A pint in the 'Pigs' with a veteran Apause peer educator 

Carrying out research into peer education I recently had the great good fortune to interview a Crediton man, now in his early forties, who had been in the first ever cohort of our Apause peer educators.  Aided by some quality local ale, the recording lasted twenty-five minutes, so I have indulged in a little paraphrasing.

It would be a huge boost to my research to hear from anyone else - peer educator, teacher, learner or health professional who has been involved in Apause at any point over the last twenty-five years.

Reaction and Comments always welcome (No animals were injured in the making of this interview)

 J “It was the theatrical aspect of it that made it possible.”

D “What do you mean?”

J “Well, I was in the sixth form and we had to behave as though we were sexually experienced and confident at putting pressure on a Year 9 girl.”

D “What made it theatre?”

J “I’d had no sexual experience at all !. 

D “What sort of mood was it?”

J “We tried to make it a fun experience – although it was a serious message. I remember asking an individual to come upstairs who I still see to this day. I have a funny feeling, speaking to my wife, that she was in the class herself.”

D “So reminding the class you were ‘in role’ made it possible. I think the scripts would have reminded the class of its fictional nature.”

J “I don’t recall having scripts as such.  We had a clear idea, but I don’t remember a script.”

D “The scripts were a kind of format. Oftentimes people went off track, but those might have been the most important moments.”

J “I seem to remember going off track quite a lot. You had to respond to the people in your class.”

D “I’m interested in those moments when there’s a slippage from the theatrical to a personalised experience.  Do you think you challenged their normative beliefs?”

J “I guess so.  We challenged them in having the ability to say, ‘No’ and that sexual activity is not the most important part of a relationship.  They would have thought everyone’s doing it.  There’s a lot of playground bragging and a feeling that it’s something everyone does.  It’s about dispelling that myth.”

D “What about the process of identifying with you?”

J “ I suppose they would have seen us possibly as the type of individual they would want some sort of relationship with or who would want to have some sort of relationship with them.  We were a group of sixth formers within the school who were known by the year nines. They might think ‘I would like to be like them – turn out like that’.”

D “What about the behaviour itself, being assertive, how novel was that behaviour?

J ”Everybody has it in them to say ‘No’.  It is the confidence to say ‘No’ and standing up to something they don’t want to do.  It’s like a health and safety issue at work.  They might think they will be looked down on for saying ‘No’.  They know they could say ‘No’ but it’s harder to say ‘No’ than just do it and get on with the job. They think they will be looked down on for not doing something, when rather they should be standing up and saying they can’t do it.  It’s drawing that behaviour from within themselves and having the confidence to be able to say ‘No’.  People won’t think worse of you for saying ‘No’.

D “What about doing it in the public setting of a classroom, in front of their class mates?

J “It was a challenge for us and a challenge for them.  It was hard being seen to be pushing them to have sex, whilst at the same time trying to get them to say ‘No’.

D “What happened once they’d said ‘No’?”

J “They got a round of applause, ‘well done’ and a pat on the back.  Sometimes they said ‘Yes’ and we had to deal with that. It was a laugh.  There’s always one.”

D “We’ve had data published to show that it did affect behaviour – fewer Apause teenagers had had sex by sixteen compared with control schools.  Could you try to encapsulate why you think it worked?”

J “The fact it was a peer programme.  We were not too far apart in age.  There was no teacher stood at the front of the class.  It was not the usual teacher pupil relationship environment.  I can picture my children responding better to that kind of thing.

D “What about normative expectations?”

J “We challenged them in how they think their lives are going to go.  I’d like to think we did challenge that.  In any classroom there’s such a wide range of backgrounds. Some individuals may well have thought they were on a pre-set pathway.  Hopefully, yes, it did give them that confidence and that belief they could challenge, it may well be not a sexual activity that challenged them in the long run it might have been something else.  Hopefully it gave them the confidence to stand up to whatever it might be.”

D “So, you’re saying it could be a generic kind of assertiveness to stand up of for things they believe in.”

J “Yes. It had a wider impact.”

D “What about those in the group that didn’t identify themselves as heterosexual, could they relate to saying ‘No’, or could they have felt excluded?

J “There’s that risk.  Maybe future programmes will look at different sexualities.  You put yourself in a role and I don’t think we’d have any problem.  I don’t we’d have known if people were gay.”

D “The peers do nowadays.  They often role-play same sex relationships.  Is there anything you would like to add that we haven’t’ covered?

J “My whole memory does revolve around that single session – I can’t recollect any other sessions.

D “Actually there were four, one-hour sessions in total.

J “I can’t remember any of the training process”