Teacher Capacity and Preparedness in HIV/AIDS Education in Multicultural Refugee Schools of North-Western Kenya

Abstract

In Kenya, schools in refugee camps follow the same curriculum, which integrates HIV/AIDS education in all subjects, as regular schools. Consequently, the refugee camp schools mainly rely on teachers who are trained for the regular schools, in addition to untrained teachers and volunteers from the refugee community who are sometimes given in-service training. While research demonstrates that Kenyan teachers experience multiple challenges with HIV/AIDS education in regular schools for which they were trained, there was a dearth of knowledge in regard to how the teachers engaged with HIV/AIDS education in a more complex multicultural refugee setting. In view of the foregoing, a qualitative study was done in 6 primary schools, 3 from Kakuma Refugee Camp (KRC) and 3 from the surrounding host community (HC). One of the research objectives was to determine the capacity and preparedness of teachers in HIV/AIDS education in a multicultural and multi-religious contextof refugee schools. A sample of 617 individuals, comprising 422 males and 195 females was used in the study. This included teachers, headteachers, pupils, religious leaders, NGO staff and community members. Data was obtained by use of semi-structured interviews, observation, drawing, documentary analysis and FGDs. Findings reveal that the KRC school teachers portrayed a good mastery of the HIV/AIDS education content and effectively used participatory teaching methods, apparently due to regular teacher training workshops at the camp. However, there was a tendency for teachers at both KRC and HC schools to over-engage learners from their own cultural groups. The HC school teachers, who relied on irregular government training workshops, often made seemingly small mistakes that could have major implications for HIV/AIDS Education. This included giving inaccurate information on HIV transmission as well as passing messages that could easily encourage stigmatization of people living with HIV. Classroom observation revealed that regardless of their level of training, teachers at both KRC and HC schools were influenced by their various religious beliefs while teaching HIV/AIDS education. Among other recommendations, this paper points to the need for regular teacher training workshops on HIV/AIDS education that would target classroom teachers rather than headteachers who rarely teach.