Disempowered Youth's Perceptions of Human Rights Education

• In Event: Cultural Diversity, Social Context, and Citizenship Development

Abstract

The study explored how youth of low socioeconomic class perceive human rights education (HRE). Specifically, it analyzed whether and how HRE develops pupils’ rights consciousness. The research population included 37 adolescents (20 girls, 17 boys) aged 17-18, enrolled in a single Israeli secondary school. All participants emphasized the importance of HRE, indicating that the knowledge that they acquired assisted them in identifying rights violations. The participants described that their rights are violated in various spheres of their lives. However, the participants portrayed the rights discourse as privileged and distanced, in that most of its components are beyond the realm of their marginalized social status as youth in a socioeconomic and geographical periphery.

Authors

• Rotem Kirma, University of Haifa

• Lotem Perry-Hazan, University of Haifa

• Avihu Shoshana, University of Haifa