This paper presents the initial results of a large research project that addresses the role of education for children’s and young people’s development as rights holders. The project examines how education provides (or does not provide) what is needed to grow as a holder of human rights. The overarching aim of the project is to develop deeper knowledge about how teaching and learning within early childhood education and school give possibilities or constrain children’s and young people’s growth as holders and practitioners of human rights.
This paper focuses on one of the specified research questions, namely
What is the content in teaching and learning about children’s human rights? and one of the age-groups included in the project – 8-9 year old school children. In Sweden, the national curriculum requires that children develop knowledge about and values in line with human rights and children’s rights. The responsibility for developing such knowledge and values is held by all school subjects and teachers, but it is most clearly expressed in the subject syllabus for civic studies. We wanted to find out
- what teaching/learning content that is chosen by the teacher in planned teaching about children’s human rights.
- the reasons for choosing this content, and
- what working methods that are used.
We also wanted to find out how the children understood the educational content and the reasons for learning about children’s human rights.
The research draws theoretically on a combination of rights theory, sociology of childhood and the educational philosophy and theorising of John Dewey. First, rights for children are understood as included in the human rights, which means that human rights vocabulary is used to categorise and discuss rights. Second, the project views children as competent and knowledgeable persons with full human value and dignity in the present. Childhood is regarded as a political phenomenon included in societal power structures, which influences adults’ perceptions of and relations to children. Third, with inspiration from Dewey, education is regarded as a process of growth. The aim of education is with this view not to prepare the child for the future, instead educationis constant process of reconstruction and reorganisation of knowledge, aiming towards growth through reconstruction of experience.
Educational children’s rights research has largely focused on children’s ‘right to participation’ in early childhood education and school (Quennerstedt 2011, Lundy 2005, Smith 2007, Bae 2010). Research has also addressed whether educational institutions are human rights communities – to what extent schools are permeated by the values and principles expressed in the human rights (Grover 2007, Lebedev et al. 2002, Aldersson 1999). It is notable that aspects that relate to the core responsibility of education – to educate – have been given little research attention in educational children’s rights research. Some work has been undertaken (for example Howe & Covell 2005, Covell et al. 2008, Mitchell 2010) but more studies are needed. The project reported on in this paper seeks to contribute to this knowledge gap.
