Teaching and learning children’s human rights: A research synthesis

Abstract

The study presented in this paper is a research synthesis examining how issues relating to the teaching and learning of children’s human rights have been approached in educational research. Drawing theoretically on the European Didaktik tradition, the purpose of the paper is to map and synthesise the educational interest in children’s rights research. The paper identifies the motives, content and processes of education for human rights suggested in research. The chosen publications are analysed in three steps, based on three didactic questions: what, how and why. Six educational categories in the teaching and learning of children’s human rights are identified: involvement, agency, awareness, citizenship, respect for rights and social change. In each category, the motives, educational content and processes are clarified. A conclusion is that even though the motives for rights education vary, the content and processes in the education are about human relations and interaction.

Keywords

• children’s rights
• human rights
• education
• didaktik
• didactics
• teaching
• learning