Educating teachers about human rights: building a rights based culture in Australian schools

A well-educated active citizenry is the primary aim of our education systems. An essential component of a well-educated citizenry in a civil society is its understanding of the value of human rights and what it means to live with dignity in a community, where rights and freedoms are protected. This paper uses evidence from international and national reports and programmes to argue that HRE should be an essential component of the curriculum in Australian schools. It draws on data from the first national cross-sectoral Australian study investigating the place of HRE in the school curriculum. There is a need for both pre-service and in-service teachers to have focused professional training, in order to better engage students to be critically aware of the importance of developing a human rights culture within a school; also, to adopt a transformative “whole school” approach linked to local, national, and global communities.     

Between a rock and a hard place: decolonising religious and human rights education

ABSTRACT

Human rights education and Islamic education are typically presented as finished products without room for critique that do not always align with local and personal realities, resulting in a phenomenon sometimes called ‘decoupling’. To examine the ways in which decoupling might occur in one setting, this proposed article reports on the results of a quantitative study that analysed the responses of 470 education students at a university in Kuwait who were asked to rate on a 4-point scale their level of agreement with statements of women’s rights in general terms and in specific situations. Mean differences in their responses to women’s rights in general were compared to their responses to women’s rights, in particular, using a one-sample t-test, along with comparisons of demographic differences in responses analysed using ANOVA. The results showed that the students agreed with women’s rights in general but there was significantly less agreement with women’s rights in particular, suggesting that even on an individual level, a decoupling effect takes place when translating universalised value systems, like human rights and religion, to local realities.     

The quest for cognitive justice: towards a pluriversal human rights education

This paper turns to the work of the Portuguese sociologist Boaventura de Sousa Santos and explores how a set of concepts he developed over the years may constitute valuable tools in the task of decolonising and pluriversalising Human Rights Education (HRE). Informed by decolonial theory, Santos highlights that the struggle for global social justice is inseparable from the struggle for cognitive justice, namely, the recognition of epistemic diversity. This paper makes a contribution to the efforts that view the pluriversalisation of HRE as inextricable parts of the wider task of decolonising knowledge and education and struggling for social justice.     

A measure of human rights competence in students enrolled on the International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme

This article presents findings from a larger multiple methods study that explores the levels of adherence and experiences students have of the International Baccalaureate Organization human rights ideals in different school contexts. A three-component model of human rights competence, incorporating identification with all humanity, ethno-cultural empathy, and positive attitudes to human rights, is presented and tested. The findings reveal that identification with all humanity, ethno-cultural empathy, and positive attitudes towards human-rights-promoting values and behaviour act as prerequisites for the intention to act, and for human rights competence. The level of human rights competence can indicate the level of adherence students have to the human rights ideals of the International Baccalaureate Organization.     

Translating human rights principles into classroom practices: inequities in educating about human rights

The overarching aim of this paper is to explore how key principles inherent in human rights declarations and conventions are translated into practices associated with human rights education within school contexts. It is argued that this translation from discourse to practice opens up the potential for children and young people to encounter inequitable experiences of human rights education, and that this is an ethical issue that needs addressing. Within the paper, human rights education relates to both direct teaching about human rights, and to children and young peoples’ experiences of how school practitioners acknowledge and uphold their rights. In both national and international contexts, knowledge and understanding about school-based human rights education is lacking; this paper aims to address this issue by developing a theoretical framework through which to view human rights education practices within school settings.     

From “time pass” to transformative force: School-based human rights education in Tamil Nadu, India

This article presents data collected at the level of practice to highlight one non-governmental organization's approach to human rights education and how household-, school-, and community-level factors mediated student impact. Findings suggest that a variety of factors at the three levels contribute to the program's successful implementation in government schools serving marginalized students (where most HRE programs are in operation in India today). These responses emerge along a continuum from ‘time pass’—a commonly used term in India for anything that does not directly contribute to greater performance on high-stakes exams—to ‘transformative force’, wherein students internalize knowledge and values related to human rights and take action based on it. Responses to HRE were characterized in four areas and representative examples are provided of each: (1) personal changes; (2) attempts to intervene in situations of abuse; (3) reporting (or threatening to report) abuse; and (4) spreading awareness about human rights.     

The complexity of human rights in global times: The case of the right to education in South Africa

The right to education has an established legacy in international agreements and debates, but has nonetheless proved difficult to achieve across the countries of the world. This paper explores why this might be so. It begins by locating the current architecture of rights in Enlightenment philosophy and the political and legal formations of modernity, exploring the paradoxical legacy this brings. It then looks more specifically at the right to education, and why it cannot be assumed that statements of rights deliver what they promise. Finally, it looks at education in South Africa to explore both the limits and the possibilities of using a framework of rights to achieve greater social justice in global times.     

Human rights education and the research process: action research as a tool for reflection and change

Human rights education (HRE) aims to achieve a change of mindsets and social attitudes that entails the construction of a culture of respect towards those values it teaches. Although HRE is a recent field of study, its consolidation in Latin America is a fact. During the latest decades several authors have carried out research related to HRE that has made it easier to understand the process of inclusion of HRE in public policies as well as reflection about research processes as a whole. They favour a discussion about the most frequently used strategies and tools, how the latter contribute to strengthen the production of knowledge in HRE, and to what extent there is an actual interrelation between theory and practice. This research article intends to show the state of these questions in HRE, building on the research and studies carried out in Latin America during the last 10 years. At the same time, the article aims to discuss the importance of action research for HRE, understanding its potential as a tool for reflection and change. In general terms, this research article concludes that the studies on HRE rely more on field research and experience report than on action research methodology. The article is concluded noting an important and current challenge for HRE: a more frequent use of participatory action research in human rights-related work, so the knowing-understanding and applying fields can be constructed.     

渗透人权教育理念,引导学生学会做人——谈基础教育中的人权教育

人权是每一个人与生俱来的权利,随着社会的发展与不断进步,人们的人权意识逐渐增强。我国已将“尊重和保障人权”写进了宪法,并积极推进“以人为本”的执政理念。将人权教育渗透到基础教育中,有利于唤起学生对生命的尊重,对正义的支持,对他人的关爱,对自由与纪律、民主与法制的正确理解,从小教会学生如何做人。     

Affect and counter-conduct: cultivating action for social change in human rights education

This paper explores the entanglement between two partially connected concerns that offer the potential to animate current discussions on human rights teaching and learning: ‘affect’ and ‘counter-conduct’. Both terms are at the heart of human rights education (HRE) approaches that aim at cultivating resistance in children and youth so that they respond in critically affective and action-oriented ways to human rights violations and social injustices in ‘the everyday’. These concepts are used to explore: first, how to encourage children and youth to enact forms of counter-conduct that are critical in human rights struggles, rather than responses which are sedimented through the governing technologies of declarational approaches of HRE; and second, how these counter-conduct practices may constitute ethical and political practices that critique liberal and sentimental forms of affect about human rights violations. It is argued that theoretical insights that pay attention to counter-conduct and affect offer possibilities for reconsidering normalized ideas in HRE.     

Dilemma of concepts and strategies for the prevention of spread of HIV in relation to human behavior, law and human rights

The new prevalence data regarding the estimated global number of human immunodeficiency virus positive (HIV⁺) cases, i.e., including people who are either aware or unaware of their HIV infection in 2010, lead many to wonder why the increase in incidence has reached today’s unprecedented level and escalated within such a short time. This, in spite of prevention campaigns in countries affected by HIV/acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) with their urgent messages aimed at preventing HIV transmission by promoting changes in individual’s behavior. This article analyzes the background of the prevention strategies, in particular their political, social and legal concepts in terms of human rights, and reveals traits of human behavior not considered thus far. A radical reappraisal is necessary, at social and legislative levels, as well as options additional to current concepts. When ethical issues come up, they become blamed for outmoded moralistic positions. However, ignoring the reality has led to dire consequences from prioritizing individual human rights over society’s collective need to prevent the spread of HIV.     

Producing neoliberal citizens: critical reflections on human rights education in Pakistan

This paper challenges the celebratory uptake of human rights education (HRE) in postcolonial contexts by making visible the ideological and political entanglements of the discourse with neoliberal assumptions of citizenship. I draw evidence from, and critically reflect on, a specific HRE programme – a series of summer camps for girls entitled, Women Leaders of Tomorrow (WLT) – that a colleague and I implemented in Pakistan. Using narrative inquiry methodology, I examine the kinds of citizens imagined in and through its curriculum, and the norms of leadership and community promoted by it, to argue that the programme can be interpreted as a technology of neoliberalism in that it was productive of neoliberal rationalities. Individuals, however, are not simply objects of knowledges; they co-opt, resist, negotiate, and compromise. I, thus, disturb my own linear reading of the unfolding of WLT by reflecting on moments of resistances where participants not only interrogated its assumptions but also engaged in self-stylisations that produced new mutations of HRE. This unfolding of a globalist discourse in a local setting directs me to call for a re-conceptualisation of HRE in postcolonial contexts that is multiple, contingent, and fluid.     

Young children's enactments of human rights in early childhood education

This paper explores ways in which human rights become part of and affect young children's everyday practices in early childhood education and, more particularly, how very young children enact human rights in the preschool setting. The study is conducted in a Swedish preschool through observations of the everyday practices of a group of children aged between 1 and 3 years. With a child view based on human rights theory and childhood sociology, an action-based methodology for seeking children's perspective is used to analyse the observation data. Three rights areas are identified in which children frequently deal with human rights in their actions and where they enact a range of possible rights holder positions: ownership, influence and equal value. These rights areas, and the children's various enactments of the rights, are reflected against the preschool context as a co-constructor to the actions of the participants.     

Human rights education in Japan: an historical account,characteristics and suggestions for a better-balanced approach

Although human rights are often expressed as universal tenets, the concept was conceived in a particular socio-political and historical context. Conceptualisations and practice of human rights vary across societies, and face numerous challenges. After providing an historical account of the conceptualisation of human rights in Japanese society, this paper examines human rights education in Japan, focusing on implementation of the United Nations Decade for Human Rights Education. Whilst the Decade’s Action Plan advocates a comprehensive approach, Japanese human rights education focuses far less attention on imparting knowledge and developing learners’ attitudes, placing strong emphasis on aspects of responsibility and harmonious human relations understood in the historical context of Japanese moral education. Pedagogical proposals are made to promote a comprehensive approach, including focus on the role of empowering learners, enabling them to protect themselves by invoking human rights.     

Parental perceptions of child labour and human rights: A comparative study of rural and urban Ghana

Considering the inherently hazardous nature of some artisanal fishing and farm work in Ghana, there is sometimes a thin line between what is considered child work and child labour. I drew on literature exploring cultural relativism and human rights and the concept of the margin of appreciation in considering whether child labour violates human rights. I aimed to establish parental perceptions of child labour and human rights in rural and urban Ghana amongst 60 government officials, NGO representatives, and both parents whose children were/were not involved in child labour. The average age of participants was 31 years. Semistructured interviews were conducted with parents (10), stakeholders (10), focus groups (30); and participant observation techniques (10) utilised to gather the needed data and purposively sampled across rural areas (Ankaase, Anwiankwanta and Kensere), and urban areas (Jamestown, Korle Gonno and Chorkor) in Ghana. Interviews were recorded, transcribed utilising a framework approach as the main data analysis method. The paper finds that children are engaged in work to teach them work ethics as most parents consider work socialisation as beneficial for children and society. The paper also finds that knowledge of human rights makes parents more committed to children's welfare. Overall, the paper finds that sensitivity to the economic and cultural context is important in understanding the issue of child labour and, more generally, in applying the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) and working out the parenting policies and practices that are in the best interests of the child.     

Compulsory education in religion—the Norwegian case: an empirical evaluation of RE in Norwegian schools,with a focus on human rights

Christian knowledge used to be taught in the Norwegian state school as a compulsory subject for members of Lutheran churches. In 1997 this was replaced by a subject that is compulsory for all pupils, where both Christianity, other religions and secular world views are taught on an equal basis, although more time should be used on Christianity than other views. Some parents took the state to court because they wanted full withdrawal from the subject for their children. Having lost the case, the parents of four pupils then appealed to the UN’s Human Rights Committee, which in November 2004 gave a verdict supporting the parents. This article is based on an evaluation project, asking parents, pupils and teachers about their experiences with the new subject, and also asking parents how they would prefer religions and world views to be taught. We focus on what we regard as the subject’s most central dilemma: how can the school contribute to giving the pupils and society a common cultural basis while at the same time both freedom of religion and parental rights are taken care of?     

Rights-based education and conflict: a cross-national study of rights discourse in textbooks

This paper investigates the extent to which rights-based education is utilised in textbooks from conflict-affected countries. Drawing on a unique dataset of 528 secondary social science textbooks from 71 countries from 1966 to 2008, we analyse factors that predict a rights discourse in texts. We find that textbooks from conflict-affected nations are significantly less likely to emphasise a rights-based discourse, while more recently published textbooks from more democratic countries are more likely to emphasise a rights discourse. Our findings have ramifications for curricular reform and rights-based education in conflict-affected nations.     

The hidden human rights curriculum of surveillance cameras in schools: due process,privacy and trust

This article explores how school principals integrate Closed Circuit TV systems (CCTVs) in educational practices and analyses the pedagogical implications of these practices through the lens of human rights. Drawing on interviews with school principals and municipality officials, we found that schools use CCTVs for three main purposes: (1) Discipline: gathering evidence by semi-legal procedures, which replace educational processes and are inattentive to pupils’ voices; (2) Monitoring: real-time surveillance of pupils, which includes both caring and policing practices; and (3) Producing trust, by refraining from accessing the footage. This usage attempts to invert the concern that CCTVs undermine trust, but it may prove a double-edged sword if the pupils do not believe the principal. We argue that each of these approaches shapes the schools’ hidden human rights curriculum, by which pupils learn about due process, privacy, and autonomy, and about the power relations that determine the scope of these rights.     

以“权利语言与最低要求道德”为核心的道德教育

“最低限度的道德”强调让每个人在不侵犯他人基本权利的前提下,享有追求自己人生幸福的权利。与之相应,道德教育的内容是:教学生知道每个人应享有的基本权利;知道并有能力维护自己的权利;有意愿追求自己认定的幸福生活;能尊重或不侵犯他人的基本权利;能在他人权利遭到侵害时见义勇为,挺身而出。道德教育在实施时宜以上述二、三、四款为重点。