magna cum Laude in 2022, and another has submitted her thesis for review (Fig. 5). One more MSc student is currently finalizing her thesis, putting together data. For one of the projects undertaken by Ms. Sarafina Mandevhu, I have received funding from the DSI-NRF-CIMERA Centre of Excellence. Mr. Floyd Mautle received funding from Boart Longyear. Mr. Mautle is currently a PhD candidate at the University of Western Ontario in Canada.
Figure 5. My MSc students, Ms. S. Mandevhu and Mr. F. Mautle are following a colleague from Anglo American to the outcrop, during a sampling field trip to Northern Cape in 2021.
In 2020 and 2021, I was invited by the Postgraduate School at UFS to teach academic writing techniques. Accepting this invitation, I designed and presented three “Article writing” (each three days-long) and three “Literature review in science” (each three-hour long) workshops, which had very good reviews, and one even gathered more than 130 people (Fig. 6). In 2023, I read the "Literature review in science" workshop in the GFZ-Potsdam, and in 2024 in the UWC. Overall, my workshops on academic writing techniques were attended by more than 380 postgraduate students and academics from South Africa, Germany, Russia, and China. The feedback is very positive and I know that this workshop is impactful.
Figure 6. A screenshot from one of my 3-day-long workshops on Article Writing.
My educator’s path was not smooth, and I faced many difficulties and challenges. One of them is trying to combine parenting and career (Fig. 7), having no family support structure. This challenge helped me to become more empathetic to students in similar situations. Another difficulty was getting a job as a foreigner and related bureaucracy. When I finally started as a lecturer, it was very difficult to make my way through the unfamiliar systems of another country with a very different culture and, more importantly, to be accepted by my peers. This taught me to be more patient, care about other people’s feelings, be flexible, and understand other cultures and backgrounds. Inside of me, I still have a fear of being unaccepted. The lack of diversity, equity, and inclusion in the Geoscience educational environment is, unfortunately, the current state of the discipline (e.g., Ormand et al., 2022).
Figure 7. My 3 y.o. daughter with geophysical equipment in the background, hiding under an umbrella from the rain during one of the research field trips in 2019.
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