Teaching About, Through, and for Human Rights: Successes and Challenges of a Human Rights Education Course for Teachers

• In Event: Roundtable Session 32
  In Roundtable Session: Successes and Challenges in Working With Schools and Educators on Peace Programs

Abstract

This paper presents the findings from a collaborative inquiry research study that employed a mixed methods approach to explore students’ perceptions and instructors’ experiences of an innovative ten-day graduate level human rights education course for educators. The course was the result of a collaborative initiative between the Faculty of Education, University of Manitoba and the Canadian Museum for Human Rights, both in Winnipeg, Canada. The purpose was to encourage students to critically examine whose human rights stories get told, how they get told and by whom. The findings suggest that while there were worthwhile insights gained when considering teaching about, through and for human rights education, there were also challenges.

Authors

• Jerome A. Cranston, University of Manitoba

• Melanie D. Janzen, University of Manitoba