HIV/AIDS Prevention through the Science School Curriculum: Community Elders' Perspectives on the Effectiveness of School HIV/AIDS Education in the Ivorian School Curriculum

As a result of HIV infection in many parts of Ivory Coast, school-based HIV curricula and intervention have to be utilized to advance the science of HIV/AIDS prevention in students. To be successful, curriculum planning for HIV prevention requires both balance and integration of perspectives such as perspectives from the ministry of education and the communities. School-based HIV prevention programs developed without this collaboration are unlikely to be successful in preventing the transmission of HIV infection.  Although community elders exhibit a mixed understanding of how to grapple with the norms, beliefs, and even superstitions that Ivorian society holds about the causes and the cures for HIV/AIDS, at least the study data show there is consensus among community elders that something needs to be done about the teaching of HIV/AIDS content.  Using a range of qualitative methods such as individual interviews and field notes, this qualitative study described and analyzed Ivorian community elders’ views of sociocultural factors that influenced the implementation of HIV/AIDS education within Ivorian schools. The data included here are individual interviews from 20 community elders in Abidjan, Ivory Coast and field notes.  Study data revealed that community elders had such uneasiness talking about HIV/AIDS to their children at home.  Using community-school connections as a tool to integrate HIV learning in the school curriculum can be rewarding for their schoolchildren.  With careful evaluations of how HIV/AIDS is being taught, community elders hope community-school connections may spike HIV/AIDS learning opportunities in the future for Ivorian youth as situated in a youth development perspective.