Professor Sarine Sadhra is an academic advisor and assistant professor in the School of Education at UFV.
Professor Sadhra has been at UFV since August 2025. She is currently teaching Teaching and Learning Practices (EDUC 300) and works with students as both an advisor and supervisor for practicums. She is nearing the completion of her doctorate, which addresses major questions about authentic identity as an educator. Sadhra spoke with The Cascade about her teaching journey and gave some advice to hopeful educators.
What drew you to this career path?
“I finished my degree and went straight into a teaching program at UBC. It was nice mostly because I loved working with children. I was passionate about education. I really felt like education has the power to make change in our society, so I was drawn to that field. Once I got into it, about eight years later, I started to ask those questions about how it can have an even greater impact, because I started noticing lots of systemic issues and broader issues that I wanted to have an impact in. That’s when I made the transition to teacher education and I got to support student-teachers while they were [on] their journeys, and I just loved that role.”
Were you in a bachelor’s for education or did you have a different path?
“I started a Bachelor of Arts degree. I was headed in a very different path. I was doing political science, international relations, and then I switched to family science.?I still didn’t know I wanted to be a teacher. I share with my students often that I fell into teaching. It wasn’t something that I knew I always wanted to do.”
How do you find balancing your roles as both an advisor and professor?
“It was a lot to learn last semester when I was new, because I’ve never been an advisor before. … I had a lot of guidance from my colleagues in our department. What I like about it is I get to meet people who want to be teachers really early on. In the past, I’ve only worked with people who are already in the program. It gives me a broader view of the different pathways people take to becoming a teacher.”
What advice would you give to students hoping to pursue teaching?
“Go volunteer in a classroom, and see how you feel in that environment.?You can try different grade levels … if you enjoy being around kids [and] enjoy the process of the classroom. I think that’s the number one thing you should do so that you know what you’re getting into … We’ve all been to school, we know how school works, [but] we’ve never experienced it from the side of the teacher. … I think it would be good for [you as] students to make an appointment with an advisor. Either [your] degree advisor or a BEd advisor. … Just to ensure that if this is a pathway you want to pursue, that you understand what course requirements you need and all of that. Also talk to teachers that you may know in your circle and ask them what do they enjoy about their work? What makes them excited to do it??And what the challenges are, because it’s important that people understand those as well.”
What’s the most important part of educating future teachers?
“Learning how to do a lesson plan and unit plan is only one small aspect of teaching. It’s really the broader understanding of how much impact we have as teachers upon our society. Thinking about how are we going to use the power that we have as teachers to actually benefit society? … How do we understand how caring for children actually has a positive impact on our community? I think these are really important questions for us to consider as teachers. ?Even more so than the unit or the curriculum. How do we engage with children in positive ways? And teenagers.”
Are there any projects you’re currently working on?
“I’m just finishing up my doctorate right now. I’m going to be defending that in April. My project that I’ve been working on for several years is how to support the professional identity of new teachers where they can embrace their cultural selves. How can we authentically be ourselves as we’re becoming teachers? By that, I mean embracing our culture and the many identities that we have within our teacher identity. That’s a question that I’ve been pursuing for a long time, that teaching doesn’t have to look one way. There [are] many different ways to be a teacher, and we should be embracing all of those if we want to be authentic.”
Q&A has been edited for length and clarity.
