Is It Possible to Implement AIDS‘ Prevention in Primary School?

Abstract

In France, health education is included in the primary school science curriculum. A part of this curriculum is called “human body and health education” (MEN, 2002). A quantitative study of teachers’ practices showed that teachers focus mainly on nutrition, hygiene, and dental health (Jourdan, & al., 2002). In the curriculum, the topic “Reproduction of living beings and sexuality education” concerns children aged 9-11 (Key Stage 2). Teachers often acknowledge that teaching about sexuality education and prevention of sexually transmitted diseases is difficult, because they do not feel comfortable with the subject matter. In a previous study (Jourdan et al., 2002), it had been shown that sexuality and AIDS were tackled by only 8 teachers out of 286 that were involved in the study. However, the curriculum guidelines of the French ministry of education (MEN, 2003) and the World Health Organisation (WHO) texts insist on the necessity for implementing early sexuality education and HIV/AIDS prevention programs, particularly in primary schools (WHO, 1999, 2004a). In this context, developing exchanges of experiences and partnership between teachers and health educators (school health services and health education NGOs) seems to be quite relevant. The nature of health education in schools also implies taking ethical considerations into account. The aim is not to promote a new secular morality defining “good” (healthy) and “bad” (risky) behaviours, but to prepare the children for responsible citizenship. Hence teachers in health education should not attempt to impose norms of acceptable behaviours, but should taking into account children’s peculiarities, expectations, needs, and also their representations. Children’s representations are thought to provide coherent models to represent learner reasoning when faced with a problematic situation (Jodelet, 1991; Farr, 1997). The construction of these representations is rather complex as this phenomenon depends on the values and beliefs shared by a social group, and which give rise within a social groupto a common outlook manifested during social interactions. As these representations are linked to an individual’s emotional responses as well as the cultural and social group(s) the individual belongs to, they constitute a decisive element in his/her relationships with the world, and are resistant to change. Representations therefore seem very essential (Fischer, 2001), are closely linked to behaviour (Abric, 1997), and cannot be changes as readily as knowledge. Any programme attempting to change representations should not only take into consideration the relevant knowledge, but also the social and cultural aspects of the