The dissertation examines the challenges young African schoolgirls face as they negotiate their sexuality in the age of HIV and AIDS. Additionally, this study explores the cultural influences that drive HIV and AIDS among young African women.
Research site and population
It is important to understand the meanings, perceptions and practices of these young women, which are often detrimental to their well-being.
Background on school context
Society and school do not exist separately from each other, what happens in the community affects the school life of students. That's why the school invited people from Alcoholics Anonymous, the police service, and the social development and health departments to raise awareness among students and offer them help where possible.
Biographies of participants
Sexuality: A working definition
According to Selikow, (2004) sexuality is not easy to define as it has many aspects such as art, medicine, violence, pleasure and love. It also includes, but is not limited to, the number of sexual partners a person chooses to engage with and whether or not he or she prefers safe sex.
The use of gender power theories based on African femininity is appropriate for this study as it examines the gender power relations that afflict African women and girls (Connell, 2000). Consequently, this study is also informed by the impact of masculinity on women's and girls' sexuality.
Literature review
- African Girlhood and Sexualities
- HIV and AIDS Statistics
- Race, class, gender and sexuality
- Constructions of sexuality and culture
- Girls and sexual risk
- Cultural myths, virginity testing and harmful practices
- Gender violence and lack of female power to negotiate safe sex
- Empowering girls through education
Stuart's (2009) study argues that research on the realities of girlhood in the era of HIV and AIDS, which puts women and girls at risk, appears incomplete. Research has shown that HIV and AIDS in South Africa mainly affect black African women and girls (Department of Education, 2001).
Research design and methodology
Interpretivist Paradigm
This chapter provides a brief description of the context which bears witness to the circumstances of these young schoolgirls from a black African township. Multiple experiences from these young schoolgirls determined the multiple realities that are the ontology of this study, as reality in the interpretive paradigm is negotiated with the participants (Schwandt, 2000). However, it also gave me insight into how these young schoolgirls both contain and resist a patriarchal gender order.
Research Site
An interpretivist paradigm was used in this study because interpretivists attempt to understand people's social behavior from the point of view of the participants and are context dependent (Cohen, Manion and Morrison, 2000). Moreover, Cohen, Browne and Leung (2007) support the use of interpretivism in this setting when they claim that in an interpretivist paradigm, lessons from experience and cultural ideology co-create each other. The African setting for these young schoolgirls gave me a deep understanding of the African cultural norms and beliefs of these young schoolgirls that impact on their involvement in risky sexual behaviour.
Sampling
The study refutes any idea of a homogenous African sexuality, but rather seeks to understand the diverse sexualities within this sample.
Data collection Interviews
Individual interviews
Opdenakker (2006) further states that in the individual interview, the direct response between the participant and the researcher is spontaneous without extended reflection. I conducted one semi-structured open-ended individual interview with each participant and two focus group discussions to generate data. Both individual interviews and focus group discussions took place in the school staff room during school holidays where there was privacy and no interruptions.
Focus group discussion
In a focus group interview, participants interact with each other and not with the interviewer, with the result that data must emerge from the interaction of group members (Cohen et al., 2000). A second focus group discussion was conducted to obtain even more in-depth data and to address group dynamics as one of the group members dominated the previous focus group. Also, some of the focus group members did not feel comfortable discussing some issues which were extremely personal and I thought that a second opportunity could provide more useful data.
Ethical considerations
From the data obtained, it can be seen that the second focus group discussion elicited more data, with participants appearing more spontaneous in answering questions than in the first discussion. I explained the details of the study in agreement with a space for signatures of the principal, parents and participants. I asked the girl, her parents and the principal for permission to refer one of the girls to the departmental psychologist, since the school does not have a counselor.
Data analysis
I also explained that participation was voluntary as participants were free to withdraw whenever they felt uncomfortable, as mentioned earlier. However, I could not directly deal with extremely personal information because I am not a psychologist; I informed the girls that if it were necessary to intervene if any disturbing findings were made, I would have to get a professional official to assist. I had to intervene to avoid exposing the participant to risks such as suicide because she was missing her parents and to stop further abuse by her boyfriend.
