PiE 33(4) Book.indb Perspectives in Education 2015: 33(3) http://www.perspectives-in-education.com ISSN 0258-2236 © 2015 University of the Free State 42 From discomfort to collaboration: Teachers screening cellphilms in a rural South African school Katie MacEntee April Mandrona South Africa continues to contend with an HIV pandemic. Teachers have the potential to address prevention and treatment with their learners but they struggle to implement HIV and AIDS education. Cellphilm projects—using cellphones to create videos, and then screening these—is one example of how digital technology can be used to address barriers to teacher-implemented HIV education. In this article we focus on the work of nine teachers who screened their cellphilms to three youth audiences. We explore how teachers can integrate cellphilm screenings into their teaching practice to address HIV and AIDS, and we consider what this integration tells us about the potential and challenges of teachers dealing with this issue in rural South Africa. Informed by a framework of discomfort, we analyse participant observation notes, fieldnotes, and pre- and post-event interviews. We argue that moments of discomfort during the events reveal the difficulties and strategies that teachers use to negotiate multiple—sometimes contradictory—sexual health education policies. The cellphilm screening events provided an opportunity for teachers and youth to learn from each other, even as it contributed to a more nuanced response to the teaching that addresses HIV and AIDS. Keywords: cellphone videos, HIV and AIDS, participatory visual methodologies, pedagogy of discomfort, rurality, South Africa Introduction In South Africa over 6 million people are living with HIV (UNAIDS, 2013a). KwaZulu- Natal has an antenatal prevalence of 35.9% primarily as a result of unprotected heterosexual sex (UNAIDS, 2012). Youth (aged between 15 and 25), and girls in particular, are amongst the most at risk of new infections (Republic of South Africa, Katie MacEntee McGill University, Canada Faculty of Education Department of Integrated Studies in Education katherine.macentee@mail.mcgill.ca April Mandrona McGill University, Canada Faculty of Education Department of Integrated Studies in Education aprilmandrona@gmail.com From Discomfort to Collaboration: Teachers Screening Cellphilms in a Rural South African School Katie MacEntee & April Mandrona 43 2012). In rural KwaZulu-Natal, male prevalence amongst individuals under 18 years of age is low (less than 1%) and tends to increase steadily once they have entered adulthood. Conversely, females are at high risk of infection starting at age 15 and, by age 20, one in four females is HIV-positive (Karim et al., 2014: 622). Global policy such as the Millennium Development Goals, and the Convention on the Rights of the Child highlight the role of education in containing the epidemic (UNAIDS, 2009). South Africa’s education policy ensures a dedicated budget earmarked for HIV interventions, and a comprehensive school curriculum in the Life Orientation (LO) Learning Area (Republic of South Africa, 2012). This focus on HIV prevention reflects the recognition that the South African education sector has “a fundamental role in reducing new infections and responding to the needs of those infected and affected by HIV and AIDS” (Department of Basic Education, 2010: n.p.). Thus, as part of school policy on addressing HIV and AIDS, teachers are seen to be integral to providing quality sexual health and HIV education. Large-scale adjustments to educational policy rolled out across post-apartheid South Africa have been criticised for overlooking the input of teachers. This lack of consultation has led to some teachers viewing the policy as irrelevant, and, therefore, refusing to implement it (Smit, 2005). Rural teachers, more specifically, may feel isolated and, furthermore, have a difficult time connecting with sparse resources and community support (MacEntee, 2011). Teachers can misunderstand or overlook the significance of young peoples’ sexual experiences and thus fail to implement a meaningful curriculum that is in accordance with the experiences and educational needs of their learners (Smit & Harrison, 2013). The lack of training and the difficulties they have in managing their personal beliefs about sexuality and its expression (for example, the conviction that abstinence is vital) that contradict the national, comprehensive, rights-based curriculum that focuses, for instance, on harm reduction methods, can make teachers hesitant to tackle HIV-related topics in class (Helleve et al., 2009; Mathews et al., 2006). In some communities, the appropriateness of what is described as an individually-orientated, comprehensive curriculum that emphasises personal rights to sexual education and individual choice can preclude or compete with locally-based understandings of indigenous rights (Undie & Izugbara, 2011). However, as Moletsane warns us, we must also guard against “cultural nostalgia” (2011: 194) or the misappropriation of traditional cultural discourse by local leaders and educators in ways that actually work to reinforce patriarchal oppression. Despite these systemic challenges described in the literature, there is also the suggestion that the burden of addressing these challenges rests solely on individual teachers. For example, UNESCO, in following its argument that “the quality of the education