1. Human rights learning & the social sciences teacher
He aha te mea nui o te ao? He tangata, he tangata, he tangata! What is the most important thing in the world? It is people, people, people!

2. So I am suspicious of education.
Dear Teacher,
I am a survivor of a concentration camp. My eyes saw what no man should witness. Gas chambers built by learned engineers. Children poisoned by educated physicians. Infants killed by trained nurses. Women and babies shot and burned by high school and college graduates.
So I am suspicious of education.
My request is: Help your students become human. Your efforts must never produce learned monsters, skilled psychopaths, educated Eichmanns. Reading, writing, arithmetic are important only if they serve to make our children more human.
Letter pinned on a school noticeboard
Source: Cited in Slater, M. B. (Ed.). (2002). Human rights in the curriculum: History. London: Amnesty International UK and the Education in Human Rights Network.

3. Understanding the issues & the potential

4. HUMAN RIGHTS Central to our professional role
At the heart of the Social Sciences
A critical/ethical toolkit across the curriculum
A powerful social inquiry topic
HUMAN RIGHTS
This presentation will focus on how a human rights approach enhances and strengthens the teaching of the social sciences by looking at each section in turn.
To find out about the human rights framework and how it came about, see The Human Rights Story Presentation.

5. At the heart of the Social Sciences
Central to our professional role
At the heart of the Social Sciences
A critical toolkit for inquiry across the curriculum
A powerful social inquiry topic
HUMAN RIGHTS

6. Central to our professional role
Our professional role is to fulfil the right of every young person to an education that develops their personality, talents and mental and physical abilities to their fullest potential and enables them to live satisfying lives as effective citizens.

7. Central to our professional role
We are in the human rights business...
“Everyone has the right to education.... Education shall be directed to the full development of the human personality and to the strengthening of respect for human rights.”
Universal Declaration of Human Rights, article 26

8. Central to our professional role
We are in the human rights business...
“Education shall be directed to the full development of the human personality and the sense of its dignity, and shall strengthen the respect for human rights.”
International Covenant on Economic, Social & Cultural Rights article 13

9. Central to our professional role
We are in the human rights business...
“Education... shall be directed to:
...The development of the child's personality, talents and mental and physical abilities to their fullest potential;
...Preparation...for responsible life in a free society
UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, article 29

10. Central to our professional role
We are in the human rights business...
“All students to realise their full potential as individuals [and to] develop the values needed to become full members of New Zealand's society.”
National Education Goals 1 & 2

11. Central to our professional role
As well as defining the end results our professional efforts are to achieve, human rights standards, evidence, and education policy have something to say about the professional means we adopt...

12. Central to our professional role
We have a professional duty to respect, protect and promote human rights...
“shall respect and ensure [human] rights...to each child within their jurisdiction without discrimination of any kind, irrespective of the child's or his or her parent's or legal guardian's race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national, ethnic or social origin, property, disability, birth or other status.”
UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, article 2

13. Central to our professional role
We have a professional duty to respect, protect and promote human rights...
“In all actions concerning children...the best interests of the child shall be a primary consideration”
UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, article 3.1

14. Central to our professional role
We have a professional duty to respect, protect and promote human rights...
“Provide a safe physical and emotional environment for students”
National Administration Guideline 5

15. Central to our professional role
We have a professional duty to respect, protect and promote human rights...
“shall assure to the child who is capable of forming his or her own views the right to express those views freely in all matters affecting the child, the views of the child being given due weight in accordance with...age and maturity”
UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, article 12

16. Central to our professional role
We have a professional duty to respect, protect and promote human rights...
Respect for self, others and human rights
...is to be encouraged, modelled and explored
...evident in the school’s philosophy, structures, curriculum, classrooms and relationships
New Zealand Curriculum
How?

17. Central to our professional role
Related to key questions central to our professional role:
If our job is to develop citizens who know, and act on, their rights and responsibilities,
How do we recognise young people as the citizens they already are – in the classroom, in the school, in the community?
Do they know and act on their human rights and responsibilities? Do we?

18. Central to our professional role
Creating a supportive learning environment “Students learn best when they feel accepted, when they enjoy positive relationships with their fellow students and teachers, and when they are able to be active, visible members of the learning community. Effective teachers foster positive relationships within environments that are caring, inclusive, non-discriminatory, and cohesive. They also build good relationships with the wider school community, working with parents and caregivers as key partners….”

19. HUMAN RIGHTS Central to our professional role
At the heart of the Social Sciences
A critical/ethical toolkit across the curriculum
A powerful social inquiry topic
HUMAN RIGHTS

20. At the heart of the Social Sciences
“The social sciences learning area is about how societies work and how people can participate as critical, active, informed, and responsible citizens.”
New Zealand Curriculum (2007) p30 e
Citizenship is about rights and responsibilities

21. At the heart of the Social Sciences
The human rights framework is a set of cross-culturally negotiated international agreements about the rights and responsibilities of all human beings and how societies should work to address them.
Citizens = members of a political community with rights and responsibilities
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights is “the most important document in legal history”
Lord Cooke of Thorndon
Leading New Zealand jurist

22. At the heart of the Social Sciences
Through the social sciences, students develop the knowledge and skills to enable them to:
better understand, participate in, and contribute to the local, national, and global communities in which they live and work;
engage critically with societal issues;
evaluate the sustainability of alternative social, economic, political, and environmental practices.
Citizens = members of a political community with rights and responsibilities

23. At the heart of the Social Sciences
A human rights perspective provides a critical lens through which young citizens can better understand and contribute to communities, engage with societal issues, and understand key factors bearing on sustainability.

