Q&A: ‘No one told me maths was hard’

Colourful, sometimes controversial, but never dull. Mamokgethi Phakeng is one of South Africa’s best-known university heads and a brilliant mathematician to boot.

Phakeng, who became the first black female to obtain a doctorate in mathematics education in 2002, started her term of office as vice-chancellor of the University of Cape Town in July 2018.

In October 2021, she was appointed as the firstIllustrious Visiting Professor (BIVP)of the University of Bristol in England because of her “exceptional and inspirational” work in maths教育. In 2019, Phakeng was awarded a doctorate of science from the university.

In the role, she will engage with the university’s academic community, participate in a public lecture series, and strengthen educational andresearchcollaborations between the two universities.

Phakeng has a host of awards to her name, including theOrder of the Baobab(Silver) from the South African Presidency in 2016 for her contribution to science on the international stage.

童年对数学的热爱

帕肯告诉SciDev.Netthat she developed a love for mathematics while growing up.

“我想我正处于10年级，当时母亲听说该地区的一所冬季学校，她把我送到了那里。他们只是在做数学，”她说。

“My school had a winter school for physics, a township school in Ga-Rankua. And it is here that they introduced us to geometry which sort of changed my mind about mathematics because suddenly it made sense.

“假期之后，我回到了ODI高中，并被数学迷住了。这是我可以预测自己将如何表现的东西……所以，我认为这是这次发展的爱。老师介绍了我所掌握的概念，大想法和[我]从那里获得了信心。我当时13岁。”

但是帕肯说，帮助她进入数学的第二件事是父母的影响。她的父亲是该国的第一个黑色广播公司，而她的妈妈是一名学校老师。

“My parents never talked about mathematics [being] hard. There was never a hierarchy of subjects at home. There was only the demand that you [had to] do well. My dad had a demand to be excellent,” she recalls.

Phakeng says this protected her from the fear of maths. “Many children fear science because they’re told maths is tough. Many girls are scared of science because they’re told ‘girls don’t do maths. Whereas I didn’t know, so that naivety about mathematics helped.”

After matriculation, Phakeng enrolled for a Bachelor of Science degree at the University of Bophuthatswana (now the University of North-West). “I was performing well and feeling proud of myself,” she tellsSciDev.Net.

激励年轻人

Phakeng believes young people should be made aware of the benefits of maths such as logical thinking and making sense of things around us, as well as the careers available to mathematicians.

“Many girls are scared of science because they’re told ‘girls don’t do maths. Whereas I didn’t know, so that naivety about mathematics helped.”

开普敦大学Mamokgethi Phakeng

“许多年轻人认为数学不会与某些事物混合。我的意思是，我化妆并进行数学。所以，我对他们说是可能的。这就是您可以实现它的方式。她说：“每天，至少一个小时，您都会做数学以练习以前做过的事情。”

她对数学的热爱使她从事非政府部门的职业，在农村担任老师farm在加入学术界之前，学校“拥有最贫穷的人”。

现在，一个成员木板南非的奥普拉·温弗瑞（Oprah Winfrey）女子领导力学院（Owlag），女孩和许多其他人都仰望她的灵感。她还是日内瓦科学和外交预测者董事会成员，该机构将不同的社区汇集在一起​​，共同期待科学和技术的进步，并基于它们为可持续的未来开发包容性和全球解决方案。

她作为数学老师成功的秘密？“我有这样的理念，即，如果您希望孩子在数学方面做得好，就必须让他们喜欢数学，并使他们喜欢数学，这就是您的教学方式，以便即使您不在那里，他们也可以做到。”

Her journey through academic institutions saw her work in a variety of roles before landing the vice-chancellor role at UCT, considered among the best on the African continent. Phakeng says her rating as a B1 scientist was necessary because “when you’re a black African woman, the assumption is that you are an affirmative action appointee”.

根据南非国家研究基金会的说法，B1 rating是一个“对他或她最近的研究成果的高质量和影响获得的国际认可，其中一些人表明他或她是该领域的主要国际学者”。

“这是非常重要的对我来说每ste蜱虫p, even to get the rating,” says Phakeng, because “there will always be doubting Thomases [who] question how capable you are… So, it’s essential that people can see what you have done. They can check your international reputation as a scholar, as a leader…the数据还有领导和奖学金的证据。我觉得作为一个黑人非洲人，这样做至关重要。”

This piece was produced by SciDev.Net’s Sub-Saharan Africa English desk.