Investigating the Influence of Teacher Characteristics on Quality Implementation of HIV and AIDS Education in Selected South African Schools

The instructional delivery of Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) and Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) education in many South African schools has long been characterized with difficulties. Though much has been accomplished in terms of guiding policies on HIV/AIDS education in schools, the effective implementation of the stated policies has remained worrisome. The key issues revolve around who should implement these policies in schools and whether the characteristics of whoever is in charge of implementation have any bearing on execution and quality. The study adopted elements of the Contextual Interaction Theory (CIT) to underpin this study, to provide insights into how teacher characteristics such as motivation, cognition and power may influence effective implementation of HIV/AIDS education in schools. The relationship between the characteristics of teachers and the quality of policy implementation, using questionnaires as data collection instrument was established. A total of 371 questionnaires were retrieved from Life Skills and Life Orientation teachers from 28 different primary and secondary schools in rural and urban settings. The respondents for the instrument were selected through a systematic sampling technique. The questionnaires were analyzed with SPSS version 22 for basic descriptive statistics to interpret the results, establishing the binary regression modelling, to identify factors influencing the implementation of high-quality HIV and AIDS education. Findings revealed that 83% of Life-Skills and Life-Orientation teachers were implementing HIV and AIDS education in their classrooms, whereas 17% of teachers were not. Some of the teachers' qualities that influenced HIV/AIDS education implementation in the selected schools were (a) confidence, (b) comfort, (c) capability, (d) knowing the contents of HIV and AIDS policy, (e) time, and (f) support. The binary logistic regression model revealed that support from colleagues and superiors, with the construct "strongly agree" being significant at the 5% level (p=0.038), and comfort in handling sexuality issues in class, with the constructs ", strongly agree" and "agree significant" also at the 5% level (p=0.038), were teacher characteristics that significantly influenced the quality implementation of policies. The study, therefore, recommends that teachers should be given enough support to enhance the teaching of HIV/AIDS education in schools. Adequate and regular workshops/training should be designed for teachers to effectively deliver HIV/AIDS education to instil and promote the required development of these characteristics in teachers.