Mediated Learning Newsletter

Vol. 5, Issue 5: March 2006, page 3

Neva Hassanein: What Is Around You Matters

by Johnny Lott
Director, Center for Teaching Excellence

Neva Hassanein

Neva Hassanein, a faculty member in the Environmental Studies Program (EVST), is a 2005 co-winner of the Helen and Winston Cox Educational Excellence Award for members of the College of Arts and Sciences. One only has to talk with Dr. Hassanein for a few moments to realize the passion that she has for students, teaching and the environment.

Whether she is discussing the food system or civic engagement, her enthusiasm, care, and regard for the environment are so engrained, that not to have them project onto student projects, or her classes would be very unnatural. As a New Yorker who has lived and worked in Oregon and Montana for most of her adult life, she has adapted very well to her surroundings in the Jeanette
Rankin Building.

The path from New York to Montana and to recognition as an excellent teacher appears destined. Early interests in environmental studies as an undergraduate at St. Lawrence carried forward into Neva’s work on pesticide reform in Oregon. Similarly, work in Billings for the Northern Plains Resource Council, on an eastern Montana ranch, at the Legislature in Helena, and at the University of Wisconsin-Madison factored into her becoming the teacher that she is, one who combines academic interests, civic engagement and social change.

Influences in Neva’s academic career include a St. Lawrence professor, Dr. Micere Mugo, who came to the United States from the University of Nairobi with a broad perspective of the world, the writings of Paulo Friere in Pedagogy of the Oppressed, and her Madison advisor, Jack Kloppenburg, who encouraged her to write the book Changing the Way America Farms. Dr. Hassanein’s teaching is reminiscent of Friere’s work. He rejected the “banking” form of teaching, in which teachers “deposit” knowledge in their pupils for withdrawal at a later date. Friere wanted students and educators to think critically and reflect on their experiences, how the world shaped them and how they shape the world in the learning process.

Reflections are uppermost in Dr. Hassanein’s teaching style, “My particular style of teaching is mainly informed by my experiences as a professional activist. I try to get people involved in on-the-ground projects that are relevant and useful in the places where we live. There were a number of teachers who helped me understand that the academy should not be separate from everyday life. We can contribute a great deal to solving social and environmental problems, and we have tremendous resources
in the academy. As we relate to the community, our students can learn by doing
and reflecting on the actions that they take.”

To achieve this balance of activism, community work, and student involvement requires a network of partners in the university and community. Dr. Hassanein’s involvement and that of her students in the food arena on campus and in Missoula led to the Missoula County Community Food Assessment. Hassanein co-facilitated this with Dr. Maxine Jacobson of Social Work, and it involved over 50 graduate and undergraduate students in the research. A new food policy council for Missoula County, supported by a recent grant from the US Department of Agriculture, is using the findings.

Hassanein and her students collaborated with the University Dining Services and its director, Mark LoParco, in developing the Farm to College program, bringing local food to the university. This semester, Hassanein works with a team of student researchers studying the impact of Farm to College in Montana. This effort is funded by the Kellogg Foundation and is in partnership with Grow Montana. The research will take them to Billings to meet with the CEO of Sysco Montana, a food distribution company, and to Culbertson to interview managers and growers of Montola, a safflower oil producing company. Along the way, students are designing research projects, writing reports, and making an impact on Montana’s economy and the quality of life on campus and in the state.

Her student projects have resulted in articles in Time and other magazines bringing
national recognition for the campus. In all of her work, Hassanein strives to create opportunities for students’ learning by doing, for reflecting on their experiences, and for identifying lessons and steps to take in their futures. Neva continues to learn and stays open for ideas to help her students. Her style and passion are infectious. She is one who works to balance continual change--creating space to allow students to run with what interests them and the needs of the EVST program. Her vision of civic engagement and the structure of university studies demand that students be involved in internships and partnerships in the community so that they give back to the community
while engaged in learning activities. She is a model for the campus and a credit to the Cox Teaching Award.