Educational decision-making in an era of AIDS
Doctoral Thesis
2008
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University of Cape Town
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One of the ways in which AIDS is said to ravage the lives of young people is through its impact on education. Youth and their caregivers might respond to shortened life expectancy by investing less in schooling. No evidence has been presented for this hypothesis, however. Indeed, little is known about educational decision-making outside of a Western, industrialized context. This thesis examines educational decisionmaking in South Africa, and specifically tests the hypotheses that AIDS reduces the perceived value of education. The study combines quantitative and qualitative research, all conducted in the South African city of Cape Town. Whilst it proves difficult to model the effects of HIV/AIDS, the quantitative data from both adolescents (who participated in successive waves of the Cape Area Panel Study) and adults (who participated in the 2005 Cape Area Study) fails to provide support for the hypothesis that AIDS leads to a diminished valuation of the importance of education. Qualitative material was collected through diverse methods, from samples of AIDSaffected and non-affected young adults, and from HIV-positive adult caregivers. The qualitative research shows that young adults make educational decisions as part of a broader process of constructing identities. In a context of ‘fragility’, youth have to decide who they are and want they want to be. They construct positive ‘future selves’ that entail the aspiration for a long and successful life, in the course of which they maintain some control in the face of the chaos, hardship and mortality around them. Investing in education is an important marker of this self-control and positive aspiration, and hence their desired identity. HIV-positive adult caregivers also choose to invest heavily in their children’s education because they want to equip their children with advantages that will endure after their own deaths. HIV/AIDS might induce stress, insecurity and anxiety, but no evidence was found that it leads either caregivers or youth to make negative decisions about education, or to orient their values, attitudes and behaviour towards the short- rather than the long-term.
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Includes abstract.
Includes bibliographical references (p. 243-267).
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De Lannoy, A. 2008. Educational decision-making in an era of AIDS. University of Cape Town.