Naslov
Promoting Student Participation in Society through Human Rights Education

Autori
Diković, Marina ; Letina, Alena

Vrsta, podvrsta i kategorija rada
Sažeci sa skupova, pp prezentacija, znanstveni

Skup
AESA/IAIE Conference Reconceptualizing Diversity: Engaging with Histories, Theories, Practices, and Discursive Strategies in Global Contexts

Mjesto i datum
Toronto, Kanada, 29.10.2014. - 02.11.2014

Vrsta sudjelovanja
Predavanje

Vrsta recenzije
Međunarodna recenzija

Ključne riječi
human rights; models of human rights education; student participation

Sažetak
Today it is not possible to discuss democratic society without taking into account empowered citizens who have knowledge, skills and attitudes important for the preservation and improvement of democracy aimed at protecting human rights. A citizen who knows and accepts democratic values is more able to actively participate in solving community problems, has necessary competences to communicate with other people, respects different cultures, is ready to live by and promote the idea of human rights and liberties, and is fully aware of his/her obligations and responsibilities. Therefore, it is crucial to prepare young people for democratic, active citizenship on all levels. Human rights are rights inherent to all human beings, regardless of their nationality, place of residence, sex, national or ethnic origin, skin colour, religion, language, or any other status. All people are equally entitled to human rights without any discrimination. These rights are all interrelated, interdependent and indivisible. Community activities, including activities of schools and other educational institutions, have a great importance in terms of protection and promotion of human rights. Human rights education (HRE) needs to be focused on knowledge, values and skills that pertain to the application of human rights values in interpersonal relationships with family and community members. It is important that teachers (stakeholders) create effective educational programmes to promote human rights, educational programmes that will support a movement towards a more fully realized human rights culture in a particular community or society. Several authors investigated how to enhance the effectiveness of human rights education. This paper considers the models of human rights education, such as: Values and Awareness Model (transmits basic knowledge of human rights issues and fosters its integration into public values), Accountability Model (ways in which professional responsibilities involve guidelines for human rights and Transformational Model (refers to techniques that involve self-reflection and support within the community) (Tibbitts, 2002). The purpose of the current study was to contribute to these models, especially to the first one which focuses on knowledge of human rights issues and its integration into public values. Public education awareness campaigns and school curricula typically fall within this realm. It is not unusual for school curricula including human rights to link up with fundamental democratic values and practices. Some examples of the Values and Awareness Model include human rights-related lessons within citizenship, history, social science and law-related education lessons schools, as well as infusion of human rights-related themes into both formal and informal youth programming. In this research there were analyzed 100 randomly selected curricula used in different primary schools in Croatia. The aim of the research was to determine any extra-curricular activity and project promoting human values (self-respect, respect for others, tolerance, diversity among people, gender equality, environmental awareness, culture behaviour, personal responsibility and social responsibility), encourage communication with respect to diversity (gender, special human needs, (inter)culture and religion), and also the peaceful resolution of conflicts that could result in the local community participation. In all the analyzed school curricula, we found 337 extracurricular activities and 293 school projects that promoted the above criteria explicitly mentioned in the objectives of school curricula. We found that the majority of extracurricular activities promoted environmental awareness, while the majority of school projects promoted diversity among people and personal responsibility. Some of them are directly and others indirectly related to human rights education. All of the activities and projects partially encouraged participation in the local community. Research results were compared with the results about how individual countries encouraged student participation in activities in the local community and in a wider society across Europe (Eurydice, 2012). In around a third of the European countries, steering documents such as national curricula, as well as other recommendations and regulations promote the involvement of young people in citizenship-related activities outside school. According to these guidelines there has been also structured the new proposal of Croatian Curriculum on Citizenship Education (2014) in which student involvement in community activities is advocated on all levels. The human rights education is important because it prepares students to be "critical consumers" of human rights. Also, the human rights education models can be used as tools for classifying educational programmes, clarifying their target groups, and requiring us to consider their link with the overall goal of human development and social change. Based on the analyzed theories and results, we suggested recommendations for the further promotion of human rights education in Croatian schools.

Izvorni jezik
Engleski

Znanstvena područja
Pedagogija

POVEZANOST RADA