PiE 2014 Volume 32 Issue 3

Permanent URI for this collection

http://hdl.handle.net/11660/2638

Browse

Browsing PiE 2014 Volume 32 Issue 3 by Subject "Discursive practices"

Now showing 1 - 1 of 1
  • Thumbnail Image
    ItemOpen Access
    Using Foucauldian ‘discursive practices’ as conceptual framework for the study of teachers’ discourses of HIV and sexuality
    (Faculty of Education, University of the Free State, 2014) Davids, Mogamat Noor
    Educational research conducted in the context of the HIV and AIDS pandemic in Southern Africa has produced diverse knowledge claims. A review of extant literature espoused elements of ambiguity and contradictions which have become challenging to explain, given the growing instrumentality of educational policy and institutional cultures. The research question addressed in this article is: What is the content and nature of the dominant literature strands informing teachers’ HIV and AIDS discourses? Educational policy’s preoccupation with efficacy and uniformity underplays the complexities in teachers’ discourses. This article proposes Foucault’s notion of ‘discursive practices’ as a conceptual lens to analyse the diversity of teachers’ HIV and sexuality discourses. Discursive practices encompass social, structural and subjective elements that constitute the wide scope of discourse formation. These elements create possibilities of uncertainty and indeterminacy in educational outcomes of HIV prevention, which often counteract intended policy’s expectations of uniformity and consistency. This article presents a perspective stating that a discursive practices approach offers an innovative way in broadening an understanding of the subjective nature of teachers’ HIV and sexuality, arguably a weakness in policy.