Written by Fatima Hassan. Photo by Ifath Sayed.
Northwestern University in Qatar has an addition to its faculty: Bronwyn Bethel, an adjunct lecturer and the new administrator for the university’s Writing Center.
Originally from Australia, Bethel describes herself as a keen traveler with a love for history and a passion for teaching. She said she realized she wanted to become a teacher during her undergraduate studies at the University of Southern Queensland, where she tutored Aboriginal students.
Bethel earned a degree in higher education and an honors diploma in literature. By the time she graduated in 1991, she already had been offered a full-time lecturing position in the university’s indigenous unit called the Aboriginal Tutorial Assistance Scheme, where she worked for two more years.
Bethel moved on to take a director position with the Remote Area Teacher Education Program, which provides education opportunities for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians in Queensland. She worked there until 1995.
The program was designed to get indigenous teachers into classrooms so they could be role models for indigenous students. In addition, the program would show non-indigenous Australian children that indigenous teachers do exist. Bethel said the goal was to help break down negative stereotypes about Australia’s indigenous peoples, such as that they are not capable of achieving higher academic positions.
While simultaneously working at RATEP, Bethel also completed a Master of Education in Lifelong Learning from the University of Southern Queensland. She also wrote about indigenous education. For the International Journal of Pedagogies and Learning, she wrote an article called “Critical Approaches to Inclusion in Indigenous Teacher Education in Queensland: The Case of RATEP.” She also wrote a chapter in a book about indigenous women called, “Daughters of the Dreaming.”
In 2008 Bethel moved to Dubai after her husband was offered a job in the city. She was hired at the American University in Dubai to teach first-year English.
“My experience of teaching indigenous students informed my experience of teaching ESL (English as a Second Language) students, because for Australian indigenous students, English is not their first language either, so they have to learn the Queen’s English,” she said.
Bethel said her move from Australia to Dubai enriched her experience in leading the classroom.
“Australia is one of the most culturally diverse countries in the world, but even there you don’t just walk into a classroom and visually see at least half a dozen different cultures sitting together to learn,” she said.
During her time at AUD, Bethel’s supervisor was passionate about starting a writing center and reached out to the faculty asking if they could support him. Bethel said she was heavily involved in helping set up the writing center there, along with scheduling and training other faculty members on how to go about tutoring. She worked there for three years before moving to Qatar in 2011.
In Doha, Bethel got a job as a writing center coordinator at the Georgetown University School of Foreign Service in Qatar where she also taught critical writing. She worked there for four and a half years before joining NU-Q in 2015.
“I was ready for a change,” she said. “I think, particularly as educators, we need to keep challenging ourselves. And I think if you stop feeling challenged, you stop bringing your best to what you do.”
Bethel also said she felt herself drawn to the “creative nucleus” of NU-Q’s curriculum.
“I had heard wonderful things about Northwestern and its curriculum,” she said. “It is more in my interest too, since liberal arts and communication are very much my background and passion,” she added.
As for the NU-Q Writing Center, Bethel said previously it may have operated as an editing service, but that is no longer the case. According to her, the Writing Center’s mission is, “To improve the writer, not the writing.”
She added that the Writing Center is there to help all students, whether by improving their style of writing or helping them to brainstorm ideas.
“I love working with the students as well as the peer tutors,” she said, adding that she is very enthusiastic about peer tutors helping out their fellow classmates. This allows the students to learn through the perspective of another student, which may be more beneficial for them than simply learning from the professor, she explained.
Bethel said she highly encourages students to visit her or the peer tutors in the Writing Center in NU-Q’s library.
“You’re always welcome here,” she said with a smile.