Responsible citizens? How children are conceptualised as rights holders in Irish primary schools

Abstract

This article draws on data gathered in Irish primary schools as part of a survey of primary teachers' understandings of human rights and human rights education. Using these data, the article analyses how teachers conceptualise the dynamic between rights and the children in their classrooms. While teachers recognised a place for human rights and human rights education in their teaching, the research findings suggest fragmented understandings of human rights and children's rights. The teacher attitudes, as well as the school and classroom practice and policy captured in the data, reflect ad hoc approaches to human rights education, which promote a culture of conformity and responsibility, rather than one of rights. In particular, this article highlights a tendency amongst teachers to conceptualise their pupils as duty-bearers in relation to rights rather than as rights-holders.