Constructing identities through literacy events in HIV/AIDS education

Abstract

This article examines the literacy events in HIV/AIDS education in Tanzania to investigate how they construct social identities for participants and to what extent they provide opportunities for critical health literacies. The projects took place as collaborative research partnerships with local Tanzanian NGOs in an effort to analyse and improve existing educational practices. Within the framework of multiliteracies, critical health literacies have the potential to engage individuals in the deconstruction of texts and the transformation of their social identities and social relations. Through taking an ethnographic approach to literacy events, I document and analyse the ways that educators convey information about HIV/AIDS and explore how target audiences participate in two kinds of literacy events: (1) instruction using written modes of language from official booklets and on blackboards and flipcharts and (2) breakout sessions in groups that the participants were often assigned, which involved writing out answers to key questions posed by the educators. My analysis shows a predominance of functional health literacy and a lack of pedagogical space for more critical engagements with the social and economic barriers to health that draw on the participants' own knowledge and experiences.