A review of HIV and AIDS curricular responses in the higher education Sector: Where are we now and what next?

Abstract

Curriculum integration of HIV and AIDS in higher education is a strategic priority of the Higher Education AIDS programme (HEAIDS), yet little progress has been made in this area. To address this, HEAIDS is leading a project aimed at capacitating the development of HIV curriculum initiatives. The purpose of this article is to present a critical overview of internationally published work concerning the integration of HIV and AIDS into the curriculum of higher education, to determine what has been done in terms of integration, to assess what has been evaluated as successful, and to determine what lessons we can draw from it to inform the way forward. A total of 106 sources were identified by conducting key word searches in three main search engines; additional references from these and back issues of leading HIV and AIDS education journals were also consulted. We critically discuss the findings to draw conclusions about best practices concerning theoretical underpinnings, pedagogy and curriculum content. We conclude by highlighting some aspects that can help to inform the infusion of HIV and AIDS into the curricula of higher education in South Africa and beyond.

Exploring the views of academic staff on HIV/AIDS integration into the curricula: a case study of the University of Fort Hare

“…Academic responses to the HIV/AIDS pandemic in HEIs have been very slow and many institutions are still silent on creating space for HIV/AIDS in their curricula (De Lange, 2014;HEAIDS, 2010). Wood and Pillay (2016) emphasise the compelling need for HEIs to respond to the HIV/AIDS pandemic through academic activities such as curriculum integration.…”

“…Academic responses to the HIV/AIDS pandemic in HEIs have been very slow and many institutions are still silent on creating space for HIV/AIDS in their curricula (De Lange, 2014 ; HEAIDS, 2010 ). Wood and Pillay ( 2016 ) emphasise the compelling need for HEIs to respond to the HIV/AIDS pandemic through academic activities such as curriculum integration. Through such integration, HEIs would serve as keyspaces and instruments driving change and addressing issues of HIV/AIDS in both universities and communities served by universities (Tanga et al, 2014 ).…”

“…Wood and Pillay ( 2016 ) did a critical overview study of internationally published work on HIV/AIDS higher education curriculum integration. They identified two modes of integration.…”

“…The first one is mainstream , which is a ‘sector-wide response to the pandemic of which curriculum integration is only one aspect’. The second one is Institutionalisation integration , which ‘refers to how each institution chooses to respond to the pandemic as long as it is framed within an HIV/AIDS policy’ (Wood & Pillay, 2016 ). This paper adopts Wood and Pillay’s ( 2016 ) definition of integration as the ‘inclusion of HIV/AIDS-related outcomes in the formal curriculum rather than institutional wide responses’.…”

Integration of HIV and AIDS in Higher Education Curriculum: A Case Study of an HIV Course in the School of Education of the University of Zambia

“… Only two (2) Lecturers are trained to handle the teaching of HIV and AIDS in higher learning institutions. Hence, for the course to be more effective, respondents advocated for the need to involve local HIV and AIDS experts, social scientists and health educators as also advanced by Wood and Pillay (2016).…”