A Passion for Teaching

PhD candidate Fizza Sabir talks about her research, how education brought her to Australia and why she will always return to teaching. Fizza Sabir loves to teach. Spend five minutes with her and her passion for her students, her courses and her profession will become clear: I love teaching, I cant live without it! This love for teaching and education has brought her from Pakistan to the University of Adelaide where she is a PhD candidate in the School of Education, writing a thesis on teacher approachability and the interconnections between wellbeing and adult attachment styles. It is a unique topic that connects a theory of Psychology with the process of teaching and how people can improve their teaching style to encourage approachability. It is a connection that Fizza herself is surprised more people do not make but perhaps that is because not everyone who teaches has a background rooted in Psychology as she does. Fizzas journey started back in Pakistan, where she decided to study Psychology at university, a move that confused her family, most of whom pursed further study in sciences like Physics and IT. Im the only one who is in Psychology and education, Fizza says. I think I am different. I like to work with people, I love social sciences. Once she completed an undergraduate degree in 1992, Fizza decided to work in a school for a year. Before returning to study masters, she taught general classes like Pakistan Studies and Urdu to primary school students in private schools in Pakistan. This set a pattern for the next couple of years, where in between further study she would spend time teaching. After this, Fizza began working in different organisations and NGOs and working as adjunct faculty at the Fatima Jinnah Women University. But she was not quite done with further study yet. It was a business trip to Melbourne in 2004 that sparked an interest in studying in Australia. I first visited Australia in 2004 when I was working with the Ministry of Educationwe went to Melbourne uni. That was my first international visit. It was a wonderful experience, I loved it. When I went back, I was looking for some opportunitiesto come back here and study. She returned to Melbourne in 2006 to complete a Masters in Assessment and Evaluation, before returning to Pakistan to work as an Education Evaluator and then as an Assistant Professor at Fatima Jinnah Women University. Overseas study is encouraged in Pakistan, and while many go to the United States or the UK, Fizza says her focus always remained Australia. Fizza arrived in Adelaide in 2012 as a PhD candidate at the School of Education, her experiences in Melbourne part of the reason she decided to return. She wanted her daughters, who currently attend school here, to experience the good values and multicultural nature of Australia.

I have totally fallen in love with Adelaide. I dont want to leave here! While Fizza has no concrete plans once her PhD is finished in 2015, she knows that her future definitely holds a return to teaching, in Adelaide or the world beyond. I love teaching. I will never leave this profession.

This article tells the story of PhD candidate Fizza Sabir and how she found herself writing her thesis on teacher approachability and the interconnections between wellbeing and adult attachment styles at the School of Education at The University of Adelaide.