‘Being a role model doesn’t mean you know everything’

In 2009, Gerard van der Ree was named lecturer of the year at University College Utrecht (UCU). Fifteen years later, they won Teacher of the Year 2024 The jury could not ignore Van der Ree’s nomination by the University College Student Council, which said several times that their lectures were not only special and innovative but also life-changing.

According to the jury, Van der Ree deserved to win because they teach unconventionally, giving a personal dimension to their classes and making sure the classroom is a safe space to express social and personal reflections.

“You won’t find what Gerard does anywhere else at UU,” says one of their students. “In the safe environment they create, you learn so much more than just interesting texts and theory. You also get to know yourself better and your position in the world, which is incredibly necessary.”

Sleepless nights
A career as a university lecturer was far from self-evident to Van der Ree. In fact, in the beginning, they didn’t like teaching at all. They were afraid of doing everything wrong. “For a long time, I had panic attacks and sleepless nights just from the idea of standing in front of a class.”

Besides, the traditional role of a lecturer did not suit them. “I had a lot of trouble with the expectations I had learned about teaching. I didn’t want to enter into an authoritarian relationship with students where I, as the teacher, am the one who knows ‘it’. As if I were the one who knows and the students were the ones who don’t know. In addition, I struggled with the distance, often created in education, between the subject matter and students' daily lives, which makes it seem as though students are not part of what they learn, even though that is never true. Questions like that were quite a challenge for me.”

Gerard van der Ree, Teacher of the Year 2024, at the Education Festival. Photo: DUB

Gerard van der Ree (55) has been a lecturer at UU since 2007. They teach International Relations at University College Utrecht as well as courses on Community Engaged Learning at the Faculty of Law, Economics and Governance and the UU Honours College. Gerard studied Spanish Language and Literature at UU and specialised in international relations and politics. 

Innovative and safe
The only way to deal with these puzzles was to teach differently, in a way that would allow Van der Ree to build a bond with the students and the theories and teaching material would be relatable. “I try to achieve this by very consciously uniting the abstract and the theoretical, such as the many theories of International Relations, with the concrete and practical. This way, everything that seems foreign to the students becomes connected to their personal lives. I've noticed that they need that.”

To make their lessons more relatable, Gerard thinks it’s important to consider the tone and approach. “These past few years, I have worked intensely on my lectures. I paid a lot of attention to creating a safe place for students, in which they can both be vulnerable and experience a sense of safety.” One of the ways Van der Ree does this is by establishing check-ins at the beginning of work groups, where participants briefly share something personal – how they are doing, for example. Another key point is to shape the principles of the course alongside students. “I think this resonates with them because it gives them more ownership over their learning process.” 

Check-in
Van der Ree is teaching the course Creating Societal Impact at UCU this term. In this course, students take the lead according to the frameworks indicated by the teacher. Students get to decide where the lecture will take place on campus, what they must do to prepare for it, and what the content will be. Each lecture starts with a short check-in, followed by several short assignments in which the students reflect on what is happening in the world and how they deal with it. For example, students have created a workshop where they learn to deal with their fears by making art. 

DUB attended one of these lectures and confirmed that students dare to be vulnerable during the check-in. One of the students said he was having a hard time with “everything that was going on” but he was happy to be able to share that “in such a safe environment". He finished his speech saying he was grateful for that.

During the break, a student tells DUB that being so open-hearted took some getting used to. "Talking openly about what I think and feel is not something we encounter in other classes. I gradually felt more and more at ease and saw how this personal approach could benefit me. It helped me a lot to share my opinion in the workgroups of other courses as well, especially when others disagreed with me. I would have never dared to do that before.”

Inspiration and motivation
Van der Ree explains why this approach suits them. “The world demands a new way of teaching in which students find more ownership in their learning. Even though I don’t always know how to accomplish that, I would like to contribute.” They find inspiration in different people. “Martin Heidegger, Friedrich Nietzsche, Donna Haraway and bell hooks have all influenced me a lot. I’ve made a kind of personal collage of ideas that I find inspiring. These insights help me bring the content of my courses, whether it’s about International Relations or Community Engaged Learning, to life.”

When asked what Van der Ree wants to convey to students, their motto is: To help them discover who they are in their world and what the world is to them. A motto that Gerard is quite proud of and that the students also agree with. One of them says she “looks at the world differently because Gerard approaches teaching differently. There is room for reflecting on yourself concerning the subject matter. For example, we look at our current position in the world as students and how that relates to a certain political conflict. This makes the theory real but in a pleasant way and there is room to talk about the influence world events have on you.”

Breaking with the past
According to Van der Ree, the role of the teacher is changing rapidly. “My generation is losing the respect of the younger generation, to a certain extent. The climate crisis has made it visible that my generation, which has caused most of the effects of climate change, has not shown enough leadership. I feel that there is a call and desire from the younger generations for more leadership. For me, education is a form of engagement both inside and outside the classroom."

They indicate that it is crucial for students that teachers also dare to be role models, even without knowing exactly how to do things differently. “Being a role model doesn’t mean you know everything. A role model shows you how to take a step further, through uncertainty, especially when you don’t know the answer. This also applies to the university itself. We should know better than to declare ourselves 'neutral' about what is happening in Gaza, shouldn't we? Especially when there are no simple answers. Can’t we, as an institution and as a diverse, intellectual community, do the hard work of finding a position from which to shape our concern? That seems to be exactly the kind of ‘leading by example’ that many students indicate they need.” 

One of the students enrolled in the Creating Societal Impact course agrees that the class benefits from Gerard’s approach. “Students and teachers are both people who are navigating life and ended up here by chance. How nice to see a teacher demonstrate how teaching can be done. Very inspiring!”

For Gerard, receiving the Teacher of the Year award is a great recognition of their path, but it also honours all the colleagues searching for their own voice and authenticity in teaching. “We’re just getting started.”