UNESCO has released a new edition of Good Policy and Practice in HIV & AIDS Education: Gender Equality, HIV and Education, the seventh in a series from experienced practitioners in the fields of HIV, gender equality and education. This booklet emphasizes the need for evidence-based education responses to reduce both HIV prevalence and gender inequality.
Across the Asia-Pacific region, education is being used to address and modify not only the legal and policy barriers to sexual health, but also the societal norms that influence how sexual and reproductive health is discussed between teachers, parents and students. For Helen Cahill, an Associate Professor at the University of Melbourne Graduate School of Education, the importance of effective pedagogy for health promotion cannot be underestimated.
“There is a significant prevention science evidence base about the kind of teaching methodology that works in health promotion education. Effective programmes use highly participatory strategies such as role-play and problem-solving exercises, as well as activities to promote a critical approach to the influence of social norms on people’s everyday choices,” explained Dr Cahill. Associate Professor Cahill and Sally Beadle focus on the need for increased family-level communication in their discussion paper ‘Talking about sexual and reproductive health: Promoting better communication between parents and children in Asia’ in the Good Policy and Practice booklet. Drawing from studies that indicate either a lack of willingness or confidence on the part of mothers to discuss sexual health matters with their daughters, Dr Cahill developed the Creating Connections programme, which aims to facilitate intergenerational dialogue about gender rights and sexual and reproductive health. The programme was piloted in Viet Nam and has achieved considerable results, with reported increases in the comfort levels of mother to daughter communication about sexual and reproductive health issues, including comfort discussing gender-based violence, which increased from 50% to 90%. Despite this success, Dr Cahill said there were initial fears that the participants would be too embarrassed to engage in role play activities concerning sensitive subjects. “Prior to the first programme in Viet Nam, I ran a 2-day consultation workshop with the Women’s Union. They tried every methodology. Originally they said that they thought the role play activities would not work because Vietnamese women may be too shy to work in this way. But then they tried the activities and found that they actually love role play because it helps them to work together to increase their skills and courage to speak about sensitive issues.” What is effective, Dr Cahill said, is a combination of different participatory, group building and critical thinking activities which work together to build people’s confidence to talk about gender rights and sexual and reproductive health. “So for example, we have games designed to introduce each topic area of a particular session,” explained Dr Cahill, continuing “They get people working together and laughing together and this helps to really create a protective connection in the group. Following that, we usually go into an information activity, and then a participatory group activity such as a role play where participants generate and enact advice for certain characters in a given situation.” One form of role play is known as Hidden Thoughts, which asks the mothers to unpack what the character in a scenario could be thinking or feeling but what they may be unable to say. This technique helps people to talk about the social norms that influence their behaviour. “Hidden thoughts will reveal what’s holding back the mother from communicating with her daughter is a mixture of things: This might be embarrassment, shame and lack of confidence in her own knowledge. However she also feels a sense of responsibility for her daughter, and a fear that if she doesn’t provide information, her daughter may come to harm.” “A good mother wants to look after her daughter and give her some information, but she also wants to be seen as respectable and not to be embarrassed in front of her community. She has hopes, fears and conflicting thoughts. The Hidden Thoughts technique helps participants to identify and talk about the barriers that prevent communication, and the hopes that motivate them to find the courage for action.” Following its success in Viet Nam, Creating Connections has been adapted to introduce programs for adolescent boys and for men, and has expanded as the Connections programme into Bangladesh, Indonesia, Cambodia and Myanmar. More information about the Creating Connections and other emerging research in the field of HIV, gender and education can be found in the full publication of Good Policy and Practice in HIV and Health Education. View other booklets in the series and other publications in UNESCO Key Resources. Contact: Section of HIV and Health Education, UNESCO at aids@unesco.org
Related Links: Connections: Empowering Women to Talk about Sexual and Reproductive Health -- Training of Trainers Workshop, Septemper 2012, Myanmar UNESCO and UNFPA Jointly Support National Training of Trainers for Connections Sexuality Education Programme, 2-4 November 2011, Cambodia UNESCO, UNFPA and UNICEF supported a training-of-trainers workshop for Creating Connections, 14-18 March 2011 in Siem Reap, Cambodia
Connections: Empowering Women to Talk about Sexual and Reproductive Health Training of Trainers Workshop, 30 April - 3 May 2013, Myanmar
Across the Asia-Pacific region, education is being used to address and modify not only the legal and policy barriers to sexual health, but also the societal norms that influence how sexual and reproductive health is discussed between teachers, parents and students. For Helen Cahill, an Associate Professor at the University of Melbourne Graduate School of Education, the importance of effective pedagogy for health promotion cannot be underestimated.
