My teaching philosophy has been strongly influenced by my experiences as a black child growing up in rural Standerton (Mpumalanga province, South Africa). Despite the limited resources and challenges faced by my community, I was able to work hard, persevere and eventually succeed. I obtained my National Diploma (cum-laude), BTech (cum-laude) and MTech in Food Technology at CPUT. Later I obtained my second MSc degree at Wageningen University in the Netherlands. I attribute my success and achievements to an amalgamation of ingredients including, hard work, dedication, family support and a bit of luck. However, the people who have inspired and propelled me most were my teachers, professors and mentors who saw potential in me and encouraged me to excellence. I also draw huge inspiration from Dr Lusani Vhangani, who has been my mentor and is now a colleague at the Department of Food Science and Technology. Her continuous quest for knowledge and scientific discovery has also led me to my own path searching for my own meaning, and purpose and ensuring that I contribute positively to society.

I wholeheartedly endorse what the Russian psychologist L. S. Vygotsky said about learning – it is socially constructed. Thus, I believe that students should not be seen or viewed as mere vessels into which knowledge is simply poured. Rather they should be helped to purely understand the World from their phenomenological vantage points. This philosophy well-articulated by writers such as Paolo Fiece and others has helped me in framing my own paradigm of teaching – the paradigm of empowerment.

In my role as a teacher, I have three primary functions: a tour guide, a facilitator, and a gatekeeper. These are not mutually exclusive activities, although students often regard them as such. Each lecture, laboratory practical, homework or assignment contains elements of all three functions.

As a tour guide, I lead my students on an intellectual journey through their course of study. My role is to point out the scenic attractions, highlighting particular features of the subject matter and focusing attention on major points, important terms or concepts, relevant and key issues, and traditional and novel food technologies. It is my responsibility to decide where the path leads, what topics are vital, which concepts are central, and how much emphasis is placed on each subject area. It is also my responsibility to decide how steep the path should be, and whether to navigate my students over obstacles or around them.

As a facilitator, my task is to provide an organisational framework and a set of tools that students can use to assimilate the knowledge they seek. These tools must be sufficiently diverse to accommodate the varying needs of different personalities and learning styles of my students. In my courses, I provide lecture outlines, handouts, worksheets, group activities, and assignments that supplement lectures and practical sessions. On Blackboard, CPUT's chosen Learning management system (LMS), my students can find notes, tutorials, vocabulary lists, self-tests, assignments, crossword puzzles, videos, journal reflections, discussion boards and quizzes.

The variety of these resources are designed to appeal to as many students as possible. Lastly, as a gatekeeper, I am responsible for setting standards of achievement and for evaluating the progress of my students against those standards. I do not reward laziness or sloppy thinking. I insist upon hard work, dedication and excellence. In the course of their education, I expect students to develop an ability to think critically and analytically, to know what questions to ask before making a decision, and to know where to look for answers to the questions they have. Therefore, teaching and learning activities that implement "pedagogies of engagement and empowerment" have become my apex priority as a novice lecturer, academic and long-life scholar. This was fuelled vigorously by my experiences and exposure during the 2018 TDP.

"Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire." (W Yeats)