Three Proposals, One Powerful Idea: Celebrating Capabilities Research in the Making
It has been a proud week at the Optentia Research Unit, North-West University. Three of my doctoral students in the PhD in Social Sciences (with Inclusion and Development) successfully defended their research proposals — a significant achievement that marks the transition from promising idea to sanctioned, doctoral-level inquiry.
This achievement is very much a shared one. I am delighted to have Dr Amanda Erasmus join me as co-promoter on all three studies. Her expertise and dedication have already strengthened the conceptual and methodological foundations of this work, and I am grateful for the partnership as we guide these researchers forward.
What makes this moment special is not only the milestone itself, but the thread that binds the three studies together. All three are rooted in the capability approach — the framework, developed by Amartya Sen and Martha Nussbaum, that asks not simply what people have or produce, but what they are genuinely able to be and to do. Applied to the world of work and education, it shifts the question from mere employment or output to real freedom, dignity, and flourishing. Each of my students takes this lens into a different, urgent corner of South African life:
Zama Kose explores the work capabilities of emerging women academics in higher education — asking what genuinely enables, or constrains, women at the start of their academic careers to thrive. In a sector still marked by uneven playing fields, it matters deeply.
Geraldine van Heerden examines the sustainable employability of Life Orientation teachers, who carry an enormous and often under-recognised load. Her study asks what it takes for them to remain able, well, and employable over the long arc of a career.
Maryke Marais investigates the work identity of Life Orientation teachers — how they understand who they are in their work, and how that sense of identity shapes what they are actually able to do and to achieve.
Why does an accepted research proposal matter?
A successful proposal defence is far more than a formality. It signals that a study is conceptually sound, ethically responsible, methodologically rigorous, and worth the years of work ahead. It means an expert panel is convinced the questions are important and the plan to answer them is credible. In short, it is the green light — the moment a research idea earns its place in the scholarly community and begins its journey toward new knowledge that can inform policy and practice.
Together, these three studies deepen our understanding of what it takes for academics and teachers not merely to cope, but to flourish — and they place inclusion, development, and human dignity at the centre of that conversation.
A word of wisdom
Development, in the end, is what Amartya Sen called it: the expansion of the real freedoms people enjoy — the widening of what they are able to be and to do. A doctorate is a small, vivid instance of that very truth. It does not merely confer a title; it expands a person's capabilities — to think, to question, to create knowledge that did not exist before, and to enlarge the freedoms of others through that work. The road is long and demands patience, but as the proverb reminds us, if you want to go far, go together. To walk it alongside students who devote themselves to human flourishing is among the deepest privileges of academic life.
To Zama, Geraldine, and Maryke: congratulations. The real work begins now, and I could not be prouder to walk this road with you.
