Story Nicole Forrest. Photo Supplied.

Emeritus Professor Ojelanki Ngwenyama is a senior scholar in the Faculty of Commerce’s Department of Information Systems, a member of the Academy of Science South Africa and a pioneering researcher in the information systems (IS) field.

Over more than three decades working with the University of Cape Town (UCT), he has been an exemplary academic mentor, supporting many staff and postgraduate students on their academic journeys.

His pioneering research has drawn on the philosophy of science, critical sociology and political economy to develop approaches for critical inquiry into the social aspects of digitalisation and for developing methods for values-inclusive decision-making about IS design and adoption.

Included on the list of Professor Ngwenyama’s mentees is Professor Irwin Brown, head of the Department of Information Systems. According to Professor Brown, Professor Ngwenyama has had an important impact on the department and faculty.

“During his time at UCT, Prof Ngwenyama has contributed greatly to the establishment of the PhD programme in the Department of Information Systems. The programme grew from a handful of candidates in 2008 to around 80 currently at various stages of completion,” he said.

“Prof Ngwenyama has, each year, run an intensive workshop on “The Philosophy and Logic of Social Science, and Information Systems Research” for new Information Systems PhD candidates. He has also run a separate intensive workshop on “Data Analysis” for Information Systems PhD candidates who are at the data analysis stage of their research.

“In addition, Prof Ngwenyama has supervised and co-supervised some of these candidates. Through co-supervision, he has helped to mentor new supervisors and even assisted when not an official co-supervisor. Beyond co-supervision, Prof Ngwenyama has also taken time to mentor departmental staff and help them develop their research profile, resulting in some gaining promotions as well as new and improved NRF ratings.”

Liberating young minds
From the outset of his career, Ngwenyama has focused his attention on developing scientific research skills in Africa and having the continent’s voices be heard on the international stage by liberating young scientists’ ways of thinking.

“Part of my role at UCT has always been to help young researchers and academics build up our research capacity and to connect them with the international scientific community so that they could effectively participate in the international scientific discourse,” he explained.

A key aspect of this work, he said, has been creating supportive, open and experimental learning environments where students are able to overcome the cultural and psychological barriers that sometimes prevent them from reaching their full potential.

“When I first arrived at UCT, I instituted foundational courses in the department based on my understanding of what young people need to become competent scientists. So I developed curricula that focused on dissolving the filters that students see the world through,” he said.

“Young people in Africa and South Africa generally don’t see themselves represented in the scientific discourse. Coming from outside of what is generally considered to be the scientific metropole – Europe and North America – they have been unconsciously conditioned to think that people who are from those places are scientists, but they are not.

“I’ve always been determined to figure out ways of disrupting that kind of mentality and shifting that mindset to undermine the social programming that limits their thinking. That way, we can enable them to cognitively orient themselves in order to develop the new understandings and tools that will help them deal with the challenges they will surely face in their scientific careers.”

Creating holistic mentoring spaces
At the core of this work is creating holistic mentoring spaces that address both the academic and emotional aspects of student development to build stronger research capacity.

“My job is to build the scaffolding that helps these young researchers and academics to see where their barriers to learning are and how to mediate those barriers over time. Rather than just going in and giving a class, I think about the whole person,” he noted.

“One has to create a learning environment that enables these students to build the critical reflexivity that allows them to look at themselves and their work without judging it too harshly.”

To do this, Ngwenyama uses a range of iconoclastic approaches that encourage students to shed these ingrained beliefs about what being a scientist actually looks like, including musical interludes, meditation and barefoot teaching.

“I have many different strategies that I used to break through, but one of the most important things that I have to do is break the mystique around scientific research and the images that they might have around me as their lecturer or supervisor,” he added.

“In many cases, I arrive for the first day of class and start teaching without asking people to tell me their names or their backgrounds. That shifts the focus away from self-presentation and competition and what has come before, and creates an environment where they can explore new concepts without this outside interference.

“Sometimes I’ll lecture barefoot, I’ll play music or lead a meditation session to quiet the busy minds, or we’ll talk about the social construction of reality. The idea is to get them to understand that the process of learning and becoming a scientist is also the process of deconditioning the mind, so that you can see more and solve bigger problems.”

A model for success
Over the course of his illustrious career, Ngwenyama has instructed and mentored young scientists around the globe.

Whether providing support to researchers and academics in South Africa, the US, Denmark, Sweden, Finland, France, or elsewhere in the world, one thing he has found to be critically important is creating a supportive, open and experimental learning environment.

“It’s important to make space for scientific performance in the classroom, meaning that you show your students that everything is up for interrogation, testing, criticism, validation or even destruction,” he said.

“When we open up that way of thinking, a disruption happens and a transformation takes place that allows us to start shifting our world views to look into problems and overcome all kinds of difficulties. But we have to design a learning environment to create the conditions for that to happen.”

With the longstanding success of the IS PhD programme, producing more than 40 PhD scholars and 100 research papers, Dean: Faculty of Commerce Professor Suki Goodman hopes that Ngwenyama’s pioneering practices can serve as inspiration to other departments and faculties across UCT.

“Professor Ngwenyama has built much more than a successful doctoral programme; he has cultivated a culture of intellectual curiosity, critical thinking and scholarly excellence that has had a lasting impact on the Department of Information Systems and our students,” she said.

“His commitment to developing people and appreciating them as whole individuals, while challenging them to think differently about themselves and the world, offers a powerful model for postgraduate education across the Faculty and the university.”