BACKGROUND: HIV/AIDS has seemingly conquered all medical means of prevention. An approach is therefore needed which focuses on the future of a generation, in equipping today‟s children with the necessary knowledge and skills, to prevent future HIV/AIDS infections and implications. In an attempt to combat HIV/AIDS, Life Orientation has been incorporated in the South African school curriculum as one of the learning areas. Children hereby are receiving knowledge on HIV/AIDS and life skills. Research however, has found that young people do not necessarily respond to, or internalise information received. Programmes which focus on interactive participation and experiential learning are needed for desired outcomes. Specific focus on self-esteem, self-efficacy, communication and a sense of future are also necessary, as these aspects play a crucial role in health behaviour or the lack thereof. iThemba Lethu has been endorsed by the KwaZulu-Natal Department of Education and focuses specifically on these issues. iThemba Lethu has granted Indlela permission to use their programme in schools in the Amaoti community, referred to as the Indlela Life Skills programme, to make a positive contribution to the youth of this vulnerable community. Because programme evaluation is an integral part of programme implementation and development, this study will focus on process evaluation of the Indlela programme. / Thesis (M.A.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2009.

Set in the mining sector, the aim of this study was to explore the experiences, insights and reflections of a particular group of peer educator's with regard to their organisation’s peer education programme. Using the PRECEDE-PROCEED Model (Green & Kreuter, 1991) as an organising framework, this study explored the pre-disposing, enabling and reinforcing factors that had an impact on this HIV/AIDS peer education programme. The specific objectives to be assessed in this study were the peer educator’s perceived impact on attitude and behaviour change amongst employees; the perceived organisational barriers and supports that peer educators encountered in programme delivery as well as further training needs of the peer educators. Using an interpretivist paradigm, the study was concerned with describing and interpreting people’s feelings and experiences with qualitative depth. Interviewees comprised of a non-probability saturation sample of five current adult peer educators and one adult ex-peer educator, employed in the Eastern Region of the Organisation (KwaZulu-Natal). In addition the regional manager and the human resource manager were interviewed. Semi-structured tape recorded interviews were used to collect data from the peer educators, and the data was transcribed verbatim from the digital recording. Themes were induced and coded by looking for reoccurring peer educator views, following which the researcher was able to induce potential predisposing, enabling and reinforcing factors that the peer educators faced in programme delivery. Based on the findings of the study, appropriate recommendations are offered with a view to improving programme delivery and quality. Finally, the main constraints which limited the study findings are considered. / Thesis (M.A.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2009.

Knowing about .AIDS and the manner in which it can be contracted in the workplace is essentlal for preventing infection. This thesis attempts to explore whether non-medlcal hospital workers are placed at risk of Infection by virtue of their ignorance of the virus and further seeks to investigate whether "expert" knowledge possessed by professional health workers is disseminated to less-skilled and less-knowledgeable workers. Processes around class and status involved in social closure are investigated to account for the lack of communication concerning AIDS amongst hospital workers. Two research procedures were adopted in this study, namely the intensive interview and participant observation. Findings of the thesis indicate that though all hospital workers are at risk of AIDS infection, unskilled workers remain more vulnerable because they lack knowledge and awareness of the virus. Factors of class, status, educational opportunity and professional elitism striate the hospital workforce and result in exclusionary practices, including the non-dissemination of knowledge about AIDS in the hospital work setting

This study explored the social networks and social support of parents in Embo and Molweni, two villages of KwaDedangendlale outside Durban. The study is part of a larger South African project, CHAMP-SA (Collaborative HN/AIDS Adolescent Mental Health Project). CHAMP-SA is an adaptation of CHAMP which originated in the USA. CHAMP works with pre-adolescents and their families in addressing parenting issues with the aim of re-establishing the adult protective shield for these children. The current study evaluates the social network component of the pilot phase of CHAMP-SA. The first part of the current study was quantitative and employed a repeated measures quasi-experimental design intervention with both the experimental and control groups. The second, qualitative part used individual interviews to interrogate the results of the quantitative data. Content analysis was used to determine what factors impeded or enhanced the process of social networking. Bronfenbrenner's Systemic Ecological Theoretical Model was used to understand these at a personal, interpersonal and community level. / Thesis (M.A.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2005.

