Language use in the teaching of human rights

Abstract

This research seeks to increase the knowledge about the role of language in the teaching of human rights. The specific interest is to examine how language use extends and specifies the human rights learning situation. Drawing on John Dewey’s arguments for two main constituents of an educative language use—the extension of vocabulary and rendering it more precise, observational data from ongoing human rights teaching in six Swedish classes in Years 2–3, 5 and 8 are analysed. The findings show six focal points towards which the language use in the teaching extends the students’ vocabulary and generic understanding of human rights, and three objectives for an increased preciseness in students’ language. The paper highlights differences between the age groups concerning the focal points and precision objectives, and points out potentials and strengths in the observed teaching, as well as aspects of problematic character to consider further.

Keywords

• language pedagogy
• human rights teaching
• hre pedagogy
• children’s rights education