system is only as good as the quality of its teachers” (2014: 233), outlines four strategies to improve deficits in teaching. There is little recognition in this report of teacher resilience nor is there reference to teachers who are succeeding in addressing HIV and AIDS despite these challenges. Perspectives in Education 2015: 33(4) 44 This article explores how a group of nine teachers navigating various systemic challenges in one rural South African school facilitated cellphilm screenings to address HIV and AIDS. We begin by introducing the cellphilm research project and the research participants, and by offering a synopsis of the cellphilms that were presented during the screenings along with a description of the rural school context in which the teachers work. The screening events are considered through a framework of discomfort (Boler, 1999). Four instances of discomfort that occurred during the research project are analysed. These instances are captured from the perspective of the teachers and the first author in pre-and post-event interviews, research field notes, and participant observation notes, and are considered in relation to the cellphilms that the teachers screened. The findings are discussed with reference to the existing literature on the challenges and opportunities of South African teachers in addressing HIV and AIDS. Cellphilms and public screenings to inform HIV education The Digital Voices project to which we refer here aims to identify the ways in which the voices of rural teachers can become more central to meaning-making when it comes to identifying and addressing critical issues of youth sexuality in the age of AIDS. Cellphilms, according to Dockney et al. (2010) are videos made with cellphones usually with an intention to identify and address community issues. Mitchell and De Lange (2013) describe the actual process of cellphilm making. It follows the NER (No Editing Required) approach to participatory video in its inclusion of the following steps: brainstorming; carefully creating a storyboard and planning out the filming for a 3 to 5 minute film; doing the actual film shoot; and screening the film. Having the teachers make cellphilms in this way has been shown to promote their personal reflection on cultural discourses of youth sexuality (Mitchell & De Lange, 2013). In addition, this cellphilm method also explores how knowledge is constructed and to whom this knowledge is disseminated (Mitchell, 2014). This article focuses on the experience of these teachers of such dissemination in screening their cellphilms. There is a small body of literature that takes up screening and the exhibition of participant produced visual media in relation to participatory visual methodologies. In their review of the public health literature, Fraser & al Sayah (2011) describe the exhibition of participant-produced visual media as part of the research dissemination process, and as an alternative way of bringing research results to a wider community of stakeholders. Exploring the screening of participant-produced videos, specifically, Mitchell (2011) describes how screenings in community-based settings can stimulate a wider dialogue in relation to addressing participants’ identified challenges. Outlining some of the limitations of screening participant-produced videos, Kindon, Hume-Cook & Woods (2012) explore the ethical considerations involved in screening participant-produced videos outside the environment in which they were produced. They highlight the unpredictable influence of an audience in the reception and understanding of visual media. Wheeler calls for careful consideration of how “existing political identities of all the actors involved, from participants in the video process to From Discomfort to Collaboration: Teachers Screening Cellphilms in a Rural South African School Katie MacEntee & April Mandrona 45 the external researcher to particular policy makers, as well as the wider context and trajectories of existing policy arenas” (2012: 275) can shape the relationship between power and knowledge at screening events. Thus, screening participant-produced videos has great potential, especially in relation to community change and to what Mitchell describes as “getting the word out” (2014: 82). However, the process of screening remains relatively under-researched, especially in relation to the research participants’ experiences leading up to, during, and after the screening process as they reflect on it. The research participants and the cellphilm screening events As participants in the participatory research project, Digital Voices, nine teachers in rural KwaZulu-Natal had produced a collection of cellphilms that described what they saw as critical barriers to HIV prevention in young people (see Mitchell et al., 2015). Amongst them, the eight women and one man with varying years of teaching experience, taught at foundation, intermediate, and senior levels. While not all of them were LO teachers, they all expressed an interest in addressing HIV and AIDS in Life Orientation and in the community. The participating teachers live in the rural community where the school is located or in Pietermaritzburg (a city approximately 50km away from the screening site). Schools in rural South Africa experience challenges directly related to their rural location including isolation and being overlooked for educational support and development, limited job