Sexuality is made relevant in the way language is used as a matter of the identity of a group or individuals. Sex, for human beings, is not merely instinctive behaviour. It is meaningful-cultural behaviour and as such is semiotically loaded with meaning. Listening and talking about sex highlights conventions, taken-for-granted assumptions about the way things have to be done. Language as the most powerful representational system shapes our understanding of what we do and how we do them in relation to sex. Our understanding of sexual scripts about the sexuality of a particular group of people is through language as a signifying practice. The study of listening and talking is not merely an investigation of how sex is talked about, but how respondents enact sexuality and sexual identity vis-à-vis its linguistically loaded forms of representations in a variety of discourse genres. Representation and its inherent process of signification draws on lived experiences and the daily talk of people in interaction. A theoretical perspective is presented not as a model to be tested, but as testimony to the rich literature on the nature and function of language as a political arena, semiotically loaded with meanings that are taken for granted. It is concluded that the appropriation of cultural myths is encoded in language and as such language is a legitimate area of inquiry especially in understanding sexual scripts in the context HIV/AIDS. The study engages reported high risk sexual encounters such as multiple and concurrent partnerships, as well as unsafe sex practices which have been identified in literature as fanning the embers of the epidemic. Ideologies influencing developing communication campaigns in light of these discourses become a serious challenge as the conventional basis for such campaigns is in socio-cognitive theories, few of which can be assumed to apply with regard to the discursive representations of sexual practices and the inherent risks. Drawing on a cross-sectional survey of 1400 students on seven campuses, conceptually triangulated via focused-ethnography, listening analysis and discourse analysis, this research examines perceptions, interpretations, attitudes, and practices of sexuality and HIV/AIDS. The research is a multi-method and inter-disciplinary approach located within cultural studies to interrogate the gap between knowledge, attitudes, beliefs and behaviour modification in the light of the HIV/AIDS epidemic. This research discusses these findings and offers a critical appraisal of sexual behaviour in the context of ABC (Abstain, Be faithful, Condomise) as ideologically encoded in cultural and relational myths. I found that students are sexually active with reported multiple and concurrent sexual partnerships. Postgraduate students were less likely to report having had used a condom at their last coital encounter compared with the often younger undergraduate students. Condom use continues to be a norm in the universities surveyed. This is truer for students who reported multiple sexual partnerships. Amongst the dominant scripts that came out in the ethnographic inquiry are: sex as uncontrollable biological drive; females are responsible for safe sex practices; strong social scripts elevate male sexual prowess and show disdain for female affirmative sexualities, risk is discounted using a form of post modern fatalism (resistance to regulation); and physical status, based on appearance of a possible partner, is used to select ‘sexually safe’ partners. I have concluded that a deeper understanding of the cultural and sexual scripts obtained from students is critical for appropriate design and implementation of interventions aimed at stemming the tide of the HIV epidemic. I have also demonstrated that interventions that only emphasise the rational dimensions of human behaviour are more likely to miss their target audience as sex is more than a choice of Cartesian rationality (linear choice). / Thesis (Ph.D.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2008.

Thesis (MTech (Tourism and Hospitality Management))--Cape Peninsula University of Technology, 2006. / The HIV/AIDS pandemic poses one of the greatest challenges to business development in South Africa. The hotel industry is growing rapidly and will be . significantly affected by the HIV/AIDS pandemic. The purpose of this study was to determine the Knowledge, Attitudes and Practices (KAP) regarding HIV/AIDS of staff from nine Protea group hotels in Cape Town. A sample of 200 hotel staff was randomly selected to participate. A structured self-administered anonymous questionnaire was the instrument used to collect the data. The response rate was 81%. There were more females than males, and the majority of the respondents were between the ages of 21-30 years. More than half of the respondents were single, hotel managers and with matriculation as the highest qualification. The respondents demonstrated a reasonably good knowledge on the transmission of HIV/AIDS. Almost half of the respondents believed that HIV/AIDS would not affect the hotel industry. The survey revealed conflicting results on whether HIV-infected staff should be involved in food preparation, and whether staff should serve food to HIV positive hotel guests. There were also concerns of the risk of infection when handling dirty linen used by HIV-infected hotel guests. More males than females were currently sexually active and reported having more than one partner in the past three years. The majority of the respondents believed that condoms were effective, but only one third reported the use of a condom every time they had a sexual encounter. There was a significant relationship between knowledge and attitudes (p-value<0.05, but none between knowledge and practice and attitude and practice. It is recommended that the hotel industry develop effective workplace policies and supportive environments, and that on-going HIV/AIDS education and prevention programmes be implemented to change high risk sexual behaviour and practices.

