Abstract

With the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948, education about human rights became an important focus of the new human rights regime and a core method of spreading its values throughout the world. This story of human rights is consistently presented as a progressive teleology that contextualizes the expansion of rights within a larger grand narrative of liberalization, emancipation, and social justice. This paper examines the disjuncture between the grand narrative on international movements for human rights and social justice and the lived experiences of marginalized students in urban environments in the United States. Drawing on our experience as professors who teach human rights, social justice, and social movements courses at an urban, four-year college in Providence, R.I., with a student body which includes large populations of students who are of color, first-generation, economically disadvantaged, and nontraditional in other ways, we explore the relevance and impact of these grand narratives for the lives of our students and their sense of agency. In particular, we advocate for a critical and transformational approach to human rights pedagogy to counter and overcome the pervasive individualization that undergirds the grand narrative of human rights. We argue that a critical (and radical) human rights pedagogy must evaluate the position of the individual in modern life if liberation through human rights law and activism is to be possible.

Highlights

  • After the United Nations adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) in 1948, education about human rights became an important focus of the new human rights regime and a core method of spreading its values throughout the world

  • We argue that critical pedagogy in the human rights classroom is possible and desirable

  • A critical human rights pedagogy should have as its goal a vibrant critique of the impact of the grand narrative of human rights, its individualization, its refusal to challenge or engage critically with neoliberalism, and its neglect of economic, social, and cultural rights

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Summary

Introduction

After the United Nations adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) in 1948, education about human rights became an important focus of the new human rights regime and a core method of spreading its values throughout the world. The story of human rights is consistently presented as a progressive teleology that contextualizes the expansion of rights within a larger grand narrative of liberalization, emancipation, and social justice. Most modern narratives of human rights begin with World War II and demonstrate the learning and adapting of social movements over time, from the U.S Civil Rights movement to the Arab Spring to #Black Lives Matter. We have considerable experience teaching in other types of institutions, including flagship public research universities and selective private colleges; our analysis in this paper is based primarily on our collective teaching experience with RIC students in particular. By challenging the individualization that forms the basis of the grand narrative of human rights, we can unlock the power and promise of human rights and social justice education as a driver of student and community agency

Human Rights as a Grand Narrative
Neoliberalism and Human Rights
Critical Pedagogy and Marginalized Students
Pedagogy Beyond the Grand Narrative
Connecting to the Local
Knowing our Students
Human Rights and Higher Education Politics
Confronting the Hegemonic Narrative
Conclusion
Findings
Works Cited
Full Text
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