Drama in Child Rights Education - Developing a Pedagogical Model

Abstract

Education has been suggested as the key to tackle the anticipated challenges of the global world. Abilities such as problem solving, collaboration, and social responsibility represent skills for a sustainable future featured by equity, wellbeing, and peace. However, the traditional teaching and learning methods still prominent in most classrooms do not support the development of such skills. In order to increase children’s knowledge and skills in fostering human rights and equality, the Finnish National Committee for UNICEF has developed a holistic and participatory model of human rights education applying a process drama method. First, the authors target at human rights and child rights education as the important context in applying the pedagogical model. After this, we offer results from an action research project studying and further developing the model in collaboration with teachers and students in two secondary schools. The results on students’ activities and experiences derive from a mixed-method approach and data from surveys, observation, and feedback sheets. The findings reveal the potential power of the drama-based model for engaging students in active collaboration, creativity, and powerful experiences needed for deep learning about child rights and fostering child rights approach in regular school classrooms.