Walking a mile in the other person’s shoes

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Chapter 2 What is the status of the existing knowledge base on HIV/AIDS and teachers?

Introduction

In this study I will try to establish the extent to which the vision of the ideal teacher envisaged in HIV and AIDS and Life Skills policies matches the identities that teachers have of themselves as practitioners. Do the official expectations placed on teachers through policy take account of the realities and identities of teachers in a world with AIDS? Are the images of what the ideal teacher should be and how they should conduct themselves consistent with the personal identities of teachers as practitioners in a context with AIDS?
This literature review offers a critical analysis of the existing research on HIV/AIDS and teachers. The following questions guided the development of the review:

• What is the status of knowledge on HIV/AIDS and teachers?
• What are the major strengths of the existing research?
• What are the major shortcomings in the existing knowledge base?
• How can my research contribute to and extend this existing knowledge base on HIV/AIDS and teachers?

Organisation of the literature review

In interrogating the various published and unpublished data sources, I organised the huge volume of literature into categories as substantive themes for further analysis. As a starting point, I carried out a critical synthesis of the general conceptual literature on the role of education in combating the spread of HIV and AIDS. I then reviewed the research on school-based HIV/AIDS prevention studies and teased out the role and images of teachers as portrayed by research. Next I reviewed the studies that examine the role of teachers in the implementation of school-based HIV/AIDS programmes. Research on the impact of HIV/AIDS on teachers was analysed and, finally, I reviewed those studies that deal with how teachers cope with HIV/AIDS. For all the literature reviewed, I aimed to evaluate its strengths and shortcomings and to illuminate how teachers have been framed in the particular category of literature.

