HIV and AIDS, worldviews and transformation in higher education

Abstract

Higher education students need to understand HIV not only as a disease, but as a social issue that intersects with other critical social and human rights issues in the South African context. To change students' attitude to HIV and AIDS, they need to identity, analyse and critique their worldviews. In this article I explain how this is done through a compulsory 'Understanding the social and cultural world' module within the Faculty of Arts. The aim of this module is to broaden students' worldviews, to help them to be open to diversity, and to be able to gain a deeper and more nuanced view, not only of HIV and AIDS, but also of the intersecting social issues. Using a critical pedagogical approach, I explain how I engage students to interrogate their own worldviews, and offer some evidence of shifts in their thinking towards a more inclusive ontology, necessary to enable them to take their place as leaders in our diverse and complex society.