At present there is no cure or vaccine for Human Immuno-deficiency Virus (HIV) or Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) therefore prevention programmes are seen as the only means of reducing the spread of the disease. HIV/AIDS education programmes in schools have been identified as the most effective intervention because billions of children can be reached worldwide and because schools are the one social institution with which most children come into contact. Young people in particular have been identified as the age group most in need of a preventative programme. The aim of this study is to explore the perceptions of grade six and seven learners with regard to the Life Skills programme focusing on HIV/AIDS education in the Port Elizabeth region. In order to fulfill the above aim a qualitative study was undertaken within an exploratory descriptive approach. A non-probability, convenient sample of six schools were selected. Focus groups, utilising an unstructured interview, were used to gather qualitative data about the perceptions of grade six and seven learners. The focus groups consisted of 10-12 participants. The data was thematically analysed using Tesch’s approach. The major findings of the present study included the following: 1. Learners’ perceptions of completing the questionnaire were generally positive in nature. Negative perceptions related to practical issues such as the length of the questionnaire and the time of administration. 2. Learner’s perceptions of the programme were generally positive. 3. Learners’ felt more comfortable discussing HIV/AIDS with parents and teachers. xi 4. Learners’ appeared to be well informed about high-risk behaviour related to HIV/AIDS and existing myths. 5. Contact with HIV+ people is non-existent. However, learner’s felt that the programme had fostered positive attitudes towards HIV+ people. 6. Learner’s felt that schools had an important role to play in sharing information about HIV/AIDS. These findings seem to indicate positive outcomes for the programme as a whole, in that is was successful in terms of conveying information regarding HIV/AIDS; it led to positive changes in attitudes, especially towards HIV+ people; and it confirmed the school as the best setting for implementing HIV/AIDS Life Skills programmes.

Worldwide millions of children are victims of neglect and physical and mental harm, including sexual abuse and exploitation. South Africa, however, is widely believed to have not only one of the highest incidences of rape in the world, but also one of the highest levels of Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV)/Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) transmission. With research findings showing that HIV and other Sexually Transmitted Infections (STIs) are rapidly increasing globally, young people are, and continue to be, at the forefront of the AIDS pandemic. Therefore, it is suggested that prevention programmes should be aimed particularly at the young. Schools have specifically been recognized as the setting for preventative Life Skills Programmes, having the potential to reach billions of children worldwide. The aim of this study is to explore and describe the perceptions of grade eight and nine learners with regard to the Life Skills Programme that focuses on HIV/AIDS and STI's, rape and child abuse education in the Port Elizabeth region. In order to fulfil the above aim, a qualitative study was undertaken within an exploratory descriptive approach. A non-probability sample of four schools was selected. Focus groups, utilising an unstructured interview, were used to gather qualitative data on the learners' perceptions of the Life Skills Programme. The focus groups consisted of 10 - 12 grade eight and nine learners who were selected using simple random sampling. The data was thematically analysed using Tesch's approach. The major findings of the present study, based on the six general themes, include the following: 1. Most of the learners perceived the educators, as well as the teaching methods utilised by the educators, positively. 2. Although the learners perceived the presenters of the Life Skills Programme positively, it was suggested that teachers, health care professionals, family members and peers should be involved in presenting the Life Skills Programme. 3. Learners reported various levels of comfort discussing different topics presented in the Life Skills Programme. 4. Learners of all the schools perceived the Life Skills Programme to be very relevant. 5. Learners recommended that more children, especially children from deprived communities, should be included in the programme. In addition, learners felt that counselling services should be available in conjunction with the Life Skills Programme. 6. Differences were noted in completing the first and the second questionnaire. Learners reported that they felt more comfortable completing the second questionnaire. They perceived the interviewing process positively.

Schools play a major role in shaping the attitudes, opinions and behaviour of young people and so are ideal environments for teaching the social, as well as biological aspects of HIV and AIDS. However, literature indicates that learners are displaying “AIDS fatigue” and may be resistant to teaching around HIV and AIDS. In order to enhance learner engagement and learning, there is therefore a need for teachers to employ interactive teaching and learning strategies that are interactive, inexpensive and fun. This dissertation outlines the research design of an investigation into how such strategies can be used in HIV and AIDS prevention education. An action research design was made use of in this study and the manner in which several teachers presented HIV and AIDS education to his/her learners was initially observed. In addition, qualitative interviews were used to determine the teachers‟ need for development in this regard. Based on the findings of the problem identification step, teachers were introduced to active teaching and learning strategies and supported to implement them. Evaluation and refinement of the strategies, developmental workshops and training followed, which in turn lead to recommendations and the formulation of guidelines to influence teacher education with regard to HIV and AIDS prevention education.

