What constitutes evidence in HIV/AIDS education?

It is clear that many sources of evidence have contributed to our grasp of what does and does not work in HIV/AIDS education. Despite this, there has recently been a distinct move to narrow the evidence of success in this fie ld to experimental and comparative work,with randomized controlled trials p ositioned as the 'gold standard'. Here we take up the question of what cons titutes evidence in HIV/AIDS education. We explore the social and historica l factors which 'privilege' certain kinds of evidence above others and ques tion whether there exists but one way of understanding what works best in H IV/AIDS education. We draw expressly upon earlier insights and experience i re educational evaluation per se and put a case that evidence gleaned throu gh a range of research methods is more useful than exclusive reliance on ex perimental and comparative work.