Session Information
25 SES 04, Children's Rights: Regional Perspectives (Part 1)
Paper Session to be continued in 25 SES 05
Contribution
In my speech, I am going to tackle the issue of the respect for children’s right to self-expression at school. Being an educational institution, school is subject to government legislation and is obliged to respect human rights, including children’s rights, and spread knowledge of this topic. This obligation is written in the catalogue of matters which in Poland are supervised by the superintendent of education. It also results from the following documents ratified by Poland: the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the Convention on the Rights of the Child. Numerous reports (e.g. Ewa Czyż (1996), Jolanta Sawińskia and Elżbieta Wysocka’s (2006), Respecting children’s rights in Poland. Recommendations for the Parliament and Government (2009)), suggest that the condition of the respect for children’s rights at school is not satisfactory and requires many changes. The authors of the reports emphasize teachers’ incomplete knowledge of this matter and making children’s rights conditional on fulfilling duties by students (Howe, Covell 2010). It is worth mentioning that human rights, including children’s rights, apply to every human being because of their humanity, not because they have fulfilled some duties or not. The rights are common, inalienable, natural and they belong to every human irrespective of their age, national origin, race or social status. In the most important document constituting children’s rights – the Convention on the Rights of the Child – there is no mention of duties. For this reason it is wrong when schools do not give students their rights unless they fulfill some duties imposed on them by school documentation or informal rules and responsibilities.
Self-expression can be discussed in the context of a privilege or a responsibility. In the first meaning, the right is given as a reward for appropriate behavior. In the second meaning, its boundaries are strictly fixed by dominating school structures.
The theoretical background of the research were: J. Habermas’s concept of public sphere and communicative action, and H. A. Giroux’s concept of resistance as well as P. McLaren’s concept of the rituals of resistance. Functioning of the public sphere at school is essential for the possibility of free self-expression of students and teachers. Acts of self-expression can be done by free individuals who are aware of their rights and the responsibilities which they entail.
The subject matter was diagnosing the level of respecting the right to self-expression in lower secondary schools.
Method
Expected Outcomes
References
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