I’m delighted to announce that I won the 2021 Pierre DeCelles Award for Excellence in Teaching, given by the Canadian Association of Programs in Public Administration (CAPPA) and Institute of Public Administration of Canada (IPAC). CAPPA is the national organization for post-secondary programs in public administration, so this is a national award. The late Pierre DeCelles was Director General of the Ecole Nationale d’Administration Publique in Quebec and a gifted teacher.

The award citation mentioned my commitment to experiential teaching and innovative use of narrative in teaching. To quote the award letter, “It was clear to the jury that you build an inclusive and welcoming classroom, encouraging active engagement by students. Students consider your classes a safe space to discuss pressing and important issues of the day. Colleagues reported that you are considered a path breaker in teaching approaches to public administration – applying narrative and critical thinking to material that is often thought to be dry and unengaging.”

The YouTube Interview

I was interviewed about the award during IPAC’s recent annual conference, and the interview has just been posted on YouTube. The presentation runs a little over 9 minutes, with the following sections:int

• Introduction to the award: 0 to 2 minutes
• People I am thanking: 2:10 to 3:30
• What the award means to me: 3:30 to 4:00
• A discussion of my pedagogy (the rationale for student participation, my use of contemporary experience, visual narrative, the best room for teaching, my use of scenarios): 4:20 to 9:20

The interview has a running transcript at the bottom, which is often wildly inaccurate.

I concentrated a lot on teaching in the last two decades of my career and my teaching improved as I developed participatory and experiential approaches. I’m proud to have received this recognition and, through the YouTube presentation, to share it with my readers.