Validity and trustworthiness/reliability
In a qualitative approach, the research lacks procedure that guarantees validity and reliability, and the study cannot be generalized (Slonim-Nevo and Nevo, 2009). The transcripts were returned to the participants to review the data collected and the synthesis to ensure that the meanings communicated were correctly captured and communicated in an appropriate manner. Credibility was considered an important objective in this research, participants were asked to elaborate and clarify some of the answers during their checking of the transcripts.
Limitations
Conducting an interview during school holidays presented a problem as parents expected participants to be at home at a certain time to help with household chores. Consequently, the first focus group discussion and individual interviews were scheduled to be conducted during school holidays on days and times that were convenient for each participant. However, rescheduled discussions added valuable data that were not captured during the first focus group discussion.
CONCLUSION
Time was also a problem for me as a full-time educator who supervises and teaches during the school holidays. However, I had some difficulty gathering focus group members because some simply did not show up for the sessions.
Introduction
RISKY SEX: GIRLS’ PERSPECTIVES
According to the study conducted by Kaufman and Stavrou (2002) in Durban, South Africa, gifts given by African men had different meanings attached to them by girlfriends, "Minister of Transport" who drives the girl everywhere she wanted to go, "Minister of Education" who pays for all education fees for a girlfriend and many others. But this investigation also reveals that the gifts were all given in exchange for sex and other sexual activities that put girls at risk. Girls in this study also believed in using sex in exchange for money, although they refer to this exchange as "prostitution."
Multiple partners, violence and sexual risk
This data implies that girls have an understanding of risky behaviors, they believed that unprotected sex with multiple partners and prostitution is a sexual risk. While five of the girls did not engage in sex, one of the girls did engage in sex and this was influenced by the love making story of one of their friends. The data suggest that there is a sense of ambivalence on the part of the girls.
CONDOM USE AND INFECTIOUS DISEASES
CULTURAL MYTH AND VIRGINITY TESTING
On the other hand, virginity testing (Reed Dance) rooted in a moral revival movement and motivated by a high rate of teenage pregnancy (Mudaly, 2012) has its flaws according to girls in this study. When asked about the role of the reed celebrations in helping them maintain their virginity, girls replied;. Girls in this study claim that virginity testing is a cultural myth because the reed cannot determine whether or not girls are virgins.
HIV AND AIDS AND SEXUAL RISK
Girls express their understanding of how HIV spreads and that everyone (young and old across all races and socioeconomic status) is susceptible to HIV and AIDS. These data reveal that campaigns to raise awareness and information about HIV and AIDS have been successful. These data illustrate that partners will assume that girls have HIV and AIDS or rather ask them who told them that boys have HIV and AIDS if they use Tenofivir instead of considering Tenofivir as a measure to reduce transmission of infections such as HIV and AIDS among heterosexual couples.
ROLE OF MEDIA IN SEXUAL RISK
Family structures
In contrast, the ways these girls used to refute gender power put them at sexual risk as they have multiple partners. Girls may have multiple partners to replace a void in their hearts for the parental love they never had. However, in this study, life-orientation and peer-to-peer sex education through the Girls' Education Movement (GEM) does not prevent these young women from engaging in unprotected sex, but rather encourages them to have multiple partners.
Communication
Girls indicated that they do not decide or plan to have sex, which means they have unprotected sex. Having unprotected sex not only exposes them to sexual risks, but also to pregnancy. As shown in the research of Wood et al. 1998), violence, a male need to demonstrate sexual prowess and coercion present in adolescent sexual relationships, is responsible for high sexual risk taking among these young women.
Virginity testing
Hidden love: Gender ideologies and relationship ideals among rural South African youth in the context of HIV/AIDS. Gender and sexuality: emerging perspectives on the heterosexual epidemic in South Africa and implications for HIV risk and prevention. Title: Negotiating Sexuality: Challenges Facing Young African Schoolgirls in the Age of HIV and AIDS.
TITLE: Negotiating Sexuality: Changes Facing Young African Schoolgirls in the Age of HIV and AIDS. The title of my research is Negotiating Sexuality: Challenges Facing Young African Schoolgirls in the Age of HIV and AIDS.