opportunities, large classes, poor infrastructure, and limited teaching resources (Nelson Mandela Foundation, 2005). The participating teachers’ school was formerly a Catholic institution but is now part of the national public school system. Despite this transition to the national, secular curriculum, the school community and many of the participating teachers maintain a strong bond with Catholicism; an operational church is located in the school grounds. All the screening events took place on the school grounds and were attended by young people of both sexes. The teachers organised themselves into three groups of three members each to plan and facilitate their screening events independently. Keeping to a budget of R10001 each group chose which videos they wanted to screen from their existing collection of cellphilms. They also chose the audience and the location, and planned the event activities (see Figure 1). All the events took, on average, 3 hours. They all followed a similar process that began with the screening of the cellphilms, one after the other. After they had watched the cellphilms, members of the audience assembled in small groups and were prompted to reflect on the cellphilms. The small groups were then invited to present a brief synopsis of their discussion to the whole group. The teachers facilitated the group discussion based on this feedback and on questions from the audience. Perspectives in Education 2015: 33(4) 46 Facilitating teachers: specialisation and sex Cellphilms screened Audience Grade 2 (female) Grade 6 (female) Secondary LO (male) Be Enlightened Breaking the Silence 2 110 Grade 6 LO learners Secondary Life Sciences (female) Secondary LO (female) Secondary Religious Studies/(female) Breaking the Silence 2 Teen Pregnancy 34 members of the Peace Club (Grade 11 and 12) Grade 4 (female) Secondary LO/Science (female) Secondary Social Science/isiZulu (female) Breaking the Silence 2 Teen Vibe 29 members of the Community Catholic Youth Group Figure 1. Teacher groups, cellphilm titles, and audience composition All the cellphilms were conceptualised, acted in, and filmed by the teachers who were facilitating the events. The videos all advocate talking about sex with adults. Breaking the Silence 2 is about two girls whose mother catches them looking at pornography on their phones. At first the mother is angry but she then calmly has a conversation with the girls about safer sex, a decision that she later must defend to the girls’ irate father. Be Enlightened tells the story of two girls who find a condom in their schoolyard but mistake it for a balloon. A teacher finds the girls playing with the condom, notices that the girls are confused about what it is, and takes this opportunity to teach them what condoms are used for. Teen Vibe tells the story of a group of girls who sneak out of their house to attend a party. At the party the girls drink and dance and then hitch a ride home with strange men. They are caught creeping back into their house by their mother who explains the dangers of their choices. Teen Pregnancy is about a girl who goes to a party, gets drunk, and then later discovers that she is pregnant. Upset and scared about the unplanned pregnancy, she is consoled by a friend and encouraged to tell an adult about her situation. After the cellphilms were screened, the teachers and audience members raised various issues and formulated questions for further discussion. For example, the teachers asked: “Should learners be allowed to bring cellphones to school?” and “At what age is it appropriate for young people to start dating?” Topics to be discussed ranged from managing school demands and sexual relationships to seeking accurate sexual health information, and from abstinence to rape and peer pressure. From Discomfort to Collaboration: Teachers Screening Cellphilms in a Rural South African School Katie MacEntee & April Mandrona 47 Frameworks of Discomfort Our research framework builds on Boler’s (1999) pedagogy of discomfort. Boler & Zembylas describe how emotional dimensions shape our routines and allow us to subscribe uncritically to hegemonic values. A pedagogy of discomfort examines emotional reactions and responses in order to “identify unconscious privileges as well as invisible ways in which one complies with dominant ideology” (2003: 108). It is through discomfort that we come to better understand the ways in which we affect and are affected by the social contexts we inhabit. This leads to a process of “emotional labour” during which space is made for “a collective process of thinking otherwise and considering the conditions for a transformation of what individuals are supposed to be” (Boler & Zembylas, 2003: 126). Burdick and Sandlin (2010), discuss a methodology of discomfort as reflexive practice. Similarly, Zembylas explores how “discomfort serves as a medium for individual and social transformation” (2010: 706). Discomfort, which can entail anger, shock, resistance, and grief (Boler & Zembylas, 2003), is considered valuable within this framework for its constructive potential (Wolgemuth & Donohue, 2006). Working with the data There were four types of data collected during the cellphilm screening project: (1) participant observation notes that describe the teachers’ facilitation process and the discussions between the audience and the teachers following the screening of the cellphilms; (2) pre- and post-event, open-ended