SOBRE LA TRAYECTORIA FORMATIVA

In order to ensure a clear understanding of the meanings with which certain concepts have been used in this study, I provide the following clarification of the operational concepts.

8 1.7.1 Care and support

The construct care and support has its own difficulties, since it has no explicit definition or clear statement of inclusion or exclusion. The term was coined by UNICEF in the mid-1980s to describe situations that ensure that children grow up protected from any harm. The HIV and AIDS epidemic has created many barriers in the lives of children infected with HIV or affected by HIV and AIDS. Such barriers include challenges in accessing education, health, social welfare, and even the challenge of just being a child, and they have led to many debates focusing on improving the lives of children (Richter & Rama, 2006). Care and support is a generic term that is used to refer to efforts that are linked to addressing any barriers that prevent school children from developing to their full potential (UNICEF, 2004). The term care and support implies active and complete care of children’s physical, psychological and social well-being (Argall & Allemano, 2009), as well as their developmental needs and long-term needs (Berry, Biersteker et al., 2013; Richter & Rama, 2006). Globally, the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) (UNICEF, 2007) has become the cornerstone of guidance in actions, plans, and policies towards care and support for children.

South Africa’s commitment to the realisation of care and support for children is taken up in the Constitution, in particular in the Bill of Rights. Children are specifically mentioned and included as having the right to education, health services, and to participate in any decision-making process in which they are involved (Berry, Biersteker et al., 2013a). These rights form part of what care and support should be, reinforcing the notion of the care and support for all children, including school children infected with HIV or affected by HIV and AIDS.

Notwithstanding the growing commitment to provide care and support to children, in particular, and the efforts made, the active participation of children themselves and of others in rural communities, categorised as “hard to reach” (Campbell, 2003, p. 3), is required. Communities or individuals who have been affected by HIV have been proved to play a vital role in accelerating care and support and an HIV response that is people-driven and contextually relevant (Mitchell & De Lange, 2011; Moletsane, 2012; Skovdal, Magutshwa-Zitha, Campbell, Nyamukapa, & Gregson, 2013). It is these groups that have demonstrated that care and support requires a broad multidisciplinary and multisectoral approach (DBE, 2010a; UNAIDS, UNICEF, & WHO, 2013; UNICEF, 2014) as well as the participation of children and young people as agents of change.

9 For the purposes of this research, the term care and support (hereafter without italics) refers to care and support in school that enables ‘vulnerable’ school children to learn and develop optimally.

1.7.2 Vulnerable learners

The UNAIDS terminology guidelines are very clear that no person should be defined by his or her social condition or medical condition (UNAIDS, 2011). In this regard, referring to school children as “AIDS orphans”, “orphaned and vulnerable children”, or “OVC”, or “vulnerable learners” not only stigmatises them, but positions them as powerless. The use of these terms is difficult to eradicate since they have become entrenched in everyday communication. However, the continued use of these terms will perpetuate stigmatisation of, and disrespect towards, such school children.

Contrary to UNAIDS dictionary definition guidelines, the DBE in South Africa uses the term vulnerable learners to describe any young person who faces barriers that are keeping him or her out of school or from achieving at school (DBE, 2010). The barriers may arise from social, economic, political, cultural, and day-to-day contextual factors. These factors, on their own or in combination, may create multiple vulnerabilities in individuals. Examples of ‘‘vulnerable’’ learners (DBE & MIET Africa, 2010) may include children in foster care; children in orphanages; children who are living with an extended family member because they have been abandoned and have no visible means of support; children receiving child support grants; children in child-headed households; children living with HIV and AIDS; children with severe learning difficulties; and so on. These examples are not exhaustive, and differ according to the context.

In the context of this study, which I conducted in South Africa, I used the term ‘vulnerable’ school children interchangeably with vulnerable learners but I used the term vulnerable with single inverted commas to indicate my support for the view of UNAIDS. Therefore, the term ‘vulnerable’ school children refers to those children in school who have been orphaned, or who have been made ‘vulnerable’ as a result of HIV and AIDS.

10 1.7.3 Arts-based research

Participatory arts-based research is a broad area of research that uses a variety of arts-based activities in which participants can explore and present their ideas, issues, and challenges, as well as solutions to problems that they experience, with the understanding that people have unique perspectives and can share their insights using channels other than words alone (De Lange, Mitchell, & Moletsane, 2012). Participatory arts-based research therefore includes art as a form of expression, as a mode of inquiry, representation, and dissemination (Taylor & Medina, 2013). Arts-based research situated within participatory research is regarded as innovative, making available many new forms of representing ideas or issues in people’s lives (Finley, 2008). For those who might find it difficult to express themselves through spoken or written words, or express themselves on sensitive issues, arts-based research, drawing from a wide range of artwork (e.g. performance, dance, painting, drawing, photography, video, and collage) (Knowles & Cole, 2008), depending on the purpose of the study, creates a space in which their voices can be heard. Furthermore, arts-based research is described as having the potential to evoke deep and critical thinking. In essence, arts-based research is an active process of meaning-making, in which participants are regarded as actively participating and using multiple forms of representation (Pauwels, 2010).

For the purposes of this study, arts-based research refers to the use of visual participatory methods such as drawing, photovoice, and collage as modes of inquiry, representation, and dissemination (Taylor & Medina, 2013) of school children’s constructions of care and support in a rural school context.