Prof Yusef Waghid's phenomenal scholarship was celebrated in a seminar by the Department Education Policy Studies at the Faculty of Education in November before his retirement at the end of 2023.
A video recording of the seminar can be viewed here.
Prof Yusef Waghid, Distinguished Professor in the Faculty of Education, a leading African philosopher of education, holds three doctorates in the fields of education, policy, and philosophy from the University of the Western Cape and Stellenbosch University in South Africa, respectively. As a tenured professor since 2002 he was honoured with the title of distinguished professor (2014-2023) on the grounds of his research excellence at Stellenbosch University. He has been a prolific author with 419 publications to date of which 54 are academic books and edited collections and, 89 invited contributions to books. He promoted 35 PhD candidates to completion, examined 58 doctorates and received the Association for the Development of Education in Africa's prestigious Education Research in Africa Award: Outstanding Mentor of Education Researchers (2015). Throughout his tenure, he occupied leading management positions at Stellenbosch University, such as having been appointed Chair of the Department of Education Policy Studies (2003-2007, 2022); and Dean of the Faculty of Education (2007-2012; 2017-2018). In the main, his long-standing relationship with education began as a high school science teacher (1979-1996) before he joined higher education as a senior teaching advisor to advance his professional career in higher education (1996-).
Prof Nuraan Davids, Chair Department Education Policy Studies, shared about her study as PhD student with Prof Waghid as supervisor. She thanked him for the very high standards he has set and for the influence he had on many colleagues and students. “We can only aspire to do justice to the tone and expectations that you've set."
Prof Madiba, Dean of the Faculty of Education, thanked Prof Waghid for his tireless dedication, transformative leadership, and unwavering commitment to the advancement of education.
Prof Waghid said in his farewell message that he always knew there will come a day when he has to formally retire from an institution. He talked about three words which he thinks constitutes the platform which he used throughout his academic career. These words are wonder, wander and whisper. He said that wonder helps you because it transcends your human thinking capacity to go beyond the notions of reason and justification. “All the students that I've encountered they made me wonder because I would like to hope that I've done sufficiently enough for them to wonder themselves."
He said that travelling is what makes you wander and meander. He and Prof Nuraan Davids collaborated on sixteen books, and he said that sometimes those books were conceptualised on an airport or in the streets of a big city. “Lots of the thinking that goes into our intellectual work, happened casually. You don't have to have a formal meeting to talk about an idea."
He explained that the word whisper to him means that he doesn't have the answers so he doesn't say it out loud because there is the possibility that he might be wrong. “Whispering is your capacity to see your own faults."