interviews with the teachers, which explore how they prepared for the screening events and their reflection following the completion of the events; (3) the four cellphilms that the teachers screened; and (4) the first author’s research fieldnotes. The first author performed the bulk of the analysis. She began by organising the analysis according to Fiske’s (1992) three types of texts: primary, producer, and audience texts (see also Mitchell, 2011; Gubrium & Harper, 2013). Primary texts are the visual-media texts produced by research participants. Producer texts include the documentation of the process and what the participants had to say about the primary texts. Audience texts are documentations of the audiences’ responses to the primary texts. Therefore, for these cellphilm events, the primary texts are the teachers’ four cellphilms. The secondary texts are the pre- and post-interview transcripts and the research fieldnotes. Since the screening events did not include any direct contact with the audience, the audience text is also included in the participant observation notes. These notes describe the discussions that occurred between the audience and the teacher/facilitator during each event. After organising the data, the first author reviewed the excerpts from the interview transcripts and observation notes for expressions associated with the theme of discomfort such as, for example, participants’ and her own descriptions of feeling nervous, worried, uncertain, embarrassed, or uneasy. In order to explicitly Perspectives in Education 2015: 33(4) 48 document her discomfort she wrote short narrative reflections based on fieldnotes and participant observations. In order to help analyse the primary texts she wrote short synopses of the cellphilms screened during the events. The first author collected and carried out the initial analysis of the data and the second, during the overlapping data analysis and writing phases of the project, acted as a critical friend—a trusted person who, following Costa and Kallick (1993) asks provocative questions and offers supportive critique. Findings Teachers’ discomfort with how best to engage learners in discussing HIV The teachers felt they had a professional duty to discuss HIV with young people. One participant said, “As teachers, we do have the knowledge” (Pre-event Interview, Church Group). They felt prepared to take on this topic and wanted to present a fun- filled and interactive event that involved a lot of dialogue among the youth peers as well as between the youth and the teachers. However, some teachers worried that the audience members would not feel comfortable engaging in a discussion about sexual health and that the teachers’ existing relationships with these young people might hinder dialogue. I think that might be a bit of a challenge. Cause, I don’t know, it might influence their level of responding. Like, they will see us as their teachers so they might not be so comfortable as to respond. Basically, they may be scared to say some things. (Pre-event Interview, Church Group) Motivated by their apprehensions about how their presence could influence audience participation, the teachers invited the young people to engage in small peer-led discussions. In the small groups, the learners discussed the cellphilms and identified key themes. Following the small group work, the teachers encouraged the audience members to share their discussions with the larger group. In all the events, the small group and large group discussions were lively. As will be described in more detail in the following sections, audience members asked the teachers engaging and sometimes challenging questions. The lively debate and the audience’s engaged questions suggest that the success of the cellphilm screening event was not impeded by having the teachers act as facilitators. Teachers’ discomfort with teaching about condoms in schools The teachers were conscious of the school’s ties to Catholicism and how Catholic beliefs and practices might oppose some of the requirements of the national curriculum. This awareness most affected the Church Group screening. However, all the groups were concerned about the implications of discussing condoms, and were unwilling to distribute them or give demonstrations on their use during their event. When you say, ‘When you are sexually active use a condom’ for us to actually come out and say, ‘use a condom’ it becomes a problem. Because we are preaching now a different message than the message we are supposed to From Discomfort to Collaboration: Teachers Screening Cellphilms in a Rural South African School Katie MacEntee & April Mandrona 49 preach…Also, the Department of Education is…proposing learners having condoms in their school. (Pre-event Interview, Church Group) Conversely, the cellphilms expressed a more secular, rights-based approach to sexual health—one that reflected the young people’s experiences. I know that it’s not like we are going to be talking about something new with the learners. It is something that they already know. And I know for sure that they sometimes think about it. And with some of them I know that they get worried and wish they could change some of the things that happen in our community. (Pre-event Interview, Peace Club Group) The teachers were concerned and discomforted about the need to provide information about condoms and condom use given the community’s ties to the Catholic