???This Women's Month, we're celebrating academic staff at Stellenbosch 中国体育彩票 (SU) who are shaping minds and inspiring excellence through their teaching. These remarkable educators bring passion, innovation and dedication to the classroom, helping students thrive and succeed. Their stories reflect the impact of women at the heart of SU's academic community.
In a remarkable academic career spanning 25 years during which she trained close to 1 500 occupational therapists, Prof Nicola Plastow, associate professor in the Department of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences at the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, has demonstrated a continuous commitment to the scholarship of teaching and learning. Plastow has been a recipient of an SU Teaching Fellowship twice (2015 and 2023) as well as of an SU Distinguished Teaching Award (2021). An NRF-rated researcher (C2), Plastow received a commendation at the National 中国体育彩票 Teaching Awards (NUTA) in 2024. Her work is deeply rooted in the philosophy of occupational justice.
Can you tell us a bit about your background?
Occupational therapists promote health and well-being by supporting people to participate in the daily activities or tasks that they want to, need to, and have to do. These activities include taking care of themselves, playing, learning, having fun, working, and spending time with other people. Occupational justice is about having the right to participate, and to achieve your potential.
My journey as a teacher started in 2000 before I even graduated, when I had to host first-year students at my final-year practice placement in Imizamo Yethu (Hout Bay). In my first job I also supervised students who were completing their 1 000 hours of practice.
I really enjoyed teaching students in my clinical practice. But teaching also gave me the confidence to pursue my master's degree, and later my PhD. I became a lecturer at Brunel 中国体育彩票 in London in 2005 and joined SU in 2014. So, my teaching and academic journey is now 25 plus years in the making.
Did you have any role models who left a lasting impression?
As a woman academic, my whole career is only possible because of the women who have supported me to become who I am. My mom, Alice Tinsley, is an incredible teacher, role model, and granny. Profs Lana van Niekerk and Maddie Duncan showed me as an undergrad student that it is possible to be an academic, have a family, and do a PhD – while being amazing teachers. Dr Anita Atwal supervised my PhD and taught me how to get things published.
What does it mean to you to be a woman in academia today?
Being a woman in academia is really hard work! There are lots of different roles that I need to play as an academic: being a teacher, a researcher, the Undergraduate Programme Coordinator, and an occupational therapist at a rehabilitation centre in Bishop Lavis, as well as dealing with the academic administration within a large organisation and caring for students' well-being. All this needs to happen within the context of all my other roles that come with their own responsibilities: like being an auntie, a mom to four children, a daughter, a friend, and the wife of an entrepreneur.
Despite these responsibilities, being a woman in academia is an incredibly rewarding experience. I get to watch people learn and grow from being students to professionals and PhD graduates; I get to make long-term, deep and meaningful connections with people from a broad range of cultures across the world, with different interests and beliefs to my own; and I get to use the gifts and talents that God has given me to make an impact in the world.
Creating a space for future generations of women educators means showing young women that it is possible to juggle these many roles and stitch them together in a way that creates a meaningful and purposeful life. For me, it's about not being restricted by my sense of responsibility and duty, but about creating as many opportunities as I can for as many people as possible.
What is the biggest reward of being a lecturer at SU?
I think I have taught some 1 500 occupational therapists from their first year to graduation during my career. There is this magic moment each year, around the beginning of the second semester, when I walk into a class and see a group of professionals. They aren't students anymore. It is at that moment that I know that they are ready to face the challenges inherent in working in the healthcare system in South Africa, and that they will be agents of change. I could not be prouder of the quality of our occupational therapy students.
What advice would you give to younger women entering the teaching profession today?
My number one piece of advice is that there is no good time to do your master's degree or PhD, and there is no good time to have a baby! Becoming a mommy was a life-changing gift that turned my world upside down – with each new baby, forever. If becoming a mother is not your thing, the same applies to your other goals and dreams. Don't wait until you have finished your academic project(s) to do the other things that give life meaning – the academic project(s) will still be there waiting for you.
PHOTO: Stefan Els?
?