The role of education in combating the spread of HIV/AIDS

Until very recently, the education and social sectors have remained on the periphery of the debates on the impact of HIV and AIDS on their respective sectors (Johnson 2000). A review of literature indicates that research in HIV and AIDS within the education sector has been influenced to a large extent by the dominant discourses within medicine, epidemiology and economics. For the most part, the existing research fails to take into account the social and cultural embeddedness of HIV and AIDS.
Little published research has been undertaken that specifically addresses the potential role of education in combating the spread of HIV and AIDS. It would appear that the available writing tends to focus on conceptualising the impact of HIV/AIDS on education systems and assessing knowledge attitudes and practices on the part of students and teachers (Coombe 2000; Kelly 2000a,b; UNESCO 2001). To its credit, however, this literature has been invaluable in drawing attention to the need for a response, forcing some recognition for action within the echelons of the Ministries of Education (Baxen and Breidlid 2004). For this reason, the review will include some of the existing published and unpublished literature on the subject of HIV/AIDS and education.
In Southern Africa the rapid spread of HIV and AIDS has had enormous consequences for education systems, and for the education process itself. A number of writings on HIV/AIDS and education have alluded to the fact that HIV/AIDS has become the largest management challenge facing education, given the way HIV and AIDS impacts on the education system (Kelly 2000a; Badcock-Walters 2002; World Bank 2002). This has seen a number of policies and programmes across the region aimed at rescuing the education sector and unleashing the potential of schools to fight the impact of the disease. However, despite a growing level of policy actions and practical interventions in the field of HIV/AIDS and education, there is very little empirical research on the subject.
The conceptual literature on HIV/AIDS and education that I reviewed falls into two categories. First, there is a small literature base that deals with schools as important sites for education about HIV/AIDS and for transforming risk-taking behaviour (WHO 1993; UNAIDS 1999; Helland, Lexow and Carm 1999; Kelly 2002; World Bank 2002). Second, there is the literature that challenges the conception of schools as a convenient location for HIV prevention programmes and as a safe haven for pupils (Kelly 2000a; George 2001; Morrell, Unterhalter, Moletsane and Epstein 2001; Leach and Machakanja 2003). Both categories are reviewed below
The focus on education as a crucial weapon in the fight against AIDS has been a common theme in most of the conceptual literature around the subject. In his article, aptly titled ‘Defeating HIV/AIDS through Education’, Kelly (2002) emphasises the need to harness the huge potential of the education sector to prevent further HIV infection, to mobilise the sector to offer care and support to those already infected, and to protect the education sector from the impact of the disease. Kelly (2002) argues that the delay in responses by the international community and the education ministries in the Southern Africa region in the 1990s resulted in the AIDS situation steadily getting worse. According to Kelly, education must play a crucial role in preventing HIV transmission because its principal beneficiaries are young people, ranging in age from infancy to young adulthood. Young people who are in schools, colleges and universities are developing the values, attitudes, knowledge and skills that will serve them subsequently in adult life. Kelly makes a case for the education sector to strengthen its response by focusing not only on prevention but also including care for those already infected.
There has been concern for preventing HIV/AIDS among the 9-14 age group – the so-called ‘window of hope’. In their paper ‘Education and HIV/AIDS: A Window of Hope’, the World Bank (2002) argues that the education of children and youth merits the highest priority in a world afflicted by HIV and AIDS. This is because a good basic education ranks among the most effective – and cost-effective – means of HIV prevention. They assert that education has been proven to prevent HIV/AIDS because it can equip children and youth to make healthy decisions concerning their own lives, bring about long-term healthy behaviours, and give people the opportunity for economic independence and hope. It is among the most powerful tools for reducing girls’ vulnerability. It is highly cost-effective as a prevention mechanism, because the school system brings together students, teachers, parents and the community, and preventing AIDS through education avoids the major AIDS-related costs of health care and additional education supply.
Helland et al. (1999) argue that an important challenge for HIV/AIDS awareness programmes is to reach as many people as possible with relevant and correct information. They state that the education sector is a unique tool for HIV prevention, and that schools influence students through what they learn in the curriculum and through the values they receive including respect, gender equality and human rights. If the education sector was effectively used as a channel for promoting HIV/AIDS awareness, one could reach a very large audience because the sector enrols an ever-increasing number of young people and huge numbers of teachers. According to Helland et al. (1999), HIV/AIDS awareness could reach not only teachers, administrators and pupils but also parents and surrounding community members. They argue that use of the education sector as a channel for promoting HIV/AIDS education would be cost-effective compared to other innovations, if there is sound administration and planning.
In their paper titled ‘Does Knowledge Equal Change?’ Badcock-Walters, Kelly and Gorgens (2004) set out to answer the question; Does HIV/AIDS education, in its widest sense lead to behaviour change? They reviewed a number of studies and analysed their findings in respect of increased knowledge, commitment to behaviour change and evidence of such change. Their review of the body of evidence confirmed that clear links exist between HIV/AIDS education and levels of awareness, and knowledge about HIV and associated risk behaviour. Badcock-Walters et al. (2004) argue that the cognitive and literacy skills required to make informed choices in respect of HIV/AIDS risk and behaviour change are substantially based on levels of education and literacy. They conclude that while there is still some ambivalence about the links, we cannot postpone the use of education as a channel while we wait to demonstrate more clearly whether links are presented.

Abstract 
Declaration
Dedication 
Acknowledgements 
List of Abbreviations and Acronyms 
Chapter 1: Introduction
Chapter 2: What is the status of the existing knowledge base on HIV/AIDS and teachers?
Chapter 3: Walking a mile in the other person’s shoes: The method
Chapter 4: Telling the stories (1) Gift: Finding my joy in theatre and drama
Chapter 5: Telling the stories (2) Ruva: The positive self, the ideal other
Chapter 6: Telling the stories (3) Edwin: Alone in a world where no one understands
Chapter 7: Teacher as role model and ideal citizen versus teacher as HIVpositive person
Chapter 8: How is education possible when there is a body in the middle of the room?
Chapter 9: Teachers as emotional actors
Appendices
References
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