Teachers and Human Rights Education

by: Audrey Osler and Hugh Starkey

ISBN: 9781858563848

Price: £20.99

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180 pages
244 x 170mm
April 2010

Osler and Starkey are two of the most influential scholars and practitioners of human rights education worldwide. This new volume is timely and highly significant. - Dr Colm Ó Cuanacháin, Amnesty International

Why do teachers need to be familiar with human rights?
In multicultural societies, whose values take precedence?
How do schools resolve tensions between children's rights and teachers' rights?

Campaigners, politicians and the media cite human rights to justify or challenge anything from peaceful protest to military action. The phrase 'human rights' appears to be a slogan in need of a definition. Human rights education is more urgent than ever.

Teachers and Human Rights Education clarifies the relevance of human rights to teachers' everyday work. The authors draw on international examples to discuss how schools can work with young people to promote the ideals of justice and peace. Human rights principles are applied to the challenges of living together democratically.

The book contributes to the UN World Programme on Human Rights Education and is a key text for postgraduate studies.

Author Details

Dr Audrey Osler is Visiting Professor at Birkbeck College, University of London and the University of Leeds, where she was founding director of the Centre for Citizenship and Human Rights Education.

Dr Hugh Starkey is Reader at the Institute of Education, University of London and co-director of the International Centre for Education for Democratic Citizenship.

Reviews

Picking up a book by Audrey Osler and Hugh Starkey gives rise to certain expectations: a clear and accessible style of writing; ideas and arguments that are logically structured and cogently presented, and an underpinning sense of commitment to human rights and human rights education. This book is no exception, presenting a coherent and wide-ranging rationale for human rights education, identifying and examining practical and ideological challenges to its implementation and providing a systematic analysis of its implications and its potential for transformative action in education. Focused primarily on human rights education in formal education, its potential audience includes teachers, teacher educators and student teachers. - Educational Review


This heartfelt, thoughtful, articulate debate on human rights education focuses on the need to integrate HRE into the global school curriculum. Osler & Starkey's literate and highly readable book moves the debate to the forefront of educational philosophy and practice.

Their critique of common models of education for national citizenship emphasizes the political dimension of global pedagogical practices. They urge teachers to engage more openly with the political dimension of education by insisting that democracy must be promoted alongside human rights education. By discussing a variety of recent theoretical developments, the book provides a deeper insight into the nature of human rights for women and children, and how these rights are eschewed in politics and in educational practice.

These academic discussions are related to contemporary political and educational issues: multiculturalism, national identity, citizenship education. Osler & Starkey propose that teachers can be instrumental in the application of human rights principles by creating parameters for young citizens to live in just, peaceful and diverse global societies. Their work serves as a methodical and well-researched treatise which seeks to provoke teachers and educational systems to recognize and to promote our shared humanity. - Citizenship, Social and Economics Education

In short, a significant contribution to the Human Rights Education literature. Its authors and their publisher are to be congratulated for making this humanizing work available. May translations thereof appear. - Human Dignity and Humiliation Studies - website

Although primarily intended as a text for postgraduate studies, it contains food for thought and practical information equally useful for classroom teachers - Teaching Citizenship

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