Contextualising the journey
CHAPTER 1 The Journey begins
1.2 Purpose and rationale of the study
There are five considerations driving the rationale and motivation of this study. They relate to contextual, policy, academic, personal, and theoretical issues. Firstly, Lesotho has a very high rate of HIV infections especially among the age group 15- 25 years, most of them still in schools with a majority being girls and young women. It was reported that in 2000, 25% of Lesotho‟s workforce died of AIDS related deaths (USAID, 2005). For a developing country, this becomes a problem because Lesotho‟s development depends on a healthy and educated workforce.
In a bid to reduce new HIV infections among the youth, the government of Lesotho in 2004 introduced sexuality, HIV and AIDS education as cross-cutting issues to be infused or integrated into existing subject areas (International Bureau of Education, 2003) through the Population and Family Life Education (POPFLE) framework. This was done despite the fact that Kann et al (1995) had already argued that the integration approach had not met with any success. Their study at the Centre for Disease Control in America shows that the model of integration in schools may simply mean „watering down‟, diffusion and occasionally confusion of the intended messages. Based on how a number of schools were addressing health issues, they concluded that there is a strong case against integration model. UNICEF (no date) thus encouraged member states to adopt the
“carrier” or “separate subject” strategy of dealing with sexuality issues. They support the teaching of essential knowledge, attitudes and skills within one subject. In accordance
with this argument, Life Skills Education (LSE) was introduced into the Lesotho National Curriculum in 2007 as a niche for sexuality education and HIV/AIDS education.
With girls and young women being more vulnerable to HIV infection due to biological and socio-economic factors (Long, 2009b), it is important to find out how women teachers as carers and nurturers understand, approach and experience the teaching of sexuality education in a bid to stop further infections especially among their girl students.
This study illuminates, in a way, the type of sexuality education that is happening in Lesotho schools, especially rural schools, and how and why women teachers within this context play out in the effectiveness of sexuality education.
Secondly, the policy change from integration and infusion of sexuality education into existing subject areas, to Life Skills Education as a niche for sexuality education is a reflection of Lesotho‟s search for effective strategies for the facilitation of sexuality education for Basotho youth. Given that few studies have been undertaken since the call for infusion and integration (Motalingoane-Khau, 2007b) and none since the introduction of Life Skills Education, there is need for a study that explores the understandings regarding sexuality education and how teachers experience the teaching of sexuality education in their classrooms.
Ladson-Billings and Tate (2006) argue that education scholars must undertake research that speaks to the pressing issues related to education, and that education research must be in the public interest. Drawing on these arguments, this study addresses the understandings and practice of sexuality education as a public issue affecting Lesotho‟s national education. Thus, the study is timely and relevant to the current debate on the role of sexuality education in public education for the reduction of new HIV infections in society.
The third consideration is academic, arising from the work that I carried out for my Masters degree on the adolescent sexual experiences of female Basotho teachers and how these influenced their handling of sexuality education and HIV/AIDS education in urban
secondary schools (Motalingoane-Khau, 2007b). Suggestions from this study were that further research should explore: firstly, how women teachers teach about issues of sexuality; secondly, how the teaching of sexuality education is influenced by women teachers‟ lived experiences; and thirdly, how women teachers are themselves influenced through the experience of teaching sexuality education, most especially in rural schools.
This study is constructed around these questions and issues.
It was the debate surrounding who should teach sexuality education, how and when it should be taught and to whom that forced the government of Lesotho to opt for sexuality education as a subject to be infused and integrated into existing subject areas. Following the example of other Southern African countries, Lesotho introduced Life Skills Education, a standalone subject, as the niche for sexuality education and HIV/AIDS education, thus ensuring that there will be teachers specifically assigned the teaching of the subject, other than in the past when every teacher was expected to teach about sexuality and none did (Motalingoane-Khau, 2007b). This new standalone subject has the role of enhancing the knowledge and HIV/AIDS awareness among the youth by developing their coping skills in order for them “to confront issues of parental loss, recognising situations of risk and minimising high-risk behaviour that could lead to becoming infected with HIV” (UNICEF, 2007, p.3). This study thus extends the academic work on sexuality education and offers me the opportunity to partake in the national sexuality education curriculum debate.
In addition, academic work in both local and international literature on sexuality education highlights the debate on what should be taught as sexuality education in schools. This debate is, however, on sexuality education as a stand-alone subject and not carried within another learning area, and how it is being taught, if at all, in schools (Epstein, 1997; Jones & Mahony, 1989; Measor, Tiffin, & Fry, 1996; Renold, 2005;
Westwood & Mullan, 2007; Wolpe, 1988), and teachers‟ lives and experiences as key mediating factors in the teaching of sexuality and HIV/AIDS education (Baxen, 2006;
Baxen & Breidlid, 2004). There is, therefore, a gap in the literature on the debate around teachers as curriculum developers within sexuality education classrooms, how they do the
actual teaching and how they experience the teaching of sexuality education. This study serves as a platform for my participation in the global debate about sexuality education and to make a contribution to knowledge by addressing the gap in existing literature on sexuality education, significantly so from an African context.
The fourth consideration relates to my personal experience as a woman teacher and novice teacher educator. As a young science education graduate, my first teaching job was in a rural school where I taught biology. I faced a lot of challenges addressing only the mechanics of sex as required by the biology syllabus. The taboo nature of sex made it difficult for me to freely discuss sex, reproduction and development with my students.
When I was assigned to teach Guidance and Counselling in the same school, it became even more difficult for me to address issues of sexuality where I had to include the social aspect of sex. I am at the moment teaching a Bachelor of Education Honours group in Gender and Education at the University of KwaZulu-Natal. I have to teach them about issues of gender, sexuality and HIV/AIDS and how to address them with their learners in schools. While most of this group are adults, it is still a challenge for me to talk freely to them about sex and sexuality.
It is through reflecting on these experiences that I have come to ask myself how other women teachers actually teach about sexuality, how they understand and experience the teaching of sexuality education especially in rural schools. This study is a way of strengthening my professional competence as a woman teacher and novice teacher educator by advancing my knowledge and understanding of the cutting-edge debates on the theory and practice of sexuality education in the age of HIV and AIDS.
The fifth consideration relates to the theoretical construction underpinning the curriculum of sexuality education. By exploring the understandings on sexuality education and how women teachers experience teaching it in rural schools, this study proposes a theoretical construction that should inform the policy and decisions regarding sexuality education appropriate for a developing country like Lesotho. Thus, it could be of benefit to both professional teachers, teacher educators and educational leaders; thereby helping in
developing and improving the provision of sexuality education suitable for the educational needs of Lesotho.