Human rights teaching: snapshots from four countries

Abstract

This article examines how some schools with ethnically diverse student populations are teaching about, for, and through human rights. The author conducted a secondary analysis of qualitative data from a multi-site study, which included secondary schools serving students from immigrant backgrounds in four countries: Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom (England and Scotland). The author found that schools taught about the history of human rights, rights in terms of national constitutions, and violations of human rights in the Global South; she observed fewer examples of human rights discourse addressing national and local issues. Across schools, students experienced respect of their human rights, through voicing their opinions and contributing to school-level decisions primarily on school councils. Some students developed knowledge, skills, and dispositions for exercising their rights and respecting others’ rights as they deliberated issues and took civic action locally and globally.