In view of the trend of demoting education from "human right" to "human need", this book seeks to affirm education as a "human right" and to describe the various state duties flowing from the right to education, by systematically analyzing article 13 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.
Around the world there are a myriad of NGOs using human rights education (HRE) as a tool of community empowerment with the firm belief that it will help people improve their lives. One way of understanding these processes is that they translate universal human rights speak using messages and symbols which make them relevant to people’s daily lives and culturally resonant. However, an alternative more radical perspective is that these processes should engage individuals in modes of critical inquiry into the ways that that existing power structures maintain the status quo and control not only how we understand and speak about social inequality and injustice, but also act on it. This book is a critical inquiry into the production, distribution and consumption of HRE and how the discourse is constructed historically, socially and politically through global institutions and local NGO practice. The book begins with the premise that HRE is composed of theories of human rights and education, both of which are complex and multifaceted. However, the book demonstrates how over time a dominant discourse of HRE, constructed by the United Nations institutional framework, has come to prominence and the ways it is reproduced and reinforced through the practice of intermediary NGOs engaged in HRE activities with community groups. Drawing on socio-legal scholarship it offers a new theoretical and political framework for addressing how human rights, pedagogy, knowledge and power can be analysed between the global and local by connecting the critical, but well-trodden, theories of human rights to insights on critical pedagogy. It uses critical discourse analysis and ethnographic research to investigate the practice of NGOs engaged in HRE using contextual evidence and findings from fieldwork with NGOs and communities in Tanzania.
This book explores situations in which public opinion presents itself as an obstacle to the protection and promotion of human rights. Taking an international law perspective, it primarily deals with two questions: first, whether international law requires States to take an independent stance on human rights issues; second, whether international law encourages States to inform and mobilise public opinion with regard to core human rights standards. The discussion is mainly organised within the framework of the UN system. The work is particularly relevant to situations in which public opinion appears as discriminatory attitudes based on race, gender, age, health, sexual orientation and other factors. It is also pertinent to circumstances in which public opinion is responsible for the existence of certain harmful customs and practices such as female genital mutilation and capital punishment. Noting that the death penalty is increasingly recognised as an infringement of human rights, this study further challenges States’ argument that capital punishment cannot be abolished because of public opinion. The book also discusses the role that education bears under international law in moulding favourable attitudes towards human rights. Finally, the book challenges States’ acceptance that public opinion cannot be confronted in this respect.
Identifying the essential feature of education for international understanding advocated by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), the book explores how Chinese schools have implemented education for international understanding since the 1980s. Through vivid cases, the author introduces the practice of education for international understanding in Chinese primary and middle schools. Based on the questionnaire survey, she analyzes the international understanding competence of Chinese students and teachers. Furthermore, she discusses the current dilemma and proposes possible solutions for Chinese education for international understanding in the future. While providing a window into China's contemporary education for the international community, the book can also be used as a reference for educational policymakers, educational researchers and primary and secondary school teachers in other countries.
In the first volume in the Critical Global Citizenship Education series, Torres combines theoretical and empirical research to present an original perspective on global citizenship education as a vitally important way of learning in a globalized world. In examining the requirements for effective global citizenship education and education reform, he investigates pathways to citizenship-building at the local, national and global levels and urges development of teaching methods, teacher education, and curriculum within a social justice education framework. Taking into account post-colonial perspectives, political realities at play, and practical implications, Torres provides a succinct but comprehensive understanding of how global citizenship education can expand the concept of civic education in a global society and interrupt inequality. This volume considers the ways that global citizenship education has been incorporated and is used by international institutions, governments, and the academy, and provides a clear framework for anyone struggling to make sense of the tensions and complexities of global citizenship education today.
The International Science and Evidence Based Education (ISEE) Assessment is an initiative of the UNESCO Mahatma Gandhi Institute of Education for Peace and Sustainable Development (MGIEP), and is its contribution to the Futures of Education process launched by UNESCO Paris in September 2019. In order to contribute to re-envisioning the future of education with a science and evidence based report, UNESCO MGIEP embarked on the first-ever large-scale assessment of knowledge of education.
First Published in 1996. The current world order poses new challenges to the theory and practice of peace education. Drawing on data gathered from around the world, Burns and Aspeslagh focus on how peace is presented in formal and informal educational settings and what effects ideologies have in shaping that presentation. The book views peace education in the context of education about other major social and political issues and in a variety of geopolitical settings, exploring factors that affect the generation, selection, organization, transmission, and evaluation of knowledge for peace. Following a review of major approaches to policy and praxis in peace education, the editors draw on original research to offer interpretations based on pragmatic, normative, and conceptual approaches to the individual, the state, and the role of political literacy. The use of a comparative educational framework that goes beyond curriculum studies and descriptive case studies presents a perspective that is innovative, and timely. The volume includes both bibliography and index.
