Human Rights Education, Postcolonial Scholarship, and Action for Social Justice

In our global age, educational researchers and practitioners need tools that can be applied in a range of contexts and scales: local, national, and international. This article argues that human rights education (HRE) is a site of struggle in which human rights and democracy need to be constantly ren...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inTheory and research in social education Vol. 43; no. 2; pp. 244 - 274
Main Author Osler, Audrey
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Routledge 03.04.2015
Subjects
Civil Rights
cosmopolitanism
Cultural Pluralism
Democracy
Educational Legislation
Educational Research
Educational Theories
Elementary Secondary Education
Ethics
extremism
Foreign Countries
Guidelines
human rights education
Learning Experience
narrative
nationalism
Nordic Countries
Power Structure
recognition
Religion
Role
Social Justice
universality
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Summary:In our global age, educational researchers and practitioners need tools that can be applied in a range of contexts and scales: local, national, and international. This article argues that human rights education (HRE) is a site of struggle in which human rights and democracy need to be constantly renewed. It contextualizes HRE within a critical, reflective postcolonial framework that nonetheless recognizes modernist principles of universal rights. It focuses on 2 concepts-universality and recognition-to develop a theory of HRE that meets the needs of multicultural, multi-faith, yet secular societies that are characterized by asymmetrical power relations and anti-democratic political movements. An evolving theory of HRE needs to embrace the ethics of recognition by extending this concept beyond that expounded in human rights instruments and building on learners' experiences. Individual narratives are starting points for new collective narratives to enable the strengthening of human rights and social justice.
ISSN:0093-3104
2163-1654
DOI:10.1080/00933104.2015.1034393