Children’s human rights education: conceptual foundations of school students’ learning processes

Abstract

ABSTRACT The study of human rights education has emerged in recent years, but few studies have addressed students’ learning processes regarding children’s human rights education (CHRE). This paper conceptualises the interrelated features of these processes in school, subsumed under three conceptual levels of analysis. The first highlights the individual child, whose learning is influenced by developmental and socio-cultural factors and should consider child-centred aims, content and approaches. The second level accentuates the prominent role of interactions and relationships in students’ learning of CHRE, which requires educators to share power. The third emphasises the role of the school environment as a multidimensional space where students’ CHRE learning processes transpire, stresses the importance of whole-school approaches, and analyses the institutional challenges that may constrain students’ ability to make sense of CHRE. This conceptualisation highlights how CHRE may be adapted to children as learners in school.