1. Human rights within education: assessing the justifications.
- Author
-
McCowan, Tristan
- Subjects
- *
HUMAN rights , *CHILDREN'S rights , *CIVIL rights , *RIGHT to education , *MOTIVATION (Psychology) - Abstract
While respect for human rights has long been endorsed as a goal of education, only recently has significant attention been paid to the need to incorporate rights within educational processes. Current support for human rights within education, however, has a variety of motivations. This paper provides a theoretical exploration of these diverse justifications, leading to a normative proposal. A distinction is made between status-based and instrumental approaches. Human rights within education can be justified from a status-based perspective on the basis of their indivisibility, meaning that the right to education must not entail an infringement of other rights. Yet while rights-respecting environments are important sites of learning, instrumental justifications can be a source of concern, if the goals in question are irrelevant or inimical to the enhancement of rights. An argument, therefore, is put forward for a simultaneous realisation of embodiment of and opportunity for learning about human rights. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]
- Published
- 2012
- Full Text
- View/download PDF