Audrey Msimanga, the 2021 president-elect and head of SAARMSTE capacity building passed away on 29 June 2021 due to COVID-19. She had just begun work as Head of School at the Wits School of Education. Born in Zimbabwe, Audrey studied and worked in three countries – first in Zimbabwe, then Botswana and most recently South Africa. She shifted from a career in ornithology and biology to science education in the early 2000s. On completion of her PhD, she quickly became a revered supervisor and research leader. At the time of her passing, she was an associate editor of the Journal of Research in Science Teaching (JRST), president-elect of the Southern African Association for Research in Mathematics, Science and Technology Education (SAARMSTE), an active researcher in argumentation and teaching in multilingual contexts and, of course, an active member of international associations such as the European Science Education Research Association (ESERA) and the USA based National Association for Research in Science Teaching (NARST). She was a member of a plenary panel discussion at the 2019 European Science Education Research Association (ESERA) conference in Bologna. This obituary contains reflections on her life from her former supervisor, former PhD students and international research associates and friend; testifying to the impact her life has had on others.
Her PhD supervisor, Tony Lelliott, reflected that he knew Audrey’s work best from her supervision and publications in recent years, but her life in academia started earlier. Audrey worked as an ornithologist in Zimbabwe, a Life and Physical Sciences teacher in schools, and a Biology lecturer, tutor, and demonstrator in universities in Botswana and South Africa before she embarked on her PhD in 2007. Her Masters research at the University of KwaZulu-Natal was on the evolution of the house sparrow (Passer domesticus) in Southern Africa. In 2007, she became the South African science education researcher on a UK funded project on implementation of curriculum change across six institutions. She used the project as the basis of her PhD, titled Talking science in South African schools: Case studies of Grade 10-12 classes in Soweto.
Two of her former PhD students, Brighton Mudadigwa and Hlologelo Climant Khoza, now working at the University of Pretoria, noted that the story of Audrey Msimanga would be incomplete without an account of how her research interest influenced her supervision of her postgraduate students. Her work on classroom talk and argumentation, underpinned by socio-cultural theory defined how she approached the supervision of her students. Audrey formed a research group comprised of postgraduate students at all levels, who met fortnightly in university term time. Each meeting was characterised by at least one presentation from a student, with feedback from other students. Audrey’s way of directing the discussions was significant to her former students. This practice was mirrored in the discussion sections of two of her papers, “Making sense of science: Argumentation for meaning-making in a teacher-led whole-class discussion” and “Talking science in multilingual contexts in South Africa: Possibilities and challenges for engagement in learners home languages in high school classrooms” published in the International Journal of Science Education. In these discussions, students were groomed and taught to make claims that are supported by empirical evidence. They were encouraged to challenge, interrogate each other’s ideas, and ask thought-provoking questions.
Audrey did not allow the group to disintegrate after taking up a Head of School post at Sol Plaatje University in Kimberly in 2018. Instead, she initiated another inter-institutional group with other research disciplines in Mathematics (Tshwane University of Technology), Life Sciences (Wits and Sol Plaatjie Universities), and Physical Sciences (Wits and Sol Plaatjie University). The supervisors brought their students to the whole group discussion, where argumentation was used as an active tool of collaborative sense-making. Audrey argued that effective supervision is attained through collaboration, where talk and argumentation are key elements in reaching a consensus for any discussion.
Paul Denley from University of Bath in the UK reflected that although he first came to know Audrey in 2007 as a PhD student, it was not until 2014 when she invited him to join a Language in Science project as an international collaborator that he first began to work with her in a more intensive way and to have contact with several of her research students. Audrey’s project was funded by an NRF grant where a distinctive feature of the project was the expectation that support will be given to research students to complete master’s and PhD studies linked with the project. Thus, the project had a clear role in developing research capacity in South Africa.
The project enabled experienced academics from several South African universities to work alongside the research students to pursue project aims and developed through a natural process into a small community of practice. From Audrey’s own relatively recent experience of completing her own PhD she was able to appreciate the value of extending from what is often a traditional student-supervisor relationship to a situation where students were able to work with several experienced researchers as well as with each other to provide a network which could provide both support and challenge. As mentioned above, Audrey’s research students met for less formal regular meetings where students presented work to one another. In addition to these meetings, Audrey organised several writing retreats for this group allowing a concentrated period together away from other pressures and which included social as well as intellectual activities. During these retreats, students were encouraged to stand back and reflect on their ‘learning journeys’ at different points which helped develop group identity.
All these activities were supplemented by other opportunities offered by the institution and by SAARMSTE which operates an annual Research School to support research students in those disciplines. Audrey was actively involved in SAARMSTE Research Schools and the 2021 event was dedicated to her memory. Paul reflected that it was a privilege to have been involved as a peripheral member of the group, to attend writing retreats and conferences with them and to see the students’ progress from early ideas about their research through to completing their studies.
Martin Braund from York, UK described Audrey as a critical thinker, motivator, and friend. He first met Audrey at a SAARMSTE conference in 2007. He was working with the Critical Thinking Group in Cape Town, researching argumentation and critical thinking in science, and directing a project on discussions in science in the UK. Audrey was working on her PhD at the time on, “Talking science in South African high schools” so he found an immediate connection. She impressed him with her grace and charm that did not hide a critical, questioning edge. Later, he was asked to be her external examiner and commented that she blended a personal narrative on her journey as a researcher with a precise analytical style that made her text a joy to read. He considered her thesis the very best he has examined.
Audrey’s ability to empathize with the efforts and journeys of researchers like herself was crucial in her relationships with students and colleagues. He recalls that she invited him to work with her staff at Sol Plaatje University in Kimberley where they ran a research workshop on a Saturday because the campus was closed due to disturbances. To his amazement, and as testament to her ability to motivate, twenty-five of her colleagues attended, working from eight in the morning until early evening.
Audrey made others think in new ways about science students’ reasoning. She wrote about a student refusing to place an owl at the top of a food web, even though this was the obvious correct answer. Audrey showed that, in this student’s language and culture, an owl is a harbinger of death and so could never be considered. After Martin’s presentation on Transdisciplinarity at the 2020 SAARMSTE conference, she challenged him to value disciplinary knowledge, far more than he was prepared to do at the time. He reflected that Audrey made us all think wider – that was one of her great gifts that will be sorely missed.
Compiled by:
Marissa Rollnick (Wits School of Education), Tony Lelliott (South African Institute of Distance Education), Brighton Mudadigwa (Faculty of Education, University of Pretoria), Climant Khoza (Faculty of Education, University of Pretoria), Paul Denley (University of Bath), and Martin Braund (University of York).