5.3 How are teachers trained for their role as HIV and AIDS educators?
5.3.2 In-service Teacher Education
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In the next section I examine the extent to and ways in which on the job or in-service training of teachers, who have had or have no prior training in HIV and AIDS education is carried out in order to prepare and to support teachers who teach HIV and AIDS education in schools.
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performance of teachers by offering professional development and support (Farrant, 1980). They are responsible for supervising the implementation of educational innovations, for the appointment and promotion of principals and for encouraging community involvement in the school system. Training teachers in the use of different methodologies for teaching such sensitive content as HIV and AIDS, which involves issues that are regarded as taboo (such as sex and sexuality) in Lesotho communities is key to the success of any intervention aimed at this issue.
According to the interviewed teachers at Lilomo High School in 2013, the first HIV and AIDS workshops for teachers were conducted in 2004. The HIV and AIDS workshops content covered The impact of HIV and AIDS, strategies for prevention and mitigation, HIV and AIDS statistical information, HIV transmission, disease progression, treatment and care of infected people, behaviour change strategies, life skills and open discussion with children about HIV and AIDS. The teachers indicated that the strategies used to facilitate learning in the workshop included discussions, role play, demonstrations and presentations. According to these teachers, the workshop programme started every morning at eight o’clock and ended at ten o’clock at night for three days. According to the teachers, every night the participants had group assignments to work on in order to present to the group on the next morning. According to them, various teaching and learning aids were used, including flip charts, pictures and leaflets.
In terms of the selection of teachers for participation in these workshops, school principals were required to nominate two teachers from their school. The principal of Lilomo High School, for example, stated that no guidelines or criteria for the selection of teachers were communicated to schools. Therefore, in many cases, the principals nominated teachers that did not have an adequate
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teaching load, regardless of whether they were interested in the topic or not. Furthermore, teachers confirmed that they were nominated by the principals regardless of whether or not they had previous training in HIV and AIDS or whether or not they were interested in teaching about HIV and AIDS.
From the principal’s and teachers’ comments in the interviews, it was clear that teachers were nominated to attend the workshop in contradiction to the guiding principles stipulated by the Life Skills Book for Teacher Trainees (2012: x). The principles state that every student teacher with sufficient motivation, interest and capacity should be given the choice of becoming a peer-educator and HIV and AIDS duty-bearer. Non-consideration of the principles might have negative consequences for the teaching of HIV and AIDS education in schools. Teachers with low motivation are likely to feel apathetic about the subject and might fail to teach it. However, some teachers in the study saw the workshops as beneficial. For example, one teacher commented:
I did not register for Human Sexuality and HIV and AIDS course while at NUL. So, apart from reading about HIV and AIDS from different print media I was lucky to be nominated by my principal to attend a workshop for HIV and AIDS and now even though I am not competent enough I am trying my level best teaching learners at my school about HIV and AIDS (Mrs.
Tšepe, 15 August 2013).
A second set of three-day workshops for teachers was implemented after the introduction of Life Skills Education in schools in 2007. School principals were requested to release grade 4 – Form C (Grade10) teachers from their schools to attend the workshop. Three teachers teaching Grades 8, 9 and 10 from Lilomo High School (the setting for this study) participated in the workshops. According to the teachers, the sub-topic dealing with HIV and AIDS covered content such as the difference
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between HIV and AIDS, modes of HIV transmission, HIV and AIDS prevention, drivers of HIV and AIDS, cultural practices that put people at risk of HIV infection, importance of HIV testing and counselling, the impact of HIV and AIDS on the education sector and the importance of adherence to medication.
Furthermore, four-day workshops on HIV and AIDS were provided for school principals by the Ministry of Education and Training personnel in 2012. The workshop topics included: Counselling of young people, psycho-social support, factors promoting the spread of HIV and AIDS, Voluntary HIV testing and adherence counselling. After the training, the principals were expected to ensure facilitation of Life Skills Education and HIV and AIDS education in their schools. The principal of Lilomo High School elaborated:
In our training we covered content like psychosocial support, drivers of HIV and AIDS, voluntary testing and adherence counselling and basic facts about HIV and AIDS. We were engaged in role play, discussion and were given information. People Living Positively with HIV and AIDS gave their testimony. We were given handouts for use in our schools (Mrs.
Phetheho, 12 August, 2013).
The present study analysis is that the workshop content focused more on knowledge and facts about HIV and AIDS, including basic information about prevention. As stated above, in my view, what was missing in the workshops was an engagement with the socio-cultural context in which the youth live and learn and in which teachers live and do their work. This is informed by my belief that effective HIV and AIDS education can only be effective if there is change in the unequal gender norms in and around schools (see also Bhana, Morrell, Epstein and Moletsane, 2006; Schulze and Steyn, 2007;
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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?