Church even though the cellphilms openly depict and discuss condoms, teenage pregnancy, pornography, and alcohol abuse because the teachers view these topics as being relevant to young people. In response to this discomfort, the teachers decided that it would be acceptable for them to discuss the use of condoms as one method of preventing HIV transmission and unplanned pregnancy. But they drew the line at providing access to condoms during the screening events. The teachers managed this discomfort by negotiating a compromise that included a discussion of condoms but not a demonstration during the events. Teachers’ discomfort with discussing alternatives to abstinence-only prevention Along with feeling uncomfortable about discussing condoms, these teachers believe that abstinence is young people’s best option for HIV prevention. While audience members did not oppose this message, they troubled this belief by asking about the ways that cultural factors might influence sexual debut outside of marriage. A grade 6 boy asked what a young man who cannot afford to pay lobola—the traditional bride price paid by a prospective husband to his prospective wife’s family—should do. In a rural context of high unemployment and financial difficulty, saving for lobola can seem difficult, if not impossible, for some young men, thus making marriage, and therefore sex, appear unattainable. During the post-interview, the facilitating teacher admitted to feeling uncomfortable about this question. I was surprised with that boy who asked because I said, ‘At your age you are not supposed to be involved in sex. Wait for marriage.’ Then there was this boy who asked, ‘What about if I don’t want to wait?’ That was a surprise! He caught me on that one! (Post-event, LO Group) The teacher admits that at first she struggled to respond. She said, “He caught me on that one!” In response to this question the teacher modified her original message. Instead of advocating an abstinence-only approach, she advised learners not to rush into Perspectives in Education 2015: 33(4) 50 becoming sexually active. She also suggested using condoms to prevent HIV transmission, and unplanned pregnancy. This moment of discomfort shows how the audience used questions to engage with the teachers and how these questions were able to disrupt the messages young people see as problematic. In response to the learners’ questions, the teachers adapted their messages to include discussion of a wider range of safer sexual activities. Teachers’ discomfort with addressing sexual violence an instance of discomfort during the Peace Club screening illustrated how teachers must traverse the complex geography of sexual health education policy in a region where the HIV prevalence is particularly high amongst young women in large part because of accompanying high rates of sexual violence against women. In her reflexive writing, the first author describes the events leading up to a young female learner asking Ntombi, a facilitating teacher, a discomforting question. The cellphilms were screened one after the other to the attentive audience. Ntombi then facilitated a large group discussion about HIV and AIDS. It was during this discussion that Ntombi explained to the learners that ‘a covenant is a relationship between you and the person you are having sex with as well as between you and God.’ She added that these relationships are carried with you for life even if your relationship with a sexual partner ends. At this point, a female student in the audience raises her hand and, reflecting on the message that every sexual act is carried for life, she asks: “What if you are raped? Do you have to tell your husband of this experience?” (First author’s reflexive writing) This learner’s question touches on an underlying contradiction in Ntombi’s explanation and the shortcomings of educational ideologies that assume, at great cost to many girls and women, that all sexual experiences are consensual. In South Africa, in particular, high rates of gender-based violence mean that all sexual health discussions must consider the potential impact of sexual violence on people’s lives. In the post-interview Ntombi expressed shock that a learner would bring up rape in such a public forum. Ntombi was pleased that the girl felt confident to challenge her as the teacher but was also unsure as to how to respond. In the end, she referred to her own experiences as a teacher in the community. It is a different case. When you are raped it is something that you didn’t do intentionally…that is why people who are raped, they take a very long time to heal. Because it is something that is done to them without their will. … And that is why they don’t tend to forget easily. It takes years and years. I don’t think they ever forget. Cause I’ve got a learner who was raped in grade 7. Until today, she is doing third year Varsity. She is still hurting....You can see it from the way she talks. You know, sometimes she wants to give up on life. (Post-event, Peace Club) In this example, Ntombi recognised the audience members’ contribution of an alternative experience to the discussion of the impact of sex on a person’s life. While Ntombi initially struggled to respond, her answer appears honest and demonstrates how teachers provide care for their students. In Ntombi’s own words, “[w]e counsel From Discomfort to Collaboration: Teachers Screening Cellphilms in a Rural South African