Thesis (DPhil)--University of Stellenbosch, 2005. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The focus of my study was to investigate an existing professional development programme for HIV/AIDS education in schools using e-learning as a delivery method. I investigated aspects of pedagogy that provide efficient workplace training for educators, such as constructivist approaches to adult teaching and learning, assessment strategies, creating opportunities for communication and a focus on learners’ voices as crucial elements of in-service training. I reviewed the advantages and disadvantages of e-learning as a delivery method and discussed the trade-off between richness and reach in education. I focused on interpreting and making meaning from the experiences of the educators who participated in the e-learning pilot study. I scrutinised the participants’ electronically submitted journals in which they documented their experiences of the HIV/AIDS and Education module. My aim was to interpret their descriptions of how they experienced their growth as educators and to analyse their views on how the module enabled them to implement courses on HIV/AIDS across the curriculum. My research methodology was a combination of interpretative and critical research, focusing on interpreting and making meaning from the experiences of the individuals who took part in the study. To produce data I used a cyclical process where the participants performed key roles, giving regular feedback, recording their experiences and contributing to the upgrading of the programme. HIV/AIDS and its possible impact on education have changed the rules of many aspects of classroom learning programme development, including sex and sexuality education. The Department of Education alone can therefore not sustain quality HIV/AIDS education, and it is imperative that departmental efforts should be augmented by tapping into existing professional development programmes offered by higher education institutions. I also support the international tendency that integrates aspects of HIV/AIDS education into all the Learning Areas because HIV/AIDS affects all aspects of life. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Die fokus van hierdie studie was om ’n bestaande professionele ontwikkelingsprogram, vir MIV/vigs-onderrig in skole te ondersoek. E-leer as ’n geskikte onderrigmetode het deel van hierdie ondersoek gevorm. Ek het verskeie pedagogiese aspekte ondersoek wat geskikte indiensopleiding vir opvoeders bied, onder andere konstruktivistiese benaderings tot volwasse onderrig-en-leer, assesseringstrategieë, die skep van kommunikasiegeleenthede asook ’n besinning oor die belangrikheid van deelnemers se opinies. Die voordele en nadele van e-leer as ’n geskikte onderrigmetode en die balans wat tussen reikwydte (“reach”) en volheid (“richness”) gehandhaaf moet word, is krities bespreek. Ek het die elektronies ingehandigde joernale, waarin deelnemers hulle ervarings van die HIV/AIDS and Education-module gedokumenteer het, bestudeer om hulle ervarings te ontleed en te vertolk. My doel was om hulle sienings oor hulle persoonlike groei as opvoeders en hoe die module hulle bemagtig het om MIV/vigs-onderrig in alle leerareas oor die kurrikulum heen te kan implimenteer, te dokumenteer. My navorsingsmetodologie was ’n kombinasie van interpretatiewe en kritiese metodologie en ek het gefokus op die interpretasie en meningvorming van die deelnemers na aanleiding van hulle ervarings. Om data te genereer (produce) het ek ’n sikliese proses gebruik waarin deelnemers sleutelrolle vervul het, soos om gereelde terugvoer te lewer, ervarings aan te teken en bydraes te lewer om die program te verbeter. MIV/vigs en die moontlike impak wat dit op onderwys en onderrig kan hê, het die reëls van leerprogramontwikkelling verander, met inbegrip van onderrig oor seks en seksualiteit. Die Nationale Departement van Onderwys (NDvO) kan nie alleen MIV/vigs-onderrig van gehalte verseker nie, dit is dus noodsaaklik dat die NDvO se pogings ondersteun moet word. Die NDvO behoort gebruik te maak van bestaande hoër opvoedkundige instansies se professionele ontwikkelingsprogramme. Ek ondersteun ook die internasionale tendens waar MIV/vigs-onderrig in alle leerareas geïnkorporeer word, aangesien MIV/vigs ’n impak op alle aspekte van die lewe het.