Everyday school situations as a source for powerful rights-education

A teaching model for teachers’ work with human rights

Abstract

Teaching human rights in school is a complex topic and teachers tend to feel insecure in how to provide children with human rights education (Kasa et al., 2021; Rinaldi, 2017). When human rights are more and more questioned and challenged, on society’s all levels, this part of the educations’ responsibility becomes especially urgent. In this article I propose a teaching model to support practitioners’ work with human rights in school.

Swedish policy documents state that “the goals of the school are that each pupil can consciously determine and express ethical standpoints based on knowledge of human rights and basic democratic values, as well as personal experiences” (Skolverket, 2022, s. 11). Globally the international community has, through UN policy documents, emphasized that education and schools are key actors to strengthen human rights. Research has also highlighted educational systems to be important contexts for children, already from an early age, to develop knowledge about human rights as well as rights-respecting values, attitudes and behaviors (Osler & Solhaug, 2018; Struthers, 2016). Planned interventions such as specially designed lessons and programs has been the main focus in previous rights-education research (Brandefors & Thelander, 2017; Quennerstedt, 2019). This restricted perspective on rights-education has been questioned and a broader perspective in which rights-education can permeate a variation of school situations is called for (Frödén & Tellgren, 2020). Accordingly, teachers act in a number of ways in their daily work that support students to develop rights-based values, attitudes and behaviors. However, this is often unintentionally, unplanned and unreflected (Isenström, 2020; Rinaldi, 2017). This article uses the knowledge from previous research and the theoretical concepts collateral learning and embedded teaching. The purpose is to develop a model which can support teachers to make the unreflected collateral learning that goes on in everyday school situations to be planned and reflected rights-education.

UN policy documents on Human Rights Education (HRE) state that rights education needs to encompass three aspects to be durable and resilient. It should include knowledge about human rights. It should be preformed through human rights as in an environment where students can practice to exercise and respect rights. Additionally, the education should support students to develop values, attitudes and behaviors for an action competence for human rights. These aspects supplement each other and therefore no one can be excluded or being presented exclusively. Consequently, the aspects need to be intertwined to an entity in school (UN, 2006; 2011). In the Swedish educational act (SFS 2010:800, §3) it is stated that teaching are goal steered processes lead by teachers aimed at development and learning and this is achieved through gained and expanded knowledges and values. Consequently, for situations where students are given the opportunity to develop rights-based knowledges and values to be classified as rights-education the teachers aim with the goal steered processes needs to be to for the students to develop rights-based knowledges and values. Or, with the UN terminology, clearly connect the about, through and for human rights.

Rights theorist Norberto Bobbio (1996) state that human rights are not for once given, but are constantly developing. They are now in a phase where they need to be understood from the perspective of a particular human being in its particular context. Therefore, children’s human rights need to be understood from children’s specific conditions and contexts. To really understand how human rights can be understood in a school context we need to explore how can for example “All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights…” and “Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person” (UN, 1948, art 1 & 3) be understood in a school context. It can be argued that when the teacher emphasis that it is not accepted to talk to each other in non-respecting ways it can be an expression of the rights of equal dignity and of security of person, and this could be teaching of values and behaviors for human rights.

John Dewey (1938) claims that when we experience something and when that experience changes how we act in future situations we have learned something. However, these experiences do not only take place in planned school work. The teachers’ talk and actions and choice of the methods etc. will provide for learning beyond the planned content. This learning is what Dewey calls the collateral learning and what Simpson (2006) describes as “whatever is being taught and learned regardless of whether it is official, planed, designed…(p. 58). Consequently, ordinary classroom work with a planned content can also be the context for students learning of rights-connected values, attitudes and behaviors. Thus, unplanned, unintentionally and unreflected.  

Embedded teaching is a technique to include goal-steered processes in ordinary school situations that aim for the students to develop knowledge and values. Ackesjö and Haglund (2021) claim that embedded teaching is not unplanned nor spontaneous but very intentional in which the teacher, with her professional expertise, uses everyday situations to teach knowledge and values. Hence, to include embedded rights-content in one’s teaching good knowledge about human rights and how theses are expressed in students’ specific situations is important.

This teaching model builds on results from previous studies (Isenström, 2020, 2022) and was developed in four steps. First the Universal declaration of human rights (1948) was used to identify which rights could be delineated in a school context and were identified in the data from the previous studies. Second the rights were scrutinized for qualitative differences and similarities and grouped thematically according to possible rights-content. Four themes of rights-content were identified. Thirdly, the four themes examined for their substantive distinctiveness and thereby named as Everyone have the right to equal value, Everyone have the right to express their opinion, Everyone have the right to impact their situation and Everyone have the right to be fairly treated.  From the processes of finding the possible embedded rights-content it has been illustrated how about, through and for rights can be intertwined in school situations. In the fourth step the illustrative model was created (figure 1).

The model illustrates how the separate parts of rights-education collaborate and that all parts need to be put in action to enable a resilient and durable learning of human rights. Additionally, illustrated by the model, is that teachers’ work with rights-education can start in either of the three cogwheels. When the work starts in the situation, the teacher uses everyday situations to elucidate what values and behaviors that are embodied and what human rights these connect to. In social science education human rights is a content expressed in the curriculum. When working with this content the rights-education starts with the cogwheel of knowledge. By connecting the teaching of human rights with situations the students recognize from there own lives and to, in those situations, relevant values and behaviors all cogwheels will be put into action. In schools work with for example bullying the rights-education could start in the wheel with values, attitudes and behavior if the discussions would include connected human rights and everyday situations. Hence, the model illustrates how rights-education can start in either of the cogwheels, but to become resilient and sustainable all three wheels need to be put into action.

The arguments here is not that teachers should talk about human rights in every possible situation during the school day. Rather, the model should be understood as a tool to an expanded view of how rights-education could be preformed by using what is already happening in everyday school life. With planning and a conscious stratigies goal steered processes aimed at rights-knowledge and rights-based values and behaviors can be included in the everyday school life where it is considered applicable.