Synergies, tensions and challenges in HIV prevention, treatment and cure research: exploratory conversations with HIV experts in South Africa

Background: The ethical concerns associated with HIV prevention and treatment research have been widely explored in South Africa over the past 3 decades. However, HIV cure research is relatively new to the region and significant ethical and social challenges are anticipated. There has been no published empirical enquiry in Africa into key informant perspectives on HIV cure research. Consequently, this study was conducted to gain preliminary data from South African HIV clinicians, researchers and activists. Methods: In-depth interviews were conducted on a purposive sample of fourteen key informants in South Africa. Audiotaped interviews were transcribed verbatim with concurrent thematic analysis. The perspectives of HIV clinicians, researchers and activists were captured. Analyst triangulation occurred as the data were analysed by three authors independently. Results: The rapid evolution of HIV cure research agendas was prominent with participants expressing some concern that the global North was driving the cure agenda. Participants described a symbiotic relationship between cure, treatment and prevention research necessitating collaboration. Assessing and managing knowledge and expectations around HIV cure research emerged as a central theme related to challenges to constructing ‘cure’ - how patients understand the idea of cure is important in explaining the complexity of cure research especially in the South African context where understanding of science is often challenging. Managing expectations and avoiding curative misconception will have implications for consent processes. Unique strategies in cure research could include treatment interruption, which has the potential to create therapeutic and ethical conflict and will be perceived as a significant risk. Ethical challenges in cure research will impact on informed consent and community engagement. Conclusions: It was encouraging to note the desire for synergy amongst researchers and clinicians working in the fields of prevention, treatment and cure. Translation of complex HIV cure science into lay language is critical. Moving forward, RECs must be adequately constituted with scientific expertise and community representation when reviewing cure protocols. It is hoped that knowledge and resource sharing in the context of collaboration between research scientists working in cure and those working in treatment and prevention will accelerate progress towards cur

Employers, Quality and Standards in Higher Education: Shared Values and Vocabularies or Elitism and Inequalities?

This paper is based on a research project funded by the Higher Education Funding Council for England which investigated employers' needs for information on higher education quality and standards. A key issue was identifying the type of knowledge that employers utilise in graduate recruitment. A finding of the study was that information on quality and standards was being used by some employers in a way that could undermine equity and widening participation initiatives. Whereas employers reported that, in initial recruitment, they placed least emphasis on information about quality and standards and most emphasis on graduates' interpersonal and communication skills, over a quarter used league tables/Top 20 lists in their decision-making processes and 80 per cent of employers cited the importance of the reputation of the higher education institution in their decision making about marketing and individual recruitment of graduates. Reputation was based on real or imagined league tables, `grapevine¿ knowledge, personal, regional and professional networks, performance of past graduates and prejudice against new universities. The hierarchy of opportunity within the labour market often appeared to correspond to a highly stratified higher education sector

Processes of middle-class reproduction in a graduate employment scheme

Teach First is an educational charity that places graduates to teach in 'challenging' schools for two years. It is marketed as an opportunity to develop employability while 'making a difference'. In this paper, I examine the process of class reproduction occurring in this graduate employment scheme through examining the discourses used in Teach First marketing and by Teach First participants. I begin by arguing that the Teach First participants interviewed as part of an evaluation were predominantly middle-class, and possessed social and cultural capital which had facilitated their access to the Teach First scheme. I then illustrate three processes of middle-class reproduction within Teach First. The first is the accumulation by participants of additional social and cultural capital. The second is the reproduction of middle-class values and stereotypes of the working-class other, and the third is the obscuring of middle-class advantage through discourses of 'natural ability'. I conclude that although well-intentioned Teach First participants worked extremely hard to combat educational disadvantage, their actions were twisted by class forces, and resulted in the reproduction of middle-class privilege

‘Memory boxes’ as tool for community-based volunteers

This article describes an action research intervention to augment community-based volunteer counsellors’ support capacity. We conducted a case study with purposefully selected community-based volunteers (N=30). From a narrative and positive psychology framework we developed and implemented an intervention which focused on memory box-making (MBM). The participants’ ranges of psychosocial competencies were explored pre- and post-intervention by way of observation, focus-group discussions, as well as informal conversational interviews. We found that the volunteers acquired the skills and applied them competently