When Martha Maznevski, PhD ’94, did her PhD at Ivey, she attended a seminar on teaching by David Burgoyne, a former Ivey marketing professor who was known for his outstanding teaching.
Two messages from that session resonated with her. One was Burgoyne’s mantra, “They don’t care how much you know, until they know how much you care.” Given his reputation, Maznevski knew he lived by those words. The other was that teaching is something you co-create with your colleagues and students in real time and requires ongoing preparation, hard work, and commitment.
Now as a professor of Organizational Behaviour and Faculty Director for Executive Education at Ivey, Maznevski strives to follow Burgoyne’s advice. That’s why it was extra special for her to receive the 2020-2021 David G. Burgoyne Teaching Award for outstanding impact as an HBA1 instructor at the recent HBA awards ceremony. Although Burgoyne passed away shortly before she finished her PhD, Maznevski recalls her encounters with him and his influence on some of her most important teaching mentors. One of those mentors is Joe DiStefano, an Ivey Professor Emeritus of Organizational Behaviour who was Maznevski’s PhD supervisor, DiStefano won the 1989-90 Edward G. Pleva Award for Excellence in Teaching. DiStefano had been good friends with Burgoyne, and Maznevski said she gained invaluable advice through overhearing DiStefano and Burgoyne discuss teaching. She shared the news of her award with DiStefano immediately, while still at the awards ceremony.
“I thanked my students and then I was texting Joe, saying, ‘You are here with me and Dave is with us, too,’” Maznevski said.
DiStefano has always taken an interest in the Burgoyne award recipients. He contacts them to congratulate them and share details about Burgoyne, pulling from his eulogy for Burgoyne’s memorial service, so they’ll better understand what the award acknowledges. This time, that step was unnecessary. Maznevski had attended the service and knew the speech well.
“It has come full circle because Martha knew Dave and that’s what makes it extraordinarily special for me,” DiStefano said. “I love so much that Martha has this wonderful award because she’s worthy of it. She mirrors Dave’s spirit.”
Learning together inside and outside the classroom
Maznevski said her classroom approach is conversational and student-driven – putting care first.
“What I care about in the classroom is that the students are learning. And I’m always connecting what they’re learning to the practical decision-making – why this is relevant, not just for your grade, but because it’s important for you as a leader,” she said. “Outside the classroom, I love having conversations about what they want to do with their career, where they are struggling, and how I can help. But in the class, we’re going to learn together.”
One of those conversations involved some students’ concerns about the class management. Maznevski worked with them to develop solutions and those students became her allies.
The approach is noticed and well-received. Four HBA students who nominated Maznevski for the award – Brian Chang, Rainey Guo, Kimberley Lu, and Zach Train – cited her attentiveness, receptiveness to feedback from students, and compassion for others.
“One thing I love about Martha is how much she cares – how often she checks in, the time she spends getting to know each of us as individuals, and the love she spreads through her teaching,” said Chang.
While on his HBA section’s executive last year, Train discussed with Maznevski ways to improve online learning. He said she met with the learning teams frequently and followed up on any concerns.
“Martha differentiates her teaching style by envisioning teaching as an iterative process of personal development that goes beyond the classroom,” he said. “She always talks about how she learns from us just as much as we learn from her, and this vested interest she places in her students makes her an unparalleled teacher, advisor, and mentor.”
One topic Maznevski and her students are learning about together is Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion. Maznevski has been studying this for decades; her PhD dissertation was on the synergy from diversity on multicultural teams.
“What does it mean to be marginalized? What does it mean to be racialized? How do we empower that conversation in the classroom in the context of learning? This is an area that I’m constantly evolving and pushing myself on because the environment is changing,” she said. “And the students are much more in touch and aware and therefore have their own agendas around it, which means they’re pushing each other’s agendas more. The joyful part of teaching is they don’t always know that it’s a different way of seeing it.”
Maznevski’s journey into teaching
Maznevski said she has always been interested in teaching, as well as culture and identity, since some of her relatives immigrated to Canada. After earning a Bachelor of Education degree, she taught at elementary schools in Toronto where her students came from many cultural backgrounds. Intrigued by how they navigated their interactions, and with her growing connections with business outlets, Maznevski decided to pursue a business education. She enrolled in Ivey’s MBA program and later switched into the PhD program. The move allowed her later both to teach and continue to research cross-cultural relationships.
She met DiStefano during her PhD and they have been friends ever since. The two even taught together at IMD for 15 years before Maznevski returned to Ivey in 2016.
Maznevski said she has been on a quest to make a difference through teaching, remembering how DiStefano encouraged her to “pass it on” when she thanked him for his mentorship during her PhD.
“I had been given a quest by Joe and [receiving the award] meant I was fulfilling that quest. I felt like I was doing what I was supposed to do,” she said.
DiStefano said his encouragement to pass it on came from reflecting on what he had learned from his own mentors.
“What I was able to do for Martha was what someone had already done for me. That’s passing it on. And Martha receiving an award with Dave Burgoyne’s name on it shows me she’s already doing that,” he said.
But for Maznevski, the quest is not complete since she recalls another piece of advice from Burgoyne: Always keep pushing yourself.
“The award is just a point in time. It’s a point in the river flow. I really appreciate the recognition and it feels good, but the quest is a dynamic one,” she said. “You have to keep going and continue to pass it on.”
