Old enough to know

Consulting children about sex and AIDS education in Africa

Tables and figures

Acknowledgements

Abbreviations and acronyms

Foreword

Old enough to know visual data: Photovoice

1. HIV/AIDS, sub-Saharan Africa and education
   AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa
   The role of education
   The nature of the response
   This project and its aims
2. Consulting children and stakeholders through research
   Aims and design of the study
   Beginning the study Ethics, sampling and access
   Data-collection activities and challenges
   Learnings and limitations
3. Country context, education policies and AIDS education
   Kenya
   South Africa
   Tanzania
4. A rapid ethnography of contexts and AIDS education
   Rapid ethnography
   Homes, communities and schools
   The school as a context for HIV/AIDS education
   Reflections on knowledge, power and pedagogy
5. Young people's in and out of school sexual knowledges
   Methods and theories
   Out-of-school sources and content of sexual knowledges
   In-school sources and content of sexual knowledges
   How contexts affect sexual knowledges A comparison
6. AIDS education in the classroom: Perceptions and dilemmas
   Pupils' role plays
   Teachers perceptions of their HIV/AIDS education practice
   Community stakeholders' perceptions of HIV/AIDS education
   Reflections on social space
7. Dialogues for change
   Dialogue Its importance and process
   Dialogue of actors
   Varying discourses in the dialogues
   Varying locations of power and agency
   The possibility of change
8. Improving practice and effecting change
   A summary of findings
   Between innocence and exposure/empowerment
   Beyond cultural impediments to learning
   Back to Bernstein and consulting pupils

Conclusion

References

Appendices
Appendix 1: Research instruments
Appendix 2: Toolkit for change
Appendix 3: Informed consent (samples from South Africa)
Index

Notes on authors

Colleen McLaughlin (UK), PhD, is Deputy Head of Faculty at the Faculty of Education University of Cambridge, where she is responsible for international initiatives. She is also a project leader in the Centre for Commonwealth Education. She has a lifelong interest in the psychosocial aspects of education and has worked on the personal and social aspects of education, including sex education, for the last thirty years. Other recent research has included research on of bullying and difference, and counselling interventions with children and young people. Her recent publications include The Supportive School: Wellbeing and the Young Adolescent (2011)(with J Gray, M Galton, B Clark, & J Symonds. Cambridge: Scholars Press); Networking Practitioner Research (2007) (C McLaughlin, K Black-Hawkins & D McIntyre. London: Routledge) and Researching Schools: Stories from a SchoolsUniversity Partnership for Educational Research (2006) (C McLaughlin, K Black-Hawkins, S Brindley, D McIntyre & K Taber, London: Routledge).

Sharlene Swartz (South Africa), PhD, is a sociologist and Research Director in the Human and Social Development research programme at the Human Sciences Research Council, South Africa. She is also a visiting research fellow at the Centre for Commonwealth Education, University of Cambridge, UK. She has undergraduate degrees in science (University of the Witwatersrand) and theology (University of Zululand), both in South Africa, and holds a masters degree from Harvard University and a PhD in the Sociology of Education from the University of Cambridge, UK. Her research interests focus on youth and poverty, social inequality, the sociology of morality and masculine moralities. She is the author of Teenage tata (Cape Town, HSRC Press, 2009 with A Bhana), The moral ecology of South Africas township youth (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2009; Johannesburg: Wits Press, 2010) and Moral Education in sub-Saharan Africa: Culture, economics, conflict and AIDS (London: Routledge, 2011, co-edited with M Taylor).

Susan Kiragu (Kenya), PhD, is a social scientist, and a Research Associate at The Centre for Commonwealth Education, Faculty of Education, University of Cambridge, UK. She has undergraduate and masters degrees in education from Kenyan universities, and a masters degree and a PhD in education from the University of Cambridge. Her research interests are centred in Africa especially on HIV/AIDS and sexuality education, and gender and education. She has published in journals such as Journal of Moral Education, Qualitative Research and Sex Education, in addition to a number of book chapters.

Shelina Walli (Tanzania) is assistant lecturer at Aga Khan University, Institute of Educational Development East Africa (AKU IED-EA), based in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. She has an undergraduate degree in Early Childhood Education and a Masters of Education (Teacher Education) from AKU IED-EA. Her masters thesis considered the integration of HIV/AIDS education into the pre-school curriculum. She has a passion for early childhood and has been in the field of education in various capacities for 20 years.

Mussa Mohamed (Tanzania) is a science and health education facilitator at Aga Khan University, Institute of Educational Development (IED) East Africa, in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. He has an undergraduate degree in Science with Education from Dar es Salaam University, and holds a masters degree from Aga Khan University, IED, Pakistan. His research interests focus on improving the teaching and learning of HIV/AIDS and on promoting science literacy.