Using Human Rights Education to Give Students Purpose and Connection

A circle of linked hands (Image by Wylly Suhendra via Unsplash)

As we go back to the classroom, our world and our students are facing unprecedented challenges and changes in the world around them. Additionally, we know that the past months of living with a pandemic have brought emotional turbulence to our students. Increased feelings of loneliness and isolation, anxiety, and depression are being reported in the U.S. at record levels.

One way to combat feelings of isolation is to use the methods and practices of Human Rights Education in your classroom. One of the many goals of Human Rights Education is to give students a sense of global connectedness. By linking human rights issues between time periods and geographic places, students can get a better sense of their own place in the world and their connection(s) to movements and peoples outside of their community. Students involved with Black Lives Matter can learn more about the history of Black identity movements both in the U.S. and beyond. Students wanting to get involved in voting rights or immigration practices in their state can learn about human rights standards that protect these basic freedoms around the world.

Human Rights Education is not only about the content we teach but is also about using the values of Human Rights Education to create a more equitable, student-centered classroom where students work together to determine the path of their learning. Putting the values of Human Rights Education into practice in your classroom and curriculum is an important aspect of this work.

HRE is also about the FOR–teaching students what their rights are and how they can defend and protect these rights for themselves and others. This critical piece, encouraging engagement and activism, is again student-centered and asks students to identify with issues and movements they care about and to identify possible actions they can take to make their voice heard.

Woven Teaching’s new lesson, Free & Equal: Human Rights Around the World provides teachers with the opportunity to teach for, about, and through human rights. The lesson uses the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) as the starting point to learning about human rights. The lesson begins with a brief history of the UDHR and its 30 articles. Students will learn more about the rights enshrined in the UDHR and then apply these concepts to real historical and current events around the globe. The goal is for students to learn about human rights and to learn ways to advocate for themselves and for those whose rights have been violated. Using critical thinking, reading analysis, and the methods of HRE, the lesson offers teachers a unique way to bring this important topic to life.