Schoolgirls’ understanding of HIV/AIDS knowledge presented in life sciences textbooks in South Africa

• Lindelani Mnguni ^[1]
  1. [1] University of South Africa

     University of South Africa

     City of Tshwane, Sudáfrica

     
• Localización: Biology education research: contemporary topics and directions / Blanca Puig Mauriz (dir.), Paloma Blanco Anaya (dir.), María José Gil Quílez (dir.), Marcus Grace (dir.), 2020, ISBN 978-84-16723-97-3, págs. 59-72
• Idioma: inglés
• Enlaces
  • Texto Completo Libro (pdf)
• Resumen

  • The prevalence of HIV/AIDS in South Africa remains high, particularly among women aged between 15 and 49, despite numerous educational interventions. There is also a high prevalence of HIV/AIDS among the youth. School curricula are therefore used to educate the youth about HIV/AIDS. There is, however, a dearth of research regarding learners’ understanding of HIV/AIDS knowledge taught in schools and the effect of this knowledge on behavioral patterns. The present research sought to determine the extent to which schoolgirls have an understanding of academic and functional HIV/AIDS knowledge presented in the textbooks, as a proxy to determining the significance of textbooks in empowering schoolgirls for the prevention of HIV/AIDS infection. Results indicate that HIV/AIDS knowledge is not extensively integrated into the textbooks. Despite this, however, schoolgirls have a significantly higher functional HIV/AIDS knowledge than academic HIV/AIDS knowledge. Alternative sources of HIV/AIDS knowledge held by the participants were identified. These results suggest that the school curricula alone may not be effective in providing learners with functional HIV/AIDS knowledge. It is concluded that textbooks alone may not provide adequate knowledge of HIV/AIDS for empowering schoolgirls for the prevention of HIV/AIDS infection.