The study reported in this thesis focused on HIV and AIDS education and meaning-making among youth in secondary schools in Lesotho. It aimed at examining the meaning that young people in Lesotho attach to the HIV and AIDS education messages that they receive from the school curriculum. It further aimed to explore the various factors that inform this meaning and the implications they might have for curriculum development targeting HIV prevention. It addressed the question: What meaning do young people make of the messages that they receive from the school HIV and AIDS programme and what factors inform it? To address this question, the study addressed three sub-questions:
• What is the curriculum policy informing the teaching of HIV and AIDS education in Lesotho secondary schools?
• How are teachers trained for their role as HIV and AIDS educators in schools? How do they understand and enact their role?
• How do young people in schools experience the HIV and AIDS education programmes?
The previous chapter presented the research design and methodology used in addressing the research questions that this study set out to explore. The study is located within the interpretive paradigm. An interpretive paradigm emphasises the need to see a phenomenon through the eyes of the study participants and to understand it in its social context (Strelitz, 2005). The paradigm emphasises the
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importance of participants’ views, the meaning that they hold regarding the issues and the context in which they live (Creswell, 2005). The interpretive view acknowledges that, unlike non-living objects, human behaviour is not influenced exclusively by external factors. Humans act on their environment as much as the environment may influence their behaviour (Tesch, 1990; Connole, 1998; Creswell, 1998; Denzin and Lincoln, 2000; Patton, 2002). For these reasons, the study examined young people’s experiences of HIV and AIDS education in schools and the meaning that they attach to it.
To address the research questions, the study adopted a qualitative research approach and data were collected from one rural school, Lilomo High School (a pseudonym), located in the Mafeteng district in Lesotho. The first question (What is the curriculum policy informing the teaching of HIV and AIDS education in Lesotho secondary schools?), was addressed through data that were collected through document analysis. I analysed the international and national policy frameworks that govern HIV and AIDS education in schools. These documents provided information on how international and national policies inform HIV and AIDS education in Lesotho teacher training institutions and in schools. To address the second research question: (How are teachers trained for their role as HIV and AIDS educators in schools? How do they understand and enact their role?), data were collected through questionnaires, interviews and focus groups discussions with teachers and the principal of Lilomo High School. To obtain data that addressed the third research question (How do young people in schools experience the HIV and AIDS education programmes?), the study utilized focus group discussions and participatory methods, including role-play and letter writing with a sample of learners in the school. This chapter focuses on the first and second research question. Chapter Six will focus on the third research question.
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To analyse curriculum policies that inform the teaching of HIV and AIDS education in Lesotho secondary schools and teacher training institutions in Lesotho, I borrow from a Theory of Change (ToC) developed by Unterhalter et. al. (2014) (see Chapter Three). This ToC argues that for intervention programmes to be effective, they need to effectively focus on three aspects 1) changing the institution/school, 2) improving resources and infrastructures in the school and 3) changing gender norms in and around the education institutions (for example schools) (Unterhalter et al, 2014).
Although this theory was developed with reference to prevention of unplanned teenage pregnancies in schools, I use it to analyse how the education policies in Lesotho address the prevention of HIV and AIDS in secondary schools and how they make provision for care and treatment for those who need it.
Second, the study is informed by the symbolic interaction theory (George Herbert Mead, 1959), and the structural role theory. According to both the symbolic interactionists’ and the structural role theorists’ perspectives, role has to do with the parts played by individuals as they live their lives (Schumacher, 1995). The structuralists view role and interaction from an object angle and believe in the predictable, repetitious and measurable aspects of role. According to structural theorists, role is a position that consists of norms of behaviour inherent in the position (Schumacher, 1995). Thus, an individual occupying a given position has to learn the appropriate behaviour, and then enact the role accordingly. In this study, analysis focuses on how educators are prepared for the role of educating the youth about HIV and AIDS and how they understand and enact the role. This thesis takes the position that the activities that HIV and AIDS educators undertake in their respective social institutions are not static. Rather, they vary from time to time due to the interaction between the concerned parties. This study investigated how teachers were prepared for their role as providers of
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HIV and AIDS education in the schools. The interaction theorists’ view, which posits that role acquisition would be an active process, is thus embraced in this study.
Using these theoretical lenses, first, the chapter provides an analysis of the curriculum policies that inform the teaching of HIV and AIDS education in Lesotho secondary school and teacher training institutions. Second it analyses the role expectation of teachers in terms of HIV and AIDS education in schools. Third, using one rural secondary school as a case study, the chapter presents data on educators’ perspectives on their pre- and/or in-service training and preparedness for teaching the HIV and AIDS curriculum.