Starlin Musingarabwi
While teachers are strategically positioned to mediate school-based HIV/AIDS education interventions which provide information on HIV/AIDS to young people, how individual teachers experience the implementation of Zimbabwe’s primary school AIDS curriculum in specific work conditions has seldom been questioned. This qualitative case study explores some of the practical experiences that 20 grade 6 primary school teachers encountered as they implemented the mandatory Zimbabwe’s primary school AIDS curriculum. A purposive sample of 6 schools and 20 teachers was used from which 3 teachers were observed teaching 5 lessons each. Findings from data collected during lesson observations and semi-structured interviews revealed an admixture of positive and negative cognitive and emotional implementation encounters that prompted teachers to cope with the curriculum in complex ways. The study established some dilemmas that the teachers confronted in their enactment of this curriculum in the context of a myriad of curriculum implementation factors that played out on their work. For example choosing between discussing openly, sexually sensitive issues with students and omitting the issues in a bid to respect the cultural conventions of the community influenced teachers’ work.
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