‘Not only a teacher, but an ambassador’: Facilitating HIV/AIDS educators to take action

Abstract

This article describes how South African educators were facilitated to adopt the role of HIV/AIDS ‘ambassadors’ within their circles of influence by participating in a two-year course for an Advanced Certificate in Education for HIV/AIDS in Teaching (ACE-HAT) qualification. It reports on the data generated by a qualitative study of the teachers’ experiences with and subsequent to the  programme. The programme works from the assumption that the HIV pandemic has provided us with an opportunity to address many of the issues and inequalities that the education system is facing today. Based on the Freirian notion of liberation pedagogy, the article puts forward the argument that by adopting a holistic and critical approach to HIV/AIDS education, educators are able to move beyond the traditional responsibilities of the teacher, and thus play an important role as agents of change in their school and community.

African Journal of AIDS Research 2009, 8(1): 83–92