'How did a white girl get AIDS?' Shifting student perceptions on HIV-stigma and discrimination at a historically white South African university

Abstract

Classroom discussions with predominantly White, middle-class student teachers revealed that they still perceive HIV as a disease which Black, poor and promiscuous people bring on themselves. Unless such beliefs are problematized, they are likely to be perpetuated in their teaching of HIV and sex education in the Life Orientation classroom. To disrupt this thinking, I invited a professional White woman who has lived with HIV for the past 16 years to share her lived experiences. Students constructed drawings and narratives to reflect on their understanding of HIV before and after the guest lecture. These reflections served to disrupt student thinking about HIV. Thematic analysis indicated a shift in response from distancing, blame and rejection towards care, understanding, support and hope. This pedagogical strategy created an opportunity for trainee teachers to begin to think how they could contribute as teachers towards creating a more inclusive citizenry as a riposte to the history of division, discrimination and 'othering' in South Africa.

A Systematic Review of the Provision of Sexuality Education to Student Teachers in Initial Teacher Education

“…The research studies reviewed predominantly focused on examining a particular educational input on SE during ITE (Sinkinson, 2009;Vavrus, 2009;Gursimsek, 2010;Harrison and Ollis, 2015;Brown, 2016;MacEntee, 2016;Ollis, 2016) or investigating the SE content covered during ITE (Rodriguez et al, 1997;McKay and Barrett, 1999;Carman et al, 2011). Fewer of the reviewed studies focused on student teachers' skills to teach SE (e.g., Sinkinson, 2009;Vavrus, 2009;Harrison and Ollis, 2015;Goldman and Grimbeek, 2016;MacEntee, 2016) or student teachers' attitudes regarding SE (e.g., Sinkinson and Hughes, 2008;Sinkinson, 2009;Vavrus, 2009;Gursimsek, 2010;Johnson, 2014;Brown, 2016). The findings of the studies were synthesized and categorized in relation to institutional/programmatic level or individual student teacher level.…”

“…Similarly, Sinkinson (2009) reported a noticeable lack of development of criticality regarding socio-cultural perspectives of SE from the completion of an introductory health education course (2004, first year) to the completion of a specialist health education course (2006, third year). Finally, albeit difficult to generalize given the study's small sample size, Brown (2016) reported that experiential pedagogical approaches, through inclusion of a guest speaker living with HIV, and employment of a critical, creative arts-based pedagogical strategy offered a critical lens through which student teachers moved from a position of stigmatization toward one of understanding and compassion.…”

“…Vavrus (2009) further suggests that instruction on conducting discussions related to gender identity and sexuality, and strategies to respond to homophobic and sexist discourse should also be provided. Participants in Brown's (2016) study similarly reported that they would have liked to have had more opportunities to familiarize themselves with facilitating visual participatory methods when teaching about SE topics such as HIV and AIDS.…”

“…One study collected data from both student teachers and teacher educators/course providers (Johnson, 2014). The samples size of studies varied from three to 478 participants but were generally small (eight of the studies had fewer than 90 participants : Vavrus, 2009;Carman et al, 2011;Goldman and Coleman, 2013;Johnson, 2014;Harrison and Ollis, 2015;Brown, 2016;MacEntee, 2016;Ollis, 2016).…”

“…Educational input studies were classified as examples of research which assessed a particular course, module, or lecture on SE at ITE. With regards to theoretical approaches that may have informed the educational input studies reviewed, three did not report a specific theoretical approach (Sinkinson, 2009;Gursimsek, 2010;MacEntee, 2016), and the remaining four reported that a critical approach was adopted (Vavrus, 2009;Harrison and Ollis, 2015;Brown, 2016;Ollis, 2016). An overview of study characteristics are presented in Table 5.…”