Scheduled for AAHE Research Coordinating Board: Professional Poster Session, Wednesday, April 9, 2008, 1:45 PM - 3:15 PM, Convention Center: Exhibit Hall, National Association Poster Sessions


Teachers as Leaders in Reducing the Incidence of HIV/AIDS

Sharon Deutschlander, Indiana University of Pennsylvania, Indiana, PA

Schools provide a setting for equipping children and adolescents with the knowledge to protect themselves and others from acquiring HIV. While numbers of adolescents participating in risky behaviors have dropped during the past decade, many adolescents continue to participate in high risk behavior. This requires teachers to be knowledgeable and help high risk adolescents assess their vulnerability to the disease and make necessary behavior changes. The increase of the disease among school age children will undoubtedly result in teachers at both the elementary and secondary school settings teaching students who are HIV/AIDS affected. This makes administrators and teachers vitally important in leading the fight against HIV/AIDS by providing valid information, demonstrating appropriate behaviors when dealing with HIV infected students, and facilitating appropriate interventions to help all students understand the dynamics of confronting this disease. The purpose of this study was to investigate areas that assure school personnel are properly prepared to be leaders in the spread of HIV among school age children. It was hypothesized that an increase in knowledge would have a positive effect on attitude and comfort levels which in turn would increase confidence levels in teaching HIV/AIDS education. Since confidence is an important quality of leadership (Wren, 1995), it is theorized that the HIV/AIDS training would increase participants' ability to provide leadership through consistent and innovative teaching. This in turn would influence society to become initiators of change and work together to alleviate the problem of HIV/AIDS among the school age population. The study was designed to determine school personnel's: 1) confidence in teaching HIV/AIDS; 2) comfort in dealing with sensitive issues; 3) attitudes toward people with HIV/AIDS; 4) knowledge of current virus transmission and treatment procedures. This information was collected through administration of a survey to school personnel attending a one-day HIV update training throughout Pennsylvania. Analysis of pre and post test data indicated significant changes in each of the four areas. The study noted that as the knowledge level increased, there was a significant change in attitude and comfort levels. As comfort levels increased, there was a significant change in confidence, again the quality of strong leaders. The framework for this study is the combination of the Transformational Leadership Theory (Bass, B.M., 1990) and Managing Transitions (Bridges, 2003).
Keyword(s): health education K-12, leadership development, youth-at-risk

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