Primary School Teachers’ Understandings of Human Rights and Human Rights Education (HRE) in Cyprus: An Exploratory Study

Abstract

A large body of work in recent years has examined different scholarly conceptualizations of human rights (Dembour 2006) and various approaches in Human Rights Education (HRE), particularly in relation to practical ways of implementing HRE programs in formal and informal education (Bajaj 2011a; Banks 2008; Osler and Starkey 2010; Tibbits 2002). However, few studies have sought to systematically examine teachers’ understandings of human rights and HRE in specific contexts (Messina and Jacott 2013) and explore possible links between teachers’ understandings of human rights and human rights teaching. As education policy studies have demonstrated, teachers have a central and decisive role in interpreting a policy and translating it into everyday practices (Ball 1998; Hill 2001; Walshaw and Anthony 2007). With the growing interest in HRE and the ongoing debates around the conceptualization of human rights and HRE, e.g., around the definition of human rights as universal entitlements or socio-political constructs, it becomes important to take a careful look at how teachers, who are called upon to implement HRE programs, understand human rights and human rights teaching (Cassidy et al. 2013). Taking this assumption as a point of departure in the context of conflict-ridden Cyprus, this paper investigates the ways in which a group of Greek-Cypriot primary school teachers interprets the meaning of human rights and HRE. Cyprus has been and remains deeply divided due to the protracted nature of conflict between the two main communities of the island, Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots. Cyprus has been a divided society, since violent intercommunal clashes in 1963–1967; in 1974, Turkey Hum Rights Rev (2015) 16:161–182 DOI 10.1007/s12142-014-0331-5