In 1978 I registered for the first time to study Industrial Psychology at Potchefstroom University, now North-West University. I could not have imagined that decades later I would be reflecting on that journey for an international book. Prof. Silvia Koller, an internationally recognised researcher from Brazil, invited scholars from several countries in the Global South to reflect on psychology in their own contexts. I was honoured to represent South Africa.
My chapter is titled "Navigating challenges and advancing psychology research in South Africa: Strategies for innovation, collaboration, and global visibility" (Rothmann, 2027). It appears in Voices of change: Pioneering psychology in the Global South, edited by A. B. Costa and S. H. Koller (Springer, ISBN 978-3-032-45094-4), to be published in 2027.
Writing it made me look back at a discipline that began under apartheid-era priorities and imported Western models. It also showed me how much my own path was shaped by that history, and by the people who helped me move beyond it.
A lesson that shaped how I worked
The lesson that has stayed with me longest goes back to 1996. I investigated the completion rates of the master's mini-dissertations required for registration as an industrial psychologist. Of 110 students over a 10-year period, only 10% had completed their research component.
That finding became part of how, in a silent way, I looked at making a difference in psychology in South Africa. Psychology in South Africa could not claim legitimacy as a scientific discipline if its training pathways did not cultivate research capabilities. For me, this was an early indication that transformation would require more than policy change. It would require a reorientation of professional identity, from producing practitioners to generating contextually relevant knowledge.
I did not announce this as a mission. It simply guided the choices I made over the following decades.
Growing researchers
As part of this drive to build research capability, many high-quality PhD studies were completed by students I supervised. Since 2002, a good number of industrial psychologists have completed their PhDs with me. They are now making a difference at national and international universities, and their work is the clearest answer I have to the question the 1996 finding raised.
Other lessons from the journey
Agency and negotiation matter. Funding a master's student to teach one of my modules opened space for research. It eventually led to a mandate to build a research culture.
Local relevance and international standards belong together. Working on construct equivalence and the South African Personality Inventory showed me this.
Networks change careers. My first international conference, in 2000, led to collaborations, mentorship and opportunities that shaped who I became as a researcher.
Communities are partners. Advisory boards made my research more ethical and more relevant.
Well-being is not optional. My burnout and depression at 48 were a crisis, but also a turning point. They taught me to value rest, authentic relationships and care for my students.
Most of all, the chapter reminded me that a career is a negotiation between constraint and opportunity. I am grateful to Prof. Koller for the invitation, and to everyone who walked this road with me, from my first lecture in 1978 to today.
