Attitude towards PEs

For any intervention to be successful, it needs to occur in an enabling environment and be welcomed by the beneficiaries. In an endeavour to carry out their duties as peer educators, participants were faced with a myriad of contextual challenges.

4.2.3.1(a) Peer Resistance

Participants’ intervention in schools was not always well received. Participants experienced different forms of frustration when dealing with their peers. A participant complained:

Meeting with school learners, they will tell you that they won’t be informed about something that they know, which like they say they know but they don’t have full information. (A1, L173-174)

A similar sentiment was expressed by another participant:

They [peers] will say, I cannot tell them anything. I tell myself that I am better because I am in the programme, I think I have everything, I am not better than them. (C2, L209-211)

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Feelings of disappointment and frustration prevailed as one participant stated: Aaai,

learners here at school are against us, all learners are against peer education” (B1,

L318-320). Another participant relayed that “others [peers] will remove the posters [educational posters posted by PEs] from the wall or tear it off or write on them” (D1, L189).

It emerged from the data that peers did not really accept PEs. This concurs with the findings of the pilot project carried out in 2008 by the then Department of Education, that initially learners did not respect nor take PEs seriously; they responded with resistance (DBE, 2011:38)

4.2.3.1(b) Lack of recognition

Participants felt that they were not always recognised by their peers.

A participant had challenges with peers’ attitudes towards his sexual orientation. A participant sadly conveyed his experience:

They say I am ‘gay’, so when they see as I am gay, when people see one person saying ‘hey, Stabani’ [gay] so when a person call me ‘Stabani’, then it means all the others will look down on me and say this one is a ‘Stabani’ what can he tell us? (E2, L75-77)

Frustration about lack of recognition was greatly felt by participants. In relating her frustration, a participant used a metaphor to express herself:

I don’t know what they [peers] think about us ‘cause they take us like we just don’t exist. You know even if you could go for training, you go there and get trained, you are well informed of such roles, but they don’t use you. It’s like getting trained to be a doctor but there are no patients. (C1, L418-420) Another participant voiced her concern, “here at school, as PEs, they do not give us the platform” (A1, L42).

PEs need to be accorded an opportunity to engage with their peers. PEs are activists who need to facilitate peer education as an ‘active, dialogical program’ in which learners actively participate in formulating critical analyses and come up with

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scenarios of different ways of being (Freire, 1993:19).

4.2.3.1(c) Lack of Trust

People feel free to share their problems in an environment where they feel their information will be treated with confidentiality.

One participant shared her experience:

Even when a person wants to share their problems, they are afraid that you will tell others. Whereas you just want to help them, but they will not see it that way. They think you want to make fun of them. (D1, 120-126)

A similar view was expressed by another participant, “so far let’s just say they are not

comfortable enough to come to us with their problems” (C1, L368).

Lack of trust was also based on the perception of lack of maturity of PEs. A participant remarked:

Some [peers] would say they preferred to speak to the teacher [instead of PEs] because they think it is too personal and some of their problems involved their parents. (A1, L42)

The reaction of some teachers was indicative of a lack of trust for PEs. Apparently, some PEs did not practice what they preached regarding teenage pregnancy. A participant sadly explained:

They [teachers] took back the T-shirts [PEs’ T-shirts] so they have the mentality that peer educators teach learners not to fall pregnant but the peer educators themselves fall pregnant. (B1, L311-312)

Data reveals that peers did not really trust PEs. Hence, they did not necessarily approach them with their problems. Similar experience was revealed by research that shows that lack of trust led to peers not approaching PEs for advice due to fear on information being disclosed to others (Swartz, et al., 2014:38). This contradicts literature (IPPF, 2004:6) that indicates that that peers are perceived as “credible and

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trusted sources of information” and what Naidoo (2013:1) asserts that “PEs are perceived by their peers to be trustworthy”.

4.2.3.1(d) Age Factor

It strongly emerged from the data that age seemed to be a barrier to participants’ effectiveness in their role as PEs. Out of the five schools, four schools showed that age may be an issue for PEs.

A participant’s experience was that, “learners here at school say you are their peer, they can’t give you respect. It is better if you are an adult” (E1, L97-98).

Some participants were undermined because of their age, as a participant stated, “They say if a person has told me their problem, what will I do because I am the same

age with them or I am young” (D1, L177-179).

A similar view was echoed by another participant: “They undermine me and take advantage, so they will tell me that I am young, what do I know, there is nothing better that I can tell them because I am young” (C2, L222-225). Similarly, another participant remarked, “learners do not respect the peer supporters, they see us as the same age

group” (A1, L123-124).

The participants’ experiences explicates the importance of considering the age gap between the PEs and their peers. Swartz et al. (2014, 89) suggest there should be at least a two-year age-gap between PEs and peer learners to foster trust.

4.2.3.1(e) Lack of co-operation from peers

One of the challenges that participants faced was the lack of co-operation from their peers whom they were supposed to help.

A participant sadly related, “It’s hard to get the support that you need, some of the

learners, you can invite them to do something, but they do not support us” (E1, L108-

109). There was lack of co-operation with regards to wearing appropriate school uniform. The participants expressed “they [peers] do not want to wear proper uniform” (B1, L358), and “others [peers] are still wearing caps even if we tell them not to,

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It was apparent from the data that participants experienced common challenges in their effort to execute their role. There were similarities in the findings of this study with other previous study findings, namely, lack of platform and lack of trust. Myataza (2009:23) made similar findings that PEs were not given opportunities to engage in activities and to implement the programme. Peers did not confide in PEs for fear that ‘private information’ might be a subject of gossip (Swartz et al., 2014:38). A study in KZN found that there was a high rate of teenage pregnancy amongst PEs themselves, and this affected the PEs credibility (Sithole, 2013:16).