Rethinking Popular Education in the Digital Age: the case of child human rights defenders and its implications for Citizenship Education

• In Event: Digital spaces for human rights, activism, and civic engagement

Proposal

Is the digital space promoting a new form of popular education when it comes to learning about human rights? If this is the case, what are the implications for Citizenship Education (CE)? According to Freire (1970/2005), popular education is dialogical and participatory in nature as it promotes horizontal relationships. It is also based on learners’ lived experiences and builds upon these to shape and co-construct the teaching and learning processes. Popular education allows for learning experiences that are relevant and meaningful since these are based on their interests and needs. Traditionally, popular education has taken place beyond formal education, in spaces not constrained by hierarchy-based structures such as the curriculum or traditional lessons (Braster et al., 2013). Popular education is particularly relevant for Human Rights Education (HRE), as it provides a space for creative pedagogical ways to teach and learn about rights that build upon people's existing knowledge (or lack thereof) of rights and focuses on constructing relevant and practical knowledge that people need to claim their rights, defend their rights of others and advance social change (Hantzopoulos & Bajaj, 2021).

The emergence of digital technologies has significantly changed every aspect of our social and cultural lives, including education. In particular, as a result of the school closures and the remote education initiatives during the Covid-19 pandemic, education as a whole experienced a dramatic uptake of digital technologies for teaching and learning around the world. While emerging literature has been looking at the impact and implications of this digital shift in formal education (UNICEF, 2024), there is scarce evidence on the impact of these technological changes beyond the classroom and, particularly, on popular education. This paper explores how children and young people acting as human rights defenders use the digital space to learn about human rights, organise and take action. By exploring how the digital space works as a setting of popular education among Child Human Rights Defenders (CHRDs) it is possible to identify the challenges and possibilities technological advancements bring to HRE in particular and CE in general. This paper focuses on the lived experiences of CHRDs of 35 children and young people (aged 13-26 years) from 15 countries representing all the regions in the world that advocate for a wide variety of issues, from child participation to education, gender equality, and violence. The findings of the paper will fill an existing gap in documenting the experiences of CHRDs as they navigate the intersection of children’s rights, education and technology. Emerging evidence on children and technology focuses on the use of technology by children in their everyday lives and not particularly in their capacity as defenders (Cobo et al., 2018; Livingstone et al., 2019, 2021; Selwyn, 2010; Stoilova et al., 2021). In contrast, the existing literature only focused either on the use of technologies by human rights defenders (Hankey & Ó Clunaigh, 2013, McPherson, 2017) does not provide disaggregated data for children or how the opportunities and risks of the digital environment apply to them due to their age. The insufficient literature affects States and decision-makers to develop policies that fully respond to the particular needs of child human rights defenders (CHRDs) in the digital environment as well as local and regional organisations working to support the protection and participation of these children.


References
Braster, S., Simon, F., & Grosvenor, I. (2013) A History of Popular Education: Educating the People of the World. London: Routledge

Cobo, C; Cortesi, S; Brossi, L; Doccetti, S; Lombana, A; Remolina, N; Winocur, R, & Zucchetti, A. (Eds.). (2018). Jóvenes, transformación digital y formas de inclusión en América Latina. Montevideo: Penguin Random House.

Freire, P. (1970/2005). Pedagogy of the oppressed. London: Continuum.

Hankey, S., Ó Clunaigh, D. (2013) Rethinking Risk and Security of Human Rights Defenders in the Digital Age, Journal of Human Rights Practice, Vol. 5 (3), 535–547.
https://doi.org/10.1093/jhuman/hut023

Hantzopoulos, M. & Bajaj, M. (2021). Educating for peace and human rights: An introduction. Bloomsbury.

Livingstone, S., Kardefelt-Winther, D., Kanchev, P., Cabello, P., Claro, M., Burton, P. & Phyfer, J. (2019). Is there a ladder of children’s online participation? Findings from three Global Kids Online countries, Innocenti Research Briefs no. 2019-02

Livingstone, S., Mascheroni, G., & Stoilova, M. (2021). The outcomes of gaining digital skills for young people’s lives and wellbeing: A systematic evidence review. New Media & Society. https://doi.org/10.1177/14614448211043189

McPherson, E. (2017) ‘Social Media and Human Rights Advocacy’ in Tumber, H. and Waisbord, S. (Eds.) The Routledge Companion to Media and Human Rights. London: Routledge, 279–88.

Selwyn, N. (2010). Schools and Schooling in the Digital Age: A Critical Analysis (1st ed.). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203840795

Stoilova, M.; Livingstone, S. & Khazbak, R.(2021) Investigating Risks and Opportunities for Children in a Digital World: A rapid review of the evidence on children’s internet use and outcomes. Innocenti Discussion Paper 2020-03. UNICEF Office of Research – Innocenti, Florence.

UNICEF (2024) Education and COVID-19 Response. Addressing the Impact of COVID-19 on Education

Author

• Gabriela Martinez Sainz, University College Dublin