The Influence of School Contextual Factors on Educators’ Efforts in Teaching Sexuality Education in Secondary Schools in Durban, South Africa

In a bid to reduce rates of HIV and AIDS, teenage pregnancy and STIs in the high-risk age group of adolescence, a sexuality education programme has been implemented in South African schools. The programme is dependent on Life Orientation (LO) educators as the main point of guidance regarding sexuality education. This study aims to investigate the status of resources in the schools and the extent to which these enable or present challenges to LO educators’ teaching of sexuality education. Qualitative semi-structured in-depth interviews with six LO educators from four schools in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, were conducted and analysed using Thematic Content Analysis. LO educators were selected via purposive sampling, representative of poverty quintile two to five. The findings of the study demonstrate that teaching in all schools was adversely impacted by the lack of financial, social-capital and human resources, which adversely impacted the quality of sexuality education lessons. However, LO educators reported having high levels of social-networking which they regarded as an enabling factor to teaching sexuality education. Furthermore, educators in lower resourced schools were able to mobilize the resources they did not possess through their resourcefulness and reliance on social capital to assist them in teaching impactful sexuality education to learners. It is recommended that schools continue to promote and encourage the attendance and provision of training for LO educators and continue having and growing networks of social support. Current LO educators should be awarded and recognised for their immense efforts in going above and beyond their duties at school.