My Becoming and Unbecoming: Life as a Child, Learner and University Science Student

Abstract

The author captures his lived experiences during childhood, as a learner at both primary and high school, and as a university student of science. He discusses his ‘becoming’ by examining the effect of his childhood experiences on his later life. The author argues that his school and university experiences were rooted in fundamental pedagogics, the authoritarian educational doctrine of the former apartheid regime, which advocated separate educational systems for black and white learners and students. The effect of having these behaviourist core values instilled into his consciousness through what Nietzsche terms the ‘teacher- or parent-speak’ phenomenon was stifling. This experience-oriented study demonstrates that our perception of life and understanding of science are deeply rooted in the way we were taught by our teachers.