The Transformative Potential of an Internationalised Human Rights Law Curriculum

Abstract

The increased interconnectedness of the world has resulted in the growing significance of relations between nations. This has caused universities to infuse the curriculum with international content. The absence of appropriate pedagogies is not likely to foster social and personal transformation to equip students with the necessary knowledge and motivation to respond to complex global issues concerning human rights and social justice. A social transformation model of internationalisation suggests that there is a need to reform the legal curriculum to foster individual and social transformation. Highlighting the centrality of critical reflection, dialogue and experiential learning and drawing on the literature of transformative learning and internationalisation, this article discusses how educators of human rights legal education can utilise the process of internationalisation to foster personal and social transformation. The suggestions outlined in this article are equally of significance to all legal educators desiring to implement emancipatory perspectives in legal education.

Enabling the Exploration of Disorienting Dilemma in the Classroom

“…(pp. 36-37) These teachers see critical reflexivity as a core life skill that will serve the student well beyond the classroom (Ashby, 2013;Babacan & Babacan, 2012;Boyd, 2009).…”

“…Transformative learning is an intensive process that demands persistence and commitment from experienced educators and structures to support the teaching and learning process. (Babacan & Babacan, 2012, p. 210)…”

“…Palmer (1998) asserts that, “Learning demands solitude” (p. 76). Within the classroom, practices such as journaling and structured silence create space for the student to wrestle with the ways in which the new knowledge being generated in the classroom unsettles what they had previously believed to be true (Adarkar & Keiser, 2007; Arends, 2014; Babacan & Babacan, 2012; Bell et al, 2011; Brock & Abel, 2016).…”

Collaborative Developmental Action Inquiry

“…For example, ways of knowing situated in the psychodevelopmental discipline focus on the form of transformation as how we know and increasing the complexity of our consciousness to include a greater capacity for perspective taking and compassion (Drago-Severson, 2009; Gunnlaugson, 2011; Kegan, 1994). Social emancipatory literatures focus on identity as the form that transforms where the self is reframed and or recasted through increasing one’s capacity for personal emancipation, empowerment, and self-efficacy (Ashby, 2013; Babacan & Babacan, 2012; Hanson, 2013; Illeris, 2013; Nitschke & Malvicini, 2013; Williams, 2013). For the purpose of this study, we focus on the psychocritical approach of Mezirow (1991), where the process of transformation highlights the ongoing critical reflection on assumptions that leads to sustained transformation.…”