Education is the tool which maintains civilization. With education there is enlightenment. Teaching is the most noble profession and without teachers, knowledge will not be able to reach the learners.
One such passionate teacher is Vassilakou Evangelia. Since the age of twelve, she was magnetized by the beauty of letters, the hidden mystery in the cover of a book, and the knowledge that emanated from the pages of perfectly aligned texts. She pictured herself playing the role of the teacher, standing proudly in front of her idol in the mirror and reading aloud literary, scientific, and philosophical book extracts from her father’s library to a group of students.
This zeal was the initial path that led her to college for undergraduate studies and later to university for her postgraduate studies. She said, “ It was the epistemological ocean, the power of knowledge in human life, my finest motivation to start teaching aiming at the change of obscure worldviews, immense inequalities, fossilized stereotypes, and lack of empathy in human societies.”
She started teaching English language in 1997 . Currently, she is also a tutor in the English Academic Department of a prestigious college in Greece. Eventually, the principles of her teaching, based on eclecticism, were bearing fruit. To exemplify, to foster the 21 st century values of collaboration, and Communication in a globalized world she introduced the notion of “political correctness” in all her classes. To adhere to modern pedagogy, she developed learners’ critical thinking by implementing discourse analysis in the reading sections analyzing textual patterns, and evaluative language revealing societal ideologies. These ideas are creative, innovative and highly practical.
She tried to make a positive change in the education by being a hardworking educator and awakener academic. She had four publications in peer-reviewed scientific journals and one chapter in an edited book published by Cambridge Scholars Publishing (UK).She had also been invited as a teacher trainer by language schools and organizations to conduct workshops on continuous professional development . She delivered around 60 talks, both at a local and international level. Moreover she has also authored 20 articles in prestigious ELT magazines. Furthermore she also became an honorary editorial board member, an advisory international editorial member, a reviewer and a Chief Editor.
She was also awarded a medal for her MA academic excellence and named a Salutatorian, got honoured with 35 awards, and two PhD Honorary Doctorates but all the aforementioned achievements did not happen overnight. She had to conquer financial hardships, and extreme tiredness being a mother of three little children and sacrifice personal time to the altar of her mission. She also got honoured with the most prestigious title – “Influencer of the Year 2021”. With her hard work, dedication and determination she made it all possible. It is rightly said that the future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.