Ontiretse Motingwa
North-West University (NWU) Prof Ferdinand Potgieter, a professor and sub-area leader for discipline in the research unit Education and Human Rights in Diversity (Edu-HRight), recently received notice of his C2-rating as an established researcher from the National Research Foundation (NRF).
“When I received the news that my application for rating was successful, and that the committee who presided over my application were unanimous in their decision to award me a C2-rating, I felt like I have finally accomplished what I wanted to in my career as an academic,” says Prof Potgieter.
What makes Prof Potgieter's accomplishment even more remarkable is the fact that he achieved all of this while fighting cancer for the second time since March 2017. Prof Potgieter’s personal research career took flight in 2007 when he joined Prof Hannes van der Walt and Prof Charl Wolhuter in a research project that dealt with the place and role of religion in education.
“In 2009 various esteemed colleagues such as Prof Petra Engelbrecht and Prof Ina ter Avest from the Free University in Amsterdam got involved in my academic career, and that is when my research started a steep upward trajectory. With their support, I started to focus on religious tolerance, hospitality and interreligious dialogue and narrative in education,” he adds.
After repeated requests from his colleagues and superiors to apply for an NRF rating, he eventually mustered enough personal fortitude to complete and submit his application for rating to the NRF.
“A month or so later, I was diagnosed for the second time in my life with male breast cancer,” he adds.
He says receiving this rating was a turning point in his life. “I am done with the past, and don’t feel I have to prove myself to anyone anymore – I have overcome!”
More about Prof Potgieter
Prof Potgieter is a full professor in philosophy of education and education theory at the NWU’s Potchefstroom Campus.
After completing his national service in December 1978, he began his undergraduate studies at the University of Pretoria with the goal of becoming a teacher. He completed his BA degree, BAHons degree in African languages, and a postgraduate diploma in teaching cum laude. In September 1991, he received his PhD in education history from UNISA.
Prof Potgieter has published widely on spirituality and education, morality and education, children's spirituality, sources of inspiration for student teachers, religious tolerance education, and hospitality education. In the early 1980s, he was the first African language instructor in South African history to successfully create, program, and implement computer software that non-mother tongue learners could use to assist them to learn African languages.
He is now the project leader of an international research project on religious (in)tolerance, hospitality, and forgiveness in education with colleagues from Bulgaria, Germany, the Netherlands and Cyprus.
Prof Ferdinand Potgieter.
