Human rights education in social studies in the Netherlands: A case study textbook analysis

Abstract

Citizenship education is one of the main aims of the mandated subject of social studies in secondary schools in the Netherlands. Moreover, the learning outcomes of social studies refer to constitutional rights. Internationally, citizenship education and human rights education are considered to be mutually reinforcing. One may, thus, expect that Dutch school textbooks include elements of human rights education. This article presents the analysis of a popular social studies textbook in the Netherlands, applying a number of human rights education criteria. The study shows that basic information on human rights is lacking, despite ample opportunity to integrate such themes. Most worrisome is the conveyance of potential misinformation about human rights due to the chosen formulation of rights-related issues. This can, in part, be traced back to the textbook authors’ (mis)understanding of human rights.