1,720,966 research outputs found
Understanding gender, sexuality and HIV risk in HEIs: narratives of international post-graduate students
Full text linkThirty years into the HIV&AIDS pandemic, the world is still striving to reduce new
HIV infections and halve AIDS related deaths by 2015. However, sub-Saharan Africa
still faces the burden of HIV infections as governments and private institutions try out
different prevention strategies (UNAIDS 2011). Several scholars have argued that
multiple concurrent sexual partnerships (MCSP) pose the greatest risk for new HIV
infections. Furthermore, research has also linked MCSPs to mobility and migration.
This paper draws from the project ‘Sexual identities and HIV&AIDS: an exploration of
international university students’ experiences” which employed memory work, photo-voice,
drawings and focus group discussions with ten (5male and 5female) Post Graduate
international students at a South African university. Focussing on the data produced
through memory work, I present university students’ lived-experience narratives of
mobility and migration in relation to how they perceive MCSPs and HIV risk. The
findings show how students construct their gendered and sexual identities in a foreign
context and how these constructions intersect with their choices of sexual relationships
and HIV risk. I argue from the findings that Higher Education Institutions should be
treated as high risk ‘spaces of vulnerability’ and hence health support services and HIV
intervention programming policies should be geared towards addressing such
vulnerabilities in order to create sustainable teaching and learning environments that
allow for all students to explore their full capabilities.https://doi.org/10.4102/td.v9i3.19
Exploring understandings of sexual consent amongst Life Orientation student-teachers through intergroup dialogue
Full text linkIn this article, the author reports on how intergroup dialogue was used amongst Life Orientation (LO) student-teachers to deconstruct the heteropatriarchal notions of sexual consent, in the context of gender-based violence (GBV). Three sessions of intergroup dialogue were arranged between third-year student-teachers and female survivors of GBV from a local Non-Profit Organisation (NPO) in exploring the perceptions of sexual consent, to deepen their understanding regarding the concepts of shaming, blaming and silencing that perpetuate GBV in communities. Third-year LO student-teachers engaged in dialogue with four youth survivors of GBV from a local NPO who shared their experiences of GBV and sexual consent. The heteropatriarchal views to GBV held by student-teachers were disrupted through the dialogues between the two groups thus enabling a greater understanding of sexual consent and the role played by shaming, blaming and silencing of victims in perpetuating GBV. The findings highlighted that intergroup dialogue could be a useful tool in creating norm-critical and sex-positive schools and communities
“Our culture does not allow that”: exploring the challenges of sexuality education in rural communities
No full textWithin sub-Saharan Africa, AIDS is becoming a greater threat to rural communities due to the high numbers of urban dwellers and migrant labourers who return to their rural villages when they fall ill and due to the lack of information and health services. Previous studies have found a reduced rate of infection among people who have high educational attainment, and thus advocate for education as the vaccine against new HIV infections among the youth. However, very little research has focussed on the delivery of sexuality and HIV&AIDS education in rural classrooms. With teachers positioned at the forefront of the pandemic, especially in rural communities, it is important to understand how teachers experience teaching about sexuality in rural schools. In this paper, I explore the experiences of eight women teachers through focus group discussions. Thematic inductive analysis was used to identify the stumbling blocks within sexuality education classrooms in rural schools. Societal constructions of childhood and nostalgia for past traditional practices were found to be the major challenges to teaching. The findings highlight the need for a sexuality education curriculum that integrates traditional ways of knowing into formal sexuality education in order for it to be effective in reducing further spread of HIV.Publisher's versio
“They would not like it if men taught in the foundation phase”: SGBs’ perceptions of the employment of male FP teachers
Full text linkEfforts to recruit and retain men in the Foundation Phase (FP) teaching and learning have been a global phenomenon. In South Africa, School Governing Bodies (SGBs) are tasked with the responsibility to diversify schooling by recommending the employment of teachers in all educational phases to the Department of Basic Education (DBE). Two and a half decades since the dawn of democracy in South Africa, the teaching of children in the early years is still dominated by women. This study explores how SGBs in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa approach the employment of male teachers in FP. Using a qualitative research approach, a semi-structured focus group discussion was adopted to generate data with five SGB parent component members. The data was analysed thematically using a feminist post-structural lens. The study found that SGBs’ employment of male FP teachers is based on societal constructions of gender over employment policy guidelines. The SGB members showed a lack of policy understanding and at times misinterpreted the policies. These findings have implications for education policymakers and teacher training institutions in facilitating the smooth incorporation of males in FP teaching
Rethinking constructions of difference : lessons from Lesotho’s chief Mohlomi’s activism against the gendering of witchcraft
Full text linkDiscrimination according to gender has been in practice in communities globally since time immemorial. This discrimination has infiltrated all spheres of life including the naming, shaming, blaming, and persecution of deviant people as witches. The phenomenon of witchcraft has historically been negatively skewed towards women, with women’s gender and sexual diversity being used against them in accusations of witchcraft. In some modern-day African communities, gender and sexual diversity are still regarded as witchcraft or a result of bewitching. While activism against witchcraft has gathered momentum across Africa, it is worth noting that in Lesotho, such activism began in the precolonial era through the leadership of Chief Mohlomi. In this paper, we explore the understandings and experiences of constructions of difference as witchcraft among the Basotho of Lesotho. Using a qualitative research approach, we employed life-history narratives and focus group discussions to generate data with 10 Basotho men and women aged 70–93 years. We used sankofa theory to frame our analysis of the data, which was done thematically. Drawing on the ethnographic data, we discuss lessons regarding constructions of difference as witchcraft, and Chief Mohlomi’s (1720–1815) activism against the discrimination of those labelled as witches. The findings reveal that divergent gender and sexual characteristics and identities were used in labelling certain individuals as witches and unexplainable phenomena as witchcraft. However, the findings also show that Chief Mohlomi set in motion a spirited activism against the persecution of divergent people through his teachings, which led to transformed views on gender and sexual diversity among the Basotho. These findings have implications for an education that embraces diversity in all spheres of life to promote inclusive and sustainable communities.am2023Philosoph
Understanding adolescent sexuality in the memories of four female Basotho teachers : an auto/biographical study.
