ERIC Number: EJ799384
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2008-Jun
Pages: 13
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0305-7925
EISSN: N/A
Using Narratives to Develop a Hermeneutic Understanding of HIV/AIDS in South Africa
Baxen, Jean
Compare: A Journal of Comparative Education, v38 n3 p307-319 Jun 2008
Constructions of the HIV/AIDS pandemic are largely influenced by the dominant discourses of sexuality and disease. Deeply embedded in positivistic frames of references that favour conceptions of a medicalised and/or moralised body which operates contextually and socially detached, these discourses remain those that, in the main, frame constructions, interpretations, and research on HIV/AIDS. As interpretive scripts that act as structuring devices, discourses on sexuality and disease as well as the functionalist methodological work dialectically to produce and reproduce particular meanings as well as particular kinds of research regarding the pandemic. Using narrative data from a study that situated teachers as the locus of inquiry, this article offers perspectives that expand current epistemological and methodological paradigms to include those that insert more hermeneutic ways of understanding HIV/AIDS. (Contains 2 tables, 1 figure and 8 notes.)
Descriptors: Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (AIDS), Teacher Attitudes, Diseases, Hermeneutics, Foreign Countries, Sexuality, Discourse Analysis, Poverty, Politics, Personal Narratives, Career Choice, Social Status, Religion, Marital Status, Epistemology
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Evaluative
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: South Africa
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A