'Listening with our eyes': Collaboration and HIV and AIDS curriculum integration in South African higher education
Abstract
Integrating HIV and AIDS into the academic curriculum is not engaged with vigorously
enough in South African higher education institutions, for several reasons, ranging from
lack of interest to complaints of belabouring the issue of HIV and AIDS, especially from
the biomedical perspective. Through such integration the academic curriculum could be
a key space and engine for persuading change and abating the effects of HIV and AIDS
in higher education as well as in the communities served by the universities. We reflect
on our three-year research project engagement and explore how collaboration facilitated
integration of HIV and AIDS issues in our academic curriculum. Working from a
critical paradigm and using a collaborative self-study approach, we utilised drawings and
responses from questions which we compiled for ourselves. Textual and visual data
generated were thematically analysed. The findings revealed that collaboration
counteracts isolation; enables capacity development in integration for the collaborating
researchers; and permits engaging with participatory visual methodologies to encourage
integration. We conclude that collaboration is key in facilitating integration of HIV and
AIDS in the higher education curriculum, and that collaboration using participatory
visual methodologies enhances entry-points in engaging with HIV and AIDS in South
Africa and beyond. This work has implications for integrating HIV and AIDS issues
into the higher education curriculum.