Human Rights and Education

Overview

This module introduces human rights as a key concept in the purpose and practice of education. The module focuses on developing understanding of the human rights of children (children’s rights), and how education is treated across international human rights frameworks. 

Students will develop familiarity with the United Nations (1989) Convention on the Rights of the Child, and the status of children as rights holders. Several theoretical conceptualisations of the rights set down within this international legal instrument will be examined, with significant emphasis on rights to, in and through education. 

Current educational issues will be examined in light of these internationally binding legal documents and the mechanisms through which periodic monitoring is undertaken. Students will become confident in applying their learning to the analysis of educational issues across a range of contexts, locally and globally, and from the perspectives of rights holders. 

Learning Objectives

Studying this module will enable students to: 

• Understand the basis of education as a human right and the human rights of children to, in and through education. 
• Engage with key conceptualisations of human rights in the education sphere (e.g. the purposes and outcomes of education in a range of settings, or the need for periodic monitoring). 
• Develop the capacity for critical engagement with educational issues from a human rights perspective. 
• Draw on theoretical and empirical evidence to critique real-world contexts.

Skills

This module will allow students to develop the following skills: 

• Work effectively on their own and as part of a group. 
• Effective written and spoken communication, and use of technology. 
• Awareness of planning, managing and reflecting on their own learning.

Assessment

None