24. The key conceptual strands
At the heart of the Social Sciences
The key conceptual strands
CONTINUITY & CHANGE
Struggles for human rights have defined revolutions and social movements that have helped shape the country and global society in which we live.
IDENTITY, CULTURE, & ORGANISATION
The international human rights framework is an expression of global culture, providing agreed standards for social organisation and recognition of individual and collective identity.
Citizens = members of a political community with rights and responsibilities

25. The key conceptual strands
At the heart of the Social Sciences
The key conceptual strands
PLACE & ENVIRONMENT
People interact with their environment in pursuit of their human rights, such as food, health, and an adequate standard of living.
THE ECONOMIC WORLD
Economic activity is a key means of realising human rights such as the rights to work and an adequate standard of living, and human rights provides an ethical framework for economic activity.
Citizens = members of a political community with rights and responsibilities

26. HUMAN RIGHTS Central to our professional role
At the heart of the Social Sciences
A critical toolkit for inquiry across the curriculum
A powerful social inquiry topic
HUMAN RIGHTS

27. A powerful social inquiry topic
Major social inquiries into ‘human rights’ can address key values and competencies, and achievement objectives such as...
How people pass on and sustain culture and heritage for different reasons and that this has consequences for people (AO L4)
How people participate individually and collectively in response to community challenges (AO L4)
How the ideas and actions of people in the past have had a significant impact on people’s lives (AO L5)
How people define and seek human rights (AO L5)

28. A powerful social inquiry topic
How the Treaty of Waitangi is responded to differently by people in different times and places (AO L5)
How cultural interaction impacts on cultures and societies (AO L5)
How systems of government in NZ operate and affect people’s lives, and how they compare with another system (AO L5)
How individuals, groups, and institutions work to promote social justice and human rights (AO L6)
How cultures adapt and change and that this has consequences for society (AO L6)

29. A powerful social inquiry topic
Possible social inquiries:
How did ideas of ‘human rights’ develop?
How did the Universal Declaration of Human Rights come about? What has its impact been?
What is the significance of the Treaty of Waitangi for the human rights of New Zealanders?
How have Māori/African Americans/South Africans/Chinese/Timorese/ sought realisation of their human rights? What human rights challenges remain?
What are the key human rights challenges globally? Who is tackling them, and how?

30. HUMAN RIGHTS Central to our professional role
At the heart of the Social Sciences
A critical/ethical toolkit across the curriculum
A powerful social inquiry topic
HUMAN RIGHTS

31. A critical/ethical toolkit across the curriculum
An understanding of human rights and responsibilities can be part of a powerful toolkit for young citizens. Understanding the ‘universality, indivisibility and interdependence’ of human rights, and principles such as ‘rights-holders’ and ‘duty-bearers’ can contribute to sophisticated analysis and effective action in situations ranging from interpersonal conflict to complex societal and global issues.

32. A critical/ethical toolkit across the curriculum
Follow a social inquiry into ‘human rights’ by arming students with a human rights toolkit with which to examine the human rights dimension of every topic.

33. A critical/ethical toolkit across the curriculum
The human rights framework guides key questions to be asked, information gathering, and examination of relevant current issues:
What are the human rights issues involved? Whose?
What human rights are people seeking to defend? Does the action they promote run counter to others’ human rights?
How could conflict be resolved?

34. A powerful lens to explore key themes:
A critical/ethical toolkit across the curriculum
A powerful lens to explore key themes:
CITIZENSHIP
What rights and responsibilities do New Zealand citizens have?
What institutions and processes realise the human rights of New Zealand citizens?
What are the rights and responsibilities we have as global citizens?

35. A critical/ethical toolkit across the curriculum
GLOBALISATION
How did human rights ideas become globalised?
How were human rights issues at play in the ‘Battle in Seattle’?
How do New Zealanders’ consumer choices impact on the human rights of people in other parts of the world?

36. A critical/ethical toolkit across the curriculum
ENTERPRISE
How are the human rights dimensions of business activity?
How can business activity contribute to the realisation or violation of human rights?

37. A critical/ethical toolkit across the curriculum
SUSTAINABILITY
How is ‘sustainability’ a human rights issue?
What are the human rights dimensions to climate change?

38. Human rights-based education through the Social Sciences
Doing it

39. Building blocks in human rights-based education
To help young people develop to their fullest potential and be effective local, national and global citizens
Develop education communities that know, promote and live human rights and responsibilities
So, drawing on successful experience elsewhere, what’s involved in Human Rights in Education?
Recognise human rights mission
Learn about human rights & responsibilities
Apply a rights & responsibilities lens

40. Learn about human rights & responsibilities
A way to get going
Start at the beginning of the year by negotiating a draft classroom Rights & Responsibilities Agreement.
Introduce the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in summary form.
Map the draft R&R agreement against the list of human rights, discuss, redraft.
Link to the international human rights negotiation process, discuss.
Adopt R&R Agreement. Use Agreement as basis for class life. Use human rights list as basis for social inquiry.

41. Keep in touch! To access resources and to join the Human Rights in Education initiative: