Hypocrites or heroes? Thinking about the role of the teacher in human rights education

Abstract

Human rights education (HRE) seeks to provide young people with an optimistic sense that we can work towards a more peaceful and socially just world, and that everyone can do something to contribute to securing improvement. But, whilst the academic literature and policy documents frequently position teachers as crucial to promoting human rights and social justice, the literature is also replete with examples of teachers' conservatism, their compliance in the face of authority and their ignorance. In addition, teachers work in institutions which routinely reproduce inequality and promote a narrow individualistic form of competition. This article explores some of the international research literature relating to the role of the teacher in HRE specifically, and more generally in the related fields of citizenship education and social studies, in order to offer some conceptual tools that might be used to critically interrogate practitioners' own beliefs and actions.Abstract: Human rights education (HRE) seeks to provide young people with an optimistic sense that we can work towards a more peaceful and socially just world, and that everyone can do something to contribute to securing improvement. But, whilst the academic literature and policy documents frequently position teachers as crucial to promoting human rights and social justice, the literature is also replete with examples of teachers' conservatism, their compliance in the face of authority and their ignorance. In addition, teachers work in institutions which routinely reproduce inequality and promote a narrow individualistic form of competition. This article explores some of the international research literature relating to the role of the teacher in HRE specifically, and more generally in the related fields of citizenship education and social studies, in order to offer some conceptual tools that might be used to critically interrogate practitioners' own beliefs and actions.

«De må våkne litt!» Lærerperspektiver på global læring i den videregående skolen

“…Hvorvidt og hvordan kobles «verden der ute» til medborgerskap? Ulike fagdidaktiske refleksjoner og hensikter vil nødvendigvis utvikle forskjellige framstillinger, bilder og potensielt varierte forståelser av hvordan verden virker og endres, og påvirke elevenes syn både på verden og på sin egen rolle i utviklingen (Jerome, 2018;Saether, 2016;Vesterdal, 2016.) Denne artikkelen drøfter disse problemstillingene i lys av perspektivene til et utvalg samfunnsfaglaerere i videregående skole.…”

Incorporating the Convention on the Rights of the Child in Scottish education

“…These difficulties have been highlighted both in Scotland (BEMIS, 2013) and in other jurisdictions. Recent research has considered these problems: the general consequences and challenges of translation of the UNCRC into legislation in different jurisdictions (Robinson, Quennerstedt & I'Anson, 2020); developing a theoretical understanding of teachers' responsibilities in HRE (Robinson, Phillips & Quennerstedt, 2020;Jerome, 2018); translating human rights principles into classroom practices (Robinson, 2017). When we consider HRE, 13 current COVID 'recovery' efforts in schools and the extraordinary disruption of children's right to education during 2020 have significant implications (Magendzo and Osler, 2020).…”

Teachers’ Rights-Teaching Mentalities—What Teachers Do and Why

“…Previous research has identified the teacher as a key actor for the performance of children's human rights learning in school-both when it is successful and when it is less so (Jerome, 2016(Jerome, , 2018Leung et al, 2011;Waldron & Oberman, 2016;Zembylas et al, 2017). For example, Leung et al (2011) have studied the development and implementation of a school-based HRE curriculum in Hong Kong.…”