“There is a significant prevention science evidence base about the kind of teaching methodology that works in health promotion education. Effective programmes use highly participatory strategies such as role-play and problem-solving exercises, as well as activities to promote a critical approach to the influence of social norms on people’s everyday choices,” explained Dr Cahill. Associate Professor Cahill and Sally Beadle focus on the need for increased family-level communication in their discussion paper ‘Talking about sexual and reproductive health: Promoting better communication between parents and children in Asia’ in the Good Policy and Practice booklet. Drawing from studies that indicate either a lack of willingness or confidence on the part of mothers to discuss sexual health matters with their daughters, Dr Cahill developed the Creating Connections programme, which aims to facilitate intergenerational dialogue about gender rights and sexual and reproductive health. The programme was piloted in Viet Nam and has achieved considerable results, with reported increases in the comfort levels of mother to daughter communication about sexual and reproductive health issues, including comfort discussing gender-based violence, which increased from 50% to 90%. Despite this success, Dr Cahill said there were initial fears that the participants would be too embarrassed to engage in role play activities concerning sensitive subjects. “Prior to the first programme in Viet Nam, I ran a 2-day consultation workshop with the Women’s Union. They tried every methodology. Originally they said that they thought the role play activities would not work because Vietnamese women may be too shy to work in this way. But then they tried the activities and found that they actually love role play because it helps them to work together to increase their skills and courage to speak about sensitive issues.” What is effective, Dr Cahill said, is a combination of different participatory, group building and critical thinking activities which work together to build people’s confidence to talk about gender rights and sexual and reproductive health. “So for example, we have games designed to introduce each topic area of a particular session,” explained Dr Cahill, continuing “They get people working together and laughing together and this helps to really create a protective connection in the group. Following that, we usually go into an information activity, and then a participatory group activity such as a role play where participants generate and enact advice for certain characters in a given situation.” One form of role play is known as Hidden Thoughts, which asks the mothers to unpack what the character in a scenario could be thinking or feeling but what they may be unable to say. This technique helps people to talk about the social norms that influence their behaviour. “Hidden thoughts will reveal what’s holding back the mother from communicating with her daughter is a mixture of things: This might be embarrassment, shame and lack of confidence in her own knowledge. However she also feels a sense of responsibility for her daughter, and a fear that if she doesn’t provide information, her daughter may come to harm.” “A good mother wants to look after her daughter and give her some information, but she also wants to be seen as respectable and not to be embarrassed in front of her community. She has hopes, fears and conflicting thoughts. The Hidden Thoughts technique helps participants to identify and talk about the barriers that prevent communication, and the hopes that motivate them to find the courage for action.” Following its success in Viet Nam, Creating Connections has been adapted to introduce programs for adolescent boys and for men, and has expanded as the Connections programme into Bangladesh, Indonesia, Cambodia and Myanmar. More information about the Creating Connections and other emerging research in the field of HIV, gender and education can be found in the full publication of Good Policy and Practice in HIV and Health Education. View other booklets in the series and other publications in UNESCO Key Resources. Contact: Section of HIV and Health Education, UNESCO at aids@unesco.org
Related Links: Connections: Empowering Women to Talk about Sexual and Reproductive Health -- Training of Trainers Workshop, Septemper 2012, Myanmar UNESCO and UNFPA Jointly Support National Training of Trainers for Connections Sexuality Education Programme, 2-4 November 2011, Cambodia UNESCO, UNFPA and UNICEF supported a training-of-trainers workshop for Creating Connections, 14-18 March 2011 in Siem Reap, Cambodia
Connections: Empowering Women to Talk about Sexual and Reproductive Health Training of Trainers Workshop, 30 April - 3 May 2013, Myanmar