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Theron, 2007). Moreover, the role of educators in the HIV and AIDS education includes prevention, care and support, as well as dealing with issues such as confidentiality, identifying and making optimum use of community resources such as health and psychosocial services. Without these, there is a likelihood that the HIV and AIDS intervention programmes may not succeed (see for example, Rofes, 1994). The next section addresses the question of teacher preparedness for their roles as HIV and AIDS educators?
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addition, they gave me access to their classrooms for the learner component of this study in which I used role plays, story-telling and conducted learners’ focus group interviews. This will be reported on in the next chapter.
5.4.1. Inadequacy of Pre-service and In-service Teacher Education
As discussed in Chapter Four, this study examined teachers’ experiences of the HIV and AIDS content and the extent to which their teacher training curricula prepared them for their HIV and AIDS educator roles in the schools. Of particular interest was whether they felt knowledgeable, skilled and empowered to teach young people about HIV and AIDS. My assumption was that teacher educators were well aware and had studied the various policies governing HIV and AIDS education and were focused on training future teachers accordingly. However, data from the questionnaire and focus group interviews administered to teachers and the principal at Lilomo High School suggest that all the 12 teachers in this school, including those who had received some form of training in HIV and AIDS education, felt inadequately prepared to teach HIV and AIDS in the school. According to them, they lacked the necessary skills and knowledge for competently addressing the challenges of their HIV and AIDS work in schools. One of the teachers trained at the LCE commented:
I did a Life Skills Education course for a semester at LCE but I do not feel like it had adequately helped me to respond to the situation in the school. I wish I could be provided with on the job training, refresher courses or in-service training as I see the need for counselling infected and affected people in this school. I do not have counselling skills (Mrs.
Mampho, 12 August, 2013) A second teacher trained at NUL argued:
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In the course, Human Sexuality and HIV and AIDS which I did at NUL there was nothing related to counselling, support and care of HIV infected or affected people. At the moment I just use my experience as a mother to support and care for the learners like any other parent in a normal situation but this is HIV and AIDS. I think professional counselling skills are needed for teachers (Mrs. Letsatsi, 10 August, 2013)
This suggests that these teachers understood the teaching of HIV and AIDS as involving more than content teaching. For them, it involved counselling and support for learners and teachers. A teacher who had participated in a three-day workshop in 2012 added:
The three-day HIV and AIDS training workshop was a hurried activity with a lot of content provided within a very short period of time. It was a tiresome activity and the worst part was that we were not taught how to deliver the content to the young people. I am a qualified Mathematics teacher and I am struggling to competently educate the learners about HIV and AIDS in my class. Maybe teachers could be trained on how they can approach their learners, how they can talk to them at their level. As it is, we are operating in the dark” (Ms. Keletso, 10 August, 2013)
The teacher felt that one cannot use the same methods of teaching Mathematics and other subjects to teach HIV and AIDS. For her being a Mathematics teacher does not automatically mean that one can be an HIV and AIDS teacher. For her, any content has its appropriate and relevant method of delivery.
As argued above, effective learning requires appropriate methods of teaching. In relation to this issue, in a questionnaire administered to teachers, one teacher wrote:
I am not competent enough about teaching my learners about HIV and AIDS. I rely mostly on being accompanied by a professional HIV and AIDS counsellor and the expert patient from a nearby health centre. In their absence I try, but I really feel that I need more training.
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Symbolic interactionism, as advanced by Mead’s (1959) SIT suggests that for effective role performance, people need to be socialized into their new roles (such as teaching HIV and AIDS in schools). However, the findings in this study are that teachers continue to leave teacher training institutions without sufficient preparation for teaching HIV and AIDS in schools, particularly to young people and children in their care. The teachers in this study reported feeling inadequately trained for their HIV and AIDS teaching role. They lacked appropriate skills to counsel, support and care for infected and affected people in the school, or to use the methods and approaches appropriate for teaching young learners about HIV and AIDS. They are even unable to overcome the challenges posed by the socio-cultural context in which their school was located. This is in spite of a curriculum framework that seemingly requires the teaching of the subject. As the literature reviewed in this study suggests, this is not unique to this school or to Lesotho as a country. Several scholars writing in the context of South Africa, for example, have noted that teachers are simply not adequately trained to teach HIV and AIDS education in schools (see Bhana, Morrell, Epstein and Moletsane, 2006; Schulze and Steyn, 2007; Theron, 2007 and Wood, 2008). Such poor preparation is not only detrimental to the teaching of the subject itself but it might also produce stress for the teachers tasked with teaching it. Without proper preparation for their new role, teachers tend to experience role strain, with negative effects on the teaching and learning, as well as on their well-being and the well-being of the learners.
In addition, such under-preparedness or unpreparedness might be part of the reason why many teachers avoid teaching the subject, with negative consequences for the country’s efforts to curb the spread of the HIV and AIDS pandemic.
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5.4.2 Socio-cultural norms as a barrier to HIV and AIDS education in schools
Beyond the inadequate preparation of teachers for teaching HIV and AIDS education, in this study, societal norms and values were also identified as barriers to the effective teaching of the subject. The teachers in the school commented that the norms, values and practices that govern the surrounding communities affected what happened in the school. For example, they indicated that some community members regarded public talk about issues involving sex and sexuality as taboo. The teachers felt that they lacked the skills and knowledge needed for challenging and addressing these beliefs and societal norms. To illustrate, one of the teachers lamented:
I do not feel adequately trained from the three days’ workshop that I attended. It has not equipped me with the skills to challenge the norms and cultures in this school and in the community. I experience negative attitudes from some of the community members. They claim that teaching about HIV and AIDS spoils the innocence of their children and encourages them to experiment with what they have learnt. I just do not know how effectively I can change these attitudes because I see and understand the importance of teaching my learners about HIV and AIDS (Mrs. Mabatho, 09 August, 2013)
The principal agreed, adding:
The teaching of HIV and AIDS is stressful because of the issues that surround it such as stigma and discrimination in the sense that we teach learners coming from different religions and beliefs. Some parents and churches have no problem about it while others find it unacceptable. As a teacher you find yourself torn between what the policy expects you to do and what the parents and the church believe as well as the needs of the learners. Some of us who are trying to teach about it are stigmatized and end up in fear of being ridiculed by the community (Mrs Phetheho, 08 August, 2013.)
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These findings point to the fact that health and sexuality tend to be viewed as private concerns.
Schools (and other institutions such as churches) respond to HIV and AIDS based on these views. As such, in teaching HIV and AIDS content, teachers need to explicitly raise issues that are often regarded as private while at the same time being sensitive to the norms and values of the communities in which the schools are located. Teachers’ effectiveness in mediating sexuality and HIV and AIDS education relies heavily on how they negotiate the slippery ground between socially constructed realities of sexuality and demands of the curriculum (Chetty, 2000; Buthelezi, 2004; Motalingoane- Khau, 2009). For example, young people are regarded as innocent and teaching them about sex and sexuality as dangerous. However, the reality is that young people do engage in sexual activities which sometimes result in unplanned pregnancies and HIV infection. As such, the need for HIV and AIDS education, as well as sexuality education, cannot be overstated.