Some thoughts on teaching children ’ s rights

1. Some thoughts on teaching children’s rights Nóirín Hayes School of Social Sciences and Law, Dublin Institute of Technology, Centre for Social and Educational Research noirin.hayes@dit.ie

2. Some underlying principles • Autonomy of the learner • Students creating their understandings of rights • Role of student’s objective reality • Accessing prior knowledge and positions • Teaching to assist students to critically examine unconscious beliefs • With thanks to F. Tibbitts at:- http://www.tc.edu/centers/epe/PDF%20articles/Tibbitts_ch12_22feb08.pdf

3. Principles continued • Rights should not be learned as a body of esoteric knowledge to be learned from experts. • The active engagement of the students is key • Shift in pedagogy from the didactic teaching of a defined body of technical/scientific knowledge to be retained towards - - • A pedagogy that unlocks the students own knowledge and assists them in creating their own ideas about rights.

4. Principles in practice • Experiential and activity-centered • Problem posing • Participative • Dialectic • Analytical • Healing • Strategic thinking oriented • Goal and action oriented

5. Transforming Pedagogy • Rights education should be personally transforming • Interactive • Learner-centered • At HE both student and teacher are learners • Transformation from an authoritarian, paternalistic and discriminating approach to children and their rights

6. One Approach – ADIDS method • Activity • Discussion • Input/lecture • Deepening • Synthesis ********** • Blended learning

7. Thank You  noirin.hayes@dit.ie