School Katie MacEntee & April Mandrona 51 them. So I think that is the other side that they saw [during the screening event]… It’s not all about curriculum and learning” (Post-event, Peace Club). In responding to the question of about rape during the screening event, Ntombi offers her own interpretation of the trauma of sexual violence. Referencing her knowledge of the learner’s experiences and her own on-going connection to this young woman also suggests that Ntombi may provide a level of on-going care for individuals in the school community who are survivors of sexual violence. Discussion In considering moments of discomfort in relation to screening and discussing participant-produced cellphilms, we explore how the exhibition process is more than just research dissemination in that it also contributes to research knowledge production. We argue in this section that how teachers react to this discomfort points to their resilience in negotiating conflicting ideologies, global frameworks, and also towards the potential of screening participant-produced cellphilms to bring communities together to respond to the impact of HIV and AIDS. With the HIV epidemic in South Africa being what it is, some teachers may view teaching learners about HIV-related issues as a monumental task that extends beyond their professional responsibilities (MacEntee, 2011). Providing non-judgmental and empowering sexual health education is particularly difficult for some teachers (Smit & Harrison, 2013). These participant teachers also expressed hesitation and unpreparedness in relation to their screening events, and worried about potential barriers to audience participation. Despite these inital hesitations, however, all three screening events incorporated stimulating dialogue amongst learners in the small groups, and between teachers and learners in the large groups. These experiences are similar to previous research initiatives incorporating public screening events to promote community dialogue and address difficult subjects or those about which any discussion is taboo (Mitchell & De Lange, 2011). The process of watching and then responding to participant-produced visual media in these contexts offers a non- didactic, youth-centred kind of pedagogy and seems to invite audience participation in interpreting, and responding to different HIV prevention messages. All three of the cellphilm screening events offered examples of youth audience members asking questions that challenged the teacher’s assumptions and that highlighted previously overlooked systemic barriers including traditional practices, gender-based violence, and the obstacles to practising safer sex. Instead of being seen only as a finished product, each video screened can be seen as a starting point for engagement in teacher-learner dialogue about the overarching socio-cultural influences on the sexual safety of young people. These findings respond to Smit and Harrison’s (2013) observations that suggest that teachers can lack a nuanced understanding of youth sexualities, and struggle to offer non-judgemental strategies to promote sexual health. A critical outcome of the dialogue between the young people and the teachers at these screening events was the teachers’ increased awareness and respect for these young people in this rural community. Perspectives in Education 2015: 33(4) 52 The research identified three broad influences on how the teachers addressed HIV prevention during the screening events: (1) the national curriculum; (2) religious teachings; and (3) local, experiential knowledge. The national curriculum advocates a comprehensive, secular approach that encourages individuals to choose safer sexual practices while also recognising systemic barriers that might limit the individual’s ability to choose these (Department of Basic Education, 2010). The teachers’ and school’s religious affiliations lead them to promote a more restrictive set of options in terms of sexual safety, limiting their discussions to sexual abstinence and fidelity (Casale, Nixon & Flicker, 2010). The teachers were uncertain, at first, about how to reconcile the rights-based policy with the abstinence policy. These influences restrained the types of resources (e.g. condom demonstrations) they might have used to teach learners about sexual health practices. The cellphilms offered an opportunity for teachers to show condoms but avoid the contentious issue of bringing the prophylactics physically into the classroom, thus distancing themselves from the discomfort generally associated with demonstrating how to use a condom in a classroom context. But, in presenting religious teachings, the teachers preferred to discuss these intimately in person. For example, Ntombi presented the notion of the sacred in her description of a covenant. Most surprising was the ability of the teachers to respond to the alternative perspectives raised by the learners with personal anecdotes and reference to local, experiential knowledge. In the case of Ntombi, this was most evident when she chose to draw on her personal experience as a teacher caring for a rape survivor. The discomfort the teachers experienced in implementing a rights-based curriculum coincides with Wood & Rolleri’s (2014) critique of the national curriculum in which they argue for the need to develop a national programme that can address the confluence of social, cultural, and gendered norms that affect