Human rights education: An elementary school-level case study.

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

The purpose of this dissertation study is to answer three questions: (a) how do students at School X behave and/or treat other students? (b) what influence did Human Rights Education (HRE) have on students, cognitively, emotionally and practically? (c) how can this school improve its HRE program?.
The researcher invited sixty-seven sixth and seventh graders who had previously gone through the Partners HRE at School X to participate in an interview about their HRE experience. Eighteen (nine males and nine females) students ultimately agreed to participate with their parents' consent (1998). The researcher obtained permission to use secondary data from pre- (1996) and post- (1997) surveys completed by sixty-four students and questionnaire (1997) completed by 38 students. In the analysis, the researcher used survey, questionnaire and interview data both separately and comparatively to answer the three research questions.
The findings of this dissertation study suggest that HRE instructors should focus upon the following areas and factors to have the most impact upon elementary students. (1) Placing HRE in the students' own immediate and world context. (2) Drawing key concepts from the Universal Declaration of Human Rights as well as the Convention of the Rights of the Child. (3) Certain human rights issues, such as discrimination and prejudice, poverty and hunger, and injustice, were all found to be important to this age child. (4) Drawing on real life examples of human rights violation and abuse has a powerful impact upon the students of this age, especially involving children of their age group. (5) That given the above, students of this age will act upon their learning in their daily lives, that they can transfer their HRE knowledge to action. (6) That HRE can be used as a means to impact and change the overall ethos of an elementary school and to make it more human centered. (7) That support from school administrators is critical to the successful implementation of FIRE at the elementary school level.
The researcher hopes this case study will help and encourage school teachers, administrators and educators to consider using HRE in their school curriculum and school mission.