ZENTRUM FÜR SÜD-NORD- BILDUNGSKOOPERATION CENTRE FOR SOUTH-NORTH COOPERATION IN EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH AND PRACTICE

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1 ZENTRUM FÜR SÜD-NORD- BILDUNGSKOOPERATION CENTRE FOR SOUTH-NORTH COOPERATION IN EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH AND PRACTICE Telefon: +49 (0) Objectives and Procedures for the Field research Work of Visiting Researchers from Germany in Secondary Schools in Port Elizabeth on HIV/AIDS-related Teaching and Counselling Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Nitsch Faculty of Education, University of Oldenburg 07 / 2006

2 (1) The Research Project A joint research team of German guest researchers and local researchers are conducting an empirical study on the conditions and approaches for the implementation of HIV/AIDSrelated teaching and counselling in secondary schools. This research is related to a newly established Advanced Certificate of Education Course for teachers on HIV/AIDS and Teaching at NMMU. The German guests are specialists in HIV/AIDS-related prevention and counselling and have experiences with this work in African countries: Inga Henn has worked as a counsellor in HIV/AIDS-Prevention in schools in Ghana. Kathleen Lueck is an activist in a project of volunteers offering HIV/AIDS-counselling in Germany. She has been born and educated in Namibia and supports HIV/AIDSselfassistance groups in Namibia. Kilian Koebrich has contributed to research on HIV/AIDS and schools in South Africa. They speak English. Kathleen speaks also Afrikaans. The directors of the research project are lecturers at the University of Oldenburg (Prof. Wolfgang Nitsch) and at NMMU (Dr. Lesley Wood). The two universities are linked through a partnership contract in the framework of the Twinning of the Province of the Eastern Cape and the State of Lower Saxony. The general aim of the project is to contribute to the improvement of the ACE-Course and of other in-service-training courses concerning the teaching of Life Orientation and in particular HIV/AIDS-related education and counselling in schools. This exploratory project will focus on those schools whose principals and teachers are particularly conscious and proactive in this work. Its aim is n o t to measure the impact of the ACE- Course on the teaching and counselling practice of teachers who are enrolled in the course. The research project comprises the following phases: field research with observations and informal interviewing in September and October 2006 in schools, 2

3 evaluation of this field research and planning of interviews and focus group discussions, November to January 2007, the major field and interview research phase in April to May 2007, evaluation of the data and summarizing findings for publication, June to August Kathleen will be in Port Elizabeth in September and October, Inga in October. Kilian will join the team in Lesley will visit Oldenburg in October. In September 2006 one or two part-time research workers living in Port Elizabeth should be recruited and join the team for a short planning phase in October/November and for the main research phase in March to June, as well as for the evaluation and publication of the research findings. The local research workers should have had some training in qualitative methods in educational research. They could be teachers (or former teachers) in post-graduate courses or trainers of teachers and they should have basic knowledge and some experience in HIV/AIDS-related professional work. Their first language should be Xhosa. (2) Objectives of the Field Research in September/October 2006 The schools have been selected and asked for their co-operation because in these schools principals and/or teachers are proactive in HIV/AIDS-related teaching, information, counselling and in linking up with community groups. The two German /German-African research workers would like to become familiar with the general conditions of teaching, learning and school life in these secondary schools in Port Elizabeth. Therefore they would like to observe classroom work or lessons especially in the learning areas Life Orientation and Social Studies and they would like to talk with teachers about teaching and learning practices in their ordinary every day school work. They would like to become familiar also with other areas of school life: the work of the principals and heads of departments, the co-operation with parents and community groups, the School Governing Council as well as special events and features of school life. They would like to invite people to join in focus group discussions (among teachers and among learners) on their views concerning school life, learning in Life Orientation and in the case of teachers - on experiences in in-service training programmes. 3

4 In particular they are interested to interview teachers and activists in community groups on communication and co-operation concerning support measures and networks for HIV/AIDSaffected families and for HIV/AIDS-orphans and for counselling and education related to HIV/AIDS. In those schools, where teachers are participating in the ACE-Course or in other Short Courses on HIV/AIDS they would like to interview these teachers concerning their experiences, activities and ideas for HIV/AIDS-related measures and programmes in their school. They are looking forward to proposals and ideas from teachers on which other topics and problems should be included into the research agenda, either during observation of classroom work and school life or during interviewing and staging focus group discussions. In addition, during this phase they will conduct different types of pilot interviews with teachers in order to learn what kind of interview settings and procedures are suitable and recommended by teachers. On the basis of these pilot interviews instruments and procedures for the main interview phase will be developed. (3) Rules and Procedures for Research Activities of the German-South- African Team in Schools The principals of the schools have to decide whether and how the research team will be entitled to conduct research in their schools. The research team will comply in the generally accepted standards for conducting research in schools, i.e. research findings will be published in a way that guarantees anonymity both for individuals and for the schools, school district officials will not have special access to the data, teachers and parents have to give their consent for interviews or groups discussion research with learners. In cases of conflicting interests and views on the rules and procedures a Professor of the NMMU Faculty of Education who is not involved in this research programme should act as a mediator. The German guest researchers have experiences and competences in HIV/AIDS-related counselling, but they are not officially entitled to counsel learners or parents in South African schools. However, they are ready to share their knowledge and experiences with teachers during conversations and small group discussions. 4

5 Communication with teachers, learners, parents and other persons involved will be in English or in Afrikaans and in addition when a Xhosa-speaking team member will be available also in Xhosa (and will be translated for the German team members into English). It could be that particular topics can be discussed better in using one s mother tongue. Reports on the research findings will be written in English. The German researchers will document their personal observations, perceptions and daily journal notes partly in German. One purpose of organizing a joint German-South-African team is to compare the perceptions, perspectives and views of the German (or: Namibian-German) visiting researchers and of the local Xhosa-speaking researchers. In this way taken-for-granted phenomena and perceptions can be questioned by outsiders and the insiders have to re-examine and explain these local social phenomena to the guests. Thus the project will comprise four different components: (a) descriptive and observational field research (mainly by visiting researchers), (b) interviews and small-group discussions partly related to these observations (involving all research team members), (c) action-research or activating research in the sense of sharing expert knowledge and knowhow between local and visiting educationalists including documentation and evaluation of this exchange or sharing, (d) sharing and comparing the partly different perceptions and interpretations of phenomena and data between the German team members and the local Xhosaspeaking team members. The findings will be discussed with the group of lecturers at NMMU who are developing and, teaching the ACE Course and other Short Courses on HIV/AIDS and schools, in order to utilize insights and ideas voiced by teachers and members of the research team for the improvement of these courses. Together with South African team members who will visit Oldenburg, research findings as well as documented best practices in schools in P.E. will also be presented to German educationalists who are involved in HIV/AIDS prevention and counselling work. 5