A Senior Lecturer in the Faculty of Education, who fuses technology into his teaching, has earned himself a National Excellence in Teaching Awards Commendation from the Council on Higher Education/Higher Education Learning and Teaching Association of Southern Africa (CHE/HELTASA).

After bagging a CPUT Institutional Teaching Excellence Award earlier this year, Dr Zayd Waghid, entered the national awards and walked away with a commendation for his contribution to teaching and learning in the country’s higher education.

“The CHE/HELTASA Committee commends you for a portfolio demonstrating a rich and diverse teaching approach and a clearly articulated philosophy,” reads a letter from the Awards Committee. “We invite you to join us at the HELTASA Conference on 27-29 November 2019 in Grahamstown.”

Waghid says the commendation is a validation of his teaching excellence at national level and that his achievement shows that CPUT is serious about teaching.

“My teaching excellence stems from developing myself academically and having strong relations with my students,” says the former teacher at South Peninsula High.

Having grown up in a family of academics, he asserts his ambition to become a professor one day. His father Yusef is a Distinguished Professor of Philosophy of Education at Stellenbosch University, while his brother, Dr Faiq Waghid, is an academic at CPUT’s Centre for Innovative Educational Technology.

Despite the commendation, Waghid says he feels the need to grow himself academically as well as further strengthen his student relations and collaborations with international universities.

He observed that when teaching their learners, his students’ teaching methods are similar to his as they also make use of technology in their classes.

Waghid, who joined CPUT four years ago, developed a teaching philosophy and innovative pedagogies which included the use of gamification, film and online group blogs.

His philosophy helps disadvantaged students who enter CPUT to transition into higher education through the use of technology.

Written by Kwanele Butana
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Dr Zayd Waghid (36), a senior lecturer in the Education Faculty, was recently promoted to the position of Associate Professor and became the youngest academic to bear the title in his faculty.

“My promotion to Associate Professor in less than seven years is a major turning point in my academic career. However, I don't think anybody should be too relaxed about things” said Waghid. “Thanks to the flexibility of my current position and support from my Head of Department, I've been able to significantly improve my research output, with seven publications in 2022 alone.”

Waghid began his career in higher education as a lecturer in 2015, transitioning from a career as a school teacher. “My 6.5 years of teaching experience helped prepare me for my current position,” he observed.

He added that despite the widespread protests that produced a lot of anxiety that year, he concentrated heavily on his teaching while still focusing on research.”

“After my first year of academia, I had a conversation with a professor and, when asked how many research outputs I produced, I said that I had mostly submitted approximately two papers to local journals,” recalled Waghid. “After that discussion I realised then that, although teaching has traditionally been the university's primary purpose, I wanted to find more efficient methods to boost my research output.”

He added that as he began to write more journal articles, book chapters, and his first co-authored book in 2016, he crafted a curriculum that would include a service-learning project. “This I believe was necessary in laying the foundation for me to focus on all three spheres in higher education, i.e. teaching, learning, research and innovation and community engagement.”

After receiving recognition for his research productivity, teaching excellence awards at the university level and registered a service-learning project he was promoted to the position of senior lecturer in 2018. “But I've always had this sense that I should not feel complacent” he said. “I collaborated on writing projects with people from various universities, both in South Africa and abroad and submitted applications for several National Research Foundation projects.”  

His latest entry into the Conversation Africa, an independent source of news and views from the academic and research community,where he further discusses research on his teaching can be viewed on https://theconversation.com/decolonising-education-in-south-africa-a-reflection-on-a-learning-teaching-approach-192190

His advice to young academics just beginning off in higher education: “Create a team of researchers to collaborate on journal publications, and put in time writing both group articles and single authored papers. Every morning except if you have an 8:00am class, start working on your research at 5:00am and don't stop until 10:00,” he continued. “Use this time wisely by focusing only on your research. Create an annual research plan and discuss it with your department head for approval. CPUT has a plethora of opportunities and use these wisely. Be selective about your research without overextending yourself. Do what makes you happy and the rest will follow.”

Written by Kwanele Butana
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Dr Zayd Waghid is “honoured” after being selected by the Department of Higher Education (DHET) for the Future Professors Programme for 2021/2022.

The prestigious Future Professors Programme, which is managed by the University of Johannesburg on behalf of the DHET, is intended to support successful participants in cultivating their capabilities, dispositions, knowledge and provide them with resources needed to navigate the expectations and requirements of the professoriate.

Waghid was selected out of 114 candidates from 26 public universities.

 Reflecting on this feat, the Senior Phase and Further Education and Training Department Senior lecturer says: “The programme is a milestone in my short academic career of six years since it vindicates my status in joining the professoriate in the near future,” he continues.

“I am grateful that I was selected out of a pool of top-performing candidates from 26 universities in the country. The process was quite rigorous and only 29 out of 114 candidates were successfully approved and accepted by the Minister of Higher Education, Dr Blade Nzimande.”

Waghid regards his selection as a vindication of CPUT’s status in establishing itself as a “Smart university” concerning teaching, research and community engagement in the 21st century. “Personally, it is a significant milestone and with that I am honoured to have achieved thus far.”

Since joining CPUT in 2015, the Cape Town-born researcher has always established short-term or long-term targets to provide himself with some direction. The son of a distinguished Stellenbosch University Professor, Yusef Waghid, believes that working smart is key to delivering the core elements of a university educator, namely, teaching, research and community engagement.

“I do not treat these underlying core elements of an academic in isolation but instead integrate them.”

Waghid’s research always informs his teaching, and likewise, his teaching always informs his research, which further significantly influences his encounter with establishing a meaningful relationship with both the local and international community. Asked about his mentor, Waghid responds: “My father is an important figure in my life as a mentor in my research capacity. My family have always supported me and shaped me into the person I am”.

The support that he has received from his family is key to his academic success and he believes that if there are support structures in place to assist one to perform as an academic, “then it ameliorates the burden on one emotionally and, in some instances, physically”.

Earlier this year, Waghid acquired a National Research Foundation Y-Rating at the age of 35 years which is “also a significant milestone in my career as a researcher”.  The hard-working researcher has been involved in several collaborative research projects with colleagues at other universities in South Africa and from other countries. This has led to the recent publications on remote teaching and learning during the current pandemic, which he envisages sharing with the CPUT community.

In his spare time, Waghid does not engage in any scholarly activity, but he reads to his children or goes running. “I enjoy engaging with new forms of technology, which seems to have brushed off on to my kids.” However, Waghid concedes that juggling between his busy work schedule and family is quite challenging, but he says one needs the correct support mechanisms in place. “You need to somehow balance between what is more important and always consider your family and health. I believe that there needs to be a level of negotiation.”

His aspiration is to become an established researcher and to continuously enhance my teaching. Waghid believes that one never stops learning from one’s practices and that there are always ways to grow. “However, this depends on the willingness to reimagine new possibilities.”

Written by Aphiwe Boyce
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