The social construction of the sexual identities of Zulu-speaking youth with disabilities in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, in the context of the HIV pandemic.
Year: 2013
Type: dissertation
Abstract: This thesis is a participatory research study that was conducted amongst twenty-two, 15 \nto 20-year-old youth with disabilities in the Umgungundlovu district of KwaZulu-Natal, \nSouth Africa. The aim of the thesis was to investigate how Zulu-speaking youth with \nphysical and sensory impairments bring into discourse issues surrounding love, \nrelationships, sex and HIV & AIDS in the construction of their sexual identities. As \npart of this process, three youth with disabilities were trained as co-researchers. In this \ncontext, a further aim of this thesis was to make evident what youth with disabilities \nlearn through undertaking sexuality research. Using a post-structural framework, with \nparticular emphasis on queer theory, a key argument of this thesis is that power emerges \nthrough the networks of relations in the study. This thesis also troubles the linear \ndiscourse of empowerment and the relationships between adults and young people in \nsexuality and HIV & AIDS research. \nThe thesis adopted a qualitative methodology and used a participatory research design. \nData was collected through the use of focus group discussions, individual interviews \nand participatory rural appraisal (PRA) techniques such as drawings and timelines. The \nco-researchers were responsible for carrying out the focus group discussions and \nindividual interviews with other disabled youth, as well as being involved in some \naspects of the data analysis of this thesis. Data were analysed using a multi-levelled \nprocess that combined both content analysis and discourse analysis. \nThe findings make evident that youth with disabilities are sexual beings who \ncontinually re-construct their sexual identities in the context of the discourses available \nto them. Furthermore, the findings demonstrate that, in constructing their sexual \nidentities, youth with disabilities do so within the intersectionality of complementary \nand contentious discourses of gender, culture, modernity, ableism and adultism. In \nrelation to the co-researchers, it was found that being part of the study provided a \ndialogical space allowing them to develop new self-positions, which they were able to \napply to their personal lives outside the research arena. \nThe thesis recommends the training of youth with disabilities as peer educators in \nsexuality and HIV & AIDS pedagogy. It also strongly argues for the need to review \ncurrent teacher education curriculum in South Africa in order to take cognisance of the \nsexuality of youth with disabilities and their vulnerability to HIV & AIDS.
Author: Paul Chappell
Language: English
Subfield: Sociology and Political Science
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
Funder: Medical Research Council
OpenAlex ID: W2107436417