An analysis of the factors shaping teachers' understanding of HIV/AIDS

This study examined factors shaping teachers' understanding, experience, and teaching about sexuality and HIV/AIDS in some schools in the Western Cape and Mpumalanga, South Africa. Through the use of in-depth, semi-structured interviews with teachers and participant classroom observations in a select number of primary and secondary schools in the Western Cape and Mpumalanga, the study addressed two pertinent questions relating to (a) the content and form of HIV/AIDS and sexuality discourses in school and, (b) what actually happens in the act of teaching when HIV/ AIDS and sexuality is the focus. It began by asking questions about who the teachers are and what it is about themselves that they bring into the classroom. Questions were raised too, about what happens in classrooms when teachers invoke the body in its physical and sexual form, a body usually absent in the public arena of the classroom. The study worked from the premise that what teachers do in the classroom is not neutral.

Grantor dc:publisher.institution

School of Education

Year dc:date.issued

2006

Author dc:creator

• Baxen, Mary Jean

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Soudien, Crain

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/11427/8210

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/8210