Tania Meridew
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Biography
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Teaching & Research Interests
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Tania Meridew is a full-time professor and program coordinator at Sheridan College, where she teaches and advises in the TESOL Plus and ESL programs. Tania holds an MA in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages from Sheffield Hallam University in the UK. She earned her first degree in Psychology from Western University in London, Ontario. She has been involved academically and professionally in English language teaching for over 30 years and her main interests and expertise lie in the areas of language teacher education, teacher learning and development, and theories of creativity. Tania holds teaching qualifications from the University of Cambridge: CELTA and DELTA, and is a TESL Canada, a TESL Ontario, and a CELTA teacher educator. She was also an IELTS and a Cambridge Speaking Examiner for many years. She has taught ESL and trained English language teachers in Brazil, England, Taiwan, Spain, Burma, the UK and Canada and has presented at local and international conferences on various topics, including teacher learning and teacher resources. She has been a national and international CELTA Assessor since 2001.
She was a member of the IATEFL TDSIG committee from 2019-2021 in the roles of Scholarship officer and Developod podcaster, and was the Communications officer and Conference Co-chair for TESL Toronto from 2013-2016. She is also a published author and contributor to various ESL course books. For the Penguin Readers series, she wrote an abridged ESL version of Jack London’s Call of the Wild.
And, a bit more about me!
My favourite food/meal and drink: anything someone else cooks
The talent or skill I wish I had: equanimity
My favourite word: murmuration
My least favourite word: puce
My favourite quotation: When Frances Harwood, anthropologist, asked a Sioux elder why people tell stories, he answered, “In order to become human beings.” She asked, “Aren’t we all human beings already?” He smiled. “Not everyone makes it.” (Laura Simms)
My favourite idea: "simply connect" - e m forster / "if you have the chance to be right or be kind....be kind" - dalai lama
A motto I love: Live your real life, not a conceptualized version of your life. Give up defining yourself. You are enough. Eckhart Tolle
Teaching Interests
- Teacher education, inclusivity, holistic education
Research Interests
- The first area of research interest is connected to an aspect of ongoing tension within the TESOL Plus program - the student-teacher mentorship experience. For years this crucial aspect of teacher training has been largely run by the 'let's hope everyone is as informed and skilled as we believe' approach. Mentors have asked for more training, and students have asked for more clarity around roles and responsibilities. I have so far been unable to provide much of either and only been able to gather anecdotal data on what the issues might be and how we might best support mentors and mentees.
- The second area of research is connected to a course proposal focusing on self-knowledge, empowerment, and a compassionate view of self and other. Workshops focused on indigenization and how spirituality is a neglected component of education have also fueled this idea. As educators, we are told about the importance of teaching 'the whole student', and Sheridan's own S-Sense speaks of developing our students' self-sustaining optimism, but the areas of emotional intelligence, spirituality, and knowledge of self that could lead to this are rarely clarified. I would love to gain better insights into what role a teacher can play in addressing these less tangible aspects of a student's learning journey - hoping that this will lead to the development of a course/ series of workshops to support our students' emotional well-being and foster a tool-kit for happiness, optimism, and self-knowledge.