young people’s choices. However, using teacher-produced cellphilms suggests an alternative resource that teachers can adapt to manage curricular guidelines in keeping with local and community-based ideas, beliefs, and expectations. In any consideration of the role of public screenings in relation to participant- produced visual media, the audience is both important and unpredictable. Chalfen, Sherman and Rich argue that “knowledge and anticipation of what [they] have termed ‘a dedicated audience’ is one of the primary variables in the success of participant media research” (2010: 209). We also bear in mind Kindon et al.’s (2012) discussion of the risks to participants in screening their videos to an unreceptive audience. It is perhaps the unpredictable nature of audience reaction that motivated the teachers to screen their cellphilms to the more familiar learner audiences. We also presume that a different audience, one made up of adults (e.g. parents, other teachers, or local leaders) would have significantly affected the screening events. As Mitchell et al. observe, “too often perhaps, as researchers, seeking to do ‘most good’ and getting the most out of our fieldwork in terms of impact, we think primarily of how community-based video productions might reach policymakers” (2015: 5). With this in mind, we consider the screenings a success. A strength of digital films is that they From Discomfort to Collaboration: Teachers Screening Cellphilms in a Rural South African School Katie MacEntee & April Mandrona 53 can be shown over and over again to different audiences. The videos were projected onto a screen made out of four pieces of poster paper during these events but they could also be disseminated from cellphone-to-cellphone, over social media,2 or by using a USB. The costs of such screenings is relatively low and they offer further potential to extend the research and the influence of the cellphilms as a pedagogical tool to address HIV. Conclusion Global frameworks, such as Education for All, and national curriculum policy implemented at the national level recognise that teachers play a vital role in addressing HIV and AIDS. However, teachers experience various barriers to integrating HIV and sexual health topics into their classroom practice. In this article we seek to inform future research on the ways in which teachers might integrate cellphilms into HIV education strategies, how they might navigate the contentious relationships between current sex education approaches, and how teachers and learners might come together through public art forums. Future research could explore the various ways in which cellphones and cellphilm screenings could be used by educators to teach about difficult subjects and/or those that are excluded from discussion by tradition. Such initiatives could also investigate how different audiences can engage with this visual media. Internationally, young people are emerging as leaders in HIV and AIDS policy development, especially in connection with digital technologies (UNAIDS, 2013b). The screening of teacher-produced cellphilms to learners offered opportunities for them to contribute to the development of a nuanced HIV educational message that, in turn, supports the continued active engagement of these young people in policy-related initiatives. Perhaps the most dramatic outcome of this fieldwork is the recognition of the significance of teachers and youth learning from each other. This outcome is in line with Boler & Zembylas’s (2003) description of emotional labour, through which an engagement with emotional discomfort creates a space for social transformation, and a re-consideration of individuals’ roles in society. The screenings lead the teachers to reconceptualise their roles as educators in relation to their learners and to consider the potential of future cellphilm initiatives between teachers and learners working together to address HIV and AIDS. The research into this screening event also emphasises the potential for rural teachers to implement locally accessible digital technology in order to fuel community-specific HIV and AIDS education. Acknowledgement We acknowledge Claudia Mitchell, PI of the Digital voices of rural teachers in South Africa: Participatory analysis,‘being a teacher in the age of AIDS’ and social action project (funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada). Perspectives in Education 2015: 33(4) 54 References Ahmed, N., Flisher, A., Mathews, C., Mukoma, W. & Jansen, S. 2009. HIV education in South African schools: The dilemma and conflicts of educators. Scandinavian Journal of Public Health, 37(supplement 2): 48–54. Boler, M. 1999. Felling power: Emotions in education. New York: Routledge. Boler, M., & Zembylas, M. 2003. Discomforting truths: The emotional terrain of understanding difference. In P. Pericles Trefonas (ed.) 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Sex Education, 14(5): 525–542. Zembylas, M. 2010. Teachers’ emotional experiences of growing diversity and multiculturalism in schools and the prospects of an ethic of discomfort. Teachers and Teaching, 16(6): 703–716. Endnotes 1. The Digital Voices project made available the technology for screening (LCD projectors, laptop, paper and pens), as well as funding. 2. It is necessary to observe the ethical limits of ownership, anonymity, and distribution of research data in relation to the Internet and Internet servers.