Full text linkThesis (M.Ed.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, 2007.This study explores the memories of adolescent sexual experiences of female Basotho
science teachers in order to understand the influence of such experiences on their
approach and handling of sexuality, HIV and AIDS education. My argument is that
Basotho teachers arc facing a challenge of integrating sexuality, HIV and AIDS
education into their teaching largely because of their lived sexuality experiences, which
have been shaped institutionally and through societal expectations. An eclectic theoretical
approach, with emphasis on feminism and involving Dewey's philosophies of experience
informed the study. A qualitative research design was used. Data was produced through
one-on-one semi-structured interviews, focus group discussions and memory work with
three participants. I was a participant-researcher and hence contributed my experiences to
the study. Field notes and journal entries were used to supplement the data. The storied
lives of the women teachers have been shared in their own words including the
researcher's autobiography.
The findings show that the adolescent sexual experiences of the women teachers have
shaped their teacher selves within sexuality, HIV and AIDS classrooms. Some of their
experiences have been educative while others have been mis -educative, and thus have led
to some of the teachers not being able to handle sexuality education at all, while others
only handle it partially. Several stumbling blocks have been identified that impede the
effective facilitation of sexuality education in Lesotho classrooms. These include religion,
traditional practices, lack of training and societal constructions of what is and is not
permissible in schools. Challenging and disturbing these stumbling blocks and breaking
the silence around sexuality issues among Basotho societies could be helpful in ensuring
that 8asotho teachers gain the skill s necessary for them to facilitate the teaching of sexuality, HIV and AIDS education. Thus, Basotho children would be given the knowledge necessary for them to make informed decisions regarding their sexual
behaviour
Women teachers talk sex : a gendered analysis of woman teachers' experiences of teaching sexuality education in rural schools in the age of HIV and AIDS.
No full textThesis (Ph.D.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2010.With the current scourge of HIV and AIDS among the youth in Sub-Saharan Africa, sexuality education has been hailed as the vaccine against new infections. This places teachers at the forefront of the pandemic as facilitators of knowledge. This study explores women teachers’ experiences of teaching sexuality education in rural schools in the age of HIV and AIDS. As a participant researcher, I have worked through photo-voice, drawings, memory work, and focus group discussions with eight Basotho women teachers, and explored how womanhood and teacher-hood shape and reshape each other in becoming a sexuality education woman teacher. I highlight the gender dynamics characteristic of rural communities and how they play out in the construction of sexuality discourses in relation to women teachers, and how such constructions create im/possibilities for women teachers’ facilitation of sexuality education.
An eclectic theoretical approach, with an emphasis on feminist theories, informed the study. A qualitative research design employing a phenomenological narrative approach has been used. The findings show women teachers experiencing the teaching of sexuality education as a challenge. Their experiences are reflected as shaping and being shaped by their understandings regarding sexuality, and their positioning as women and teachers within rural communities. Challenges that create impossibilities for women teachers’ effective facilitation of sexuality education include the patriarchal gender order in Lesotho, cultural practices, teachers’ own sexualities and teachers’ fears of contravening the social constructions of good womanhood.
I argue that Basotho women teachers are facing a challenge of negotiating the socially constructed contestations between normalised womanhood and teacher-hood and thus choose to perform the normalised womanhood at the expense of teacher-hood. The womanhood they perform shapes their teacher identity such that woman teacher-hood in sexuality education becomes ineffective.
This study makes unique contributions to the field of sexuality education in particular and feminist scholarship in general. The methodological contribution lies in the use of visual methods to illuminate women teachers’ positioning in relation to sexuality education. While previous studies in sexuality education have been on pedagogy, this study presents a body of knowledge based on a gendered analysis of women teachers’ embodied experiences of teaching sexuality education and the meanings they make of their experiences
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Variations on the Author
Full text link“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
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