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Can we use young people’s knowledge to develop teachers and HIV-related education?

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Abstract

Despite recent progress in meeting the goals of the Education for All agenda, certain groups of young people are particularly vulnerable to exclusion and underachievement, including children with HIV/AIDS, children living in poverty, and children with disabilities. HIV/AIDS has reduced many young people’s rights to access education, to live a full and healthy life, and to have a life as a child. This article focuses on attempts to continue to empower young people to protect themselves from HIV by exploring the dynamics around HIV-related education in schools, in particular by examining the role that young people’s knowledge can play in improving curricula and thus reducing HIV/AIDS rates. The authors draw on qualitative research in a total of eight schools in Kenya, Tanzania, and South Africa. Preliminary findings suggest that pupil consultation and dialogue can be used to inform thinking on the curriculum for HIV education.

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Notes

  1. Robin Alexander (1999, p. 140) describes pedagogy as “the purposive mix of educational values and principles in action, of planning, content, strategy and technique, of learning and assessment, and of relationships both instrumental and affective” and maintains that pedagogy is “a window on the culture of which it is a part, and on that culture’s underlying tensions and contradictions as well as its publicly-declared educational policies and purposes”.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Education, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK

    Colleen McLaughlin

  2. Human Science Research Council, Cape Town, South Africa

    Sharlene Swartz

Authors
  1. Colleen McLaughlin
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  2. Sharlene Swartz
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Colleen McLaughlin.

Additional information

The research reported here was conducted by Colleen McLaughlin and Susan Kiragu, Commonwealth Centre for Education, University of Cambridge Faculty of Education, UK; Sharlene Swartz and Busi Megazi, Human Science Research Council, Cape Town, South Africa; and Shelina Walli and Mussa Mohammed, the Aga Khan University Institute for Educational Development (East Africa), Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania.

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McLaughlin, C., Swartz, S. Can we use young people’s knowledge to develop teachers and HIV-related education?. Prospects 41, 429–444 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11125-011-9206-6

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