Human rights close to home: human rights education for civic action

Group Submission Type: Formal Panel Session

Proposal

In this panel, we will present and discuss a new program and research design connected with a three-year human rights and civics education initiative at the University of Connecticut (UConn). With the overall objective of transforming civics education, the Human Rights Close to Home (HRCH) Initiative engages key stakeholders including educators and youth in the development and implementation of a model of human rights education for civic action in schools and communities throughout Connecticut. HRCH is designed to empower teachers with the knowledge, skills, values, and relationships necessary to become expert human rights and civics educators, and to provide leadership in their school communities with respect to democratic practice. Moreover, HRCH features an innovative youth leadership and intergenerational learning model, which provides experiential learning opportunities that have a direct impact on the participants and their communities. At a time of intensifying democratic peril within the United States and beyond, this initiative is intended to address the critical gap in civic learning at the K-12 level such that by re-grounding teacher practice in human rights-based participatory citizenship. This panel will feature co-investigators in the HRCH Initiative and consider 1) the program’s basis in the intersection of civics and human rights education; 2) the program goals, design, and projected outcomes; 3) the research and evaluation strategy; and 4) the plans and prospects for program iteration and dissemination and the future of the field of human rights education.

The Human Rights Close to Home initiative has five primary goals:
to develop and implement a novel human rights and civics education model, focused on civic engagement, grounded in human rights education principles and practices, and informed by research;
to foster teachers' capacity to design and implement engaged human rights and civics learning opportunities in their classrooms, schools, and communities;
to develop youth leaders in human rights and civic engagement;
to support community-level democratic engagement and change; and
to iterate and disseminate the HRCH model beyond Connecticut.
To achieve these goals, HRCH uses best-practices in teacher professional development, youth leadership development, and democratic engagement across a 3-year pilot project. HRCH supports participant growth and development through engagement with content experts, experiential learning, intergenerational dialogue, sustained communities of practice, and relational networks between youth, teachers, and community-based organizations. Utilizing both intensive summer institutes, and year-round workshops, seminars, mentorship, and other supports, HRCH allows participants to deepen their knowledge, hone their practice, and enrich their relationships.

In pursuing these approaches, HRCH leverages the unique resources of UConn and the opportunities and challenges presented by the Connecticut context. UConn is home to one of the largest interdisciplinary human rights programs in the country, and through the auspices of Dodd Human Rights Impact, a robust set of outreach and engagement initiatives with partners across the state and region. In particular, Dodd Impact has supported a K-12 Human Rights Education initiative for almost ten years, which has worked to integrate HRE into policy and practice across the state. UConn’s teacher education programs graduate approximately 200 educators per year across grade level and content area. As a state, Connecticut is geographically compact with a diverse population, yet remains among the most unequal, with high levels of racial and economic isolation, across its 169 towns. Such disparities are reflected in Connecticut’s schools, which have some of the largest equity gaps in funding and achievement in the nation, as well as in civic participation, where high-income, college-educated, older, White adults tend to be more engaged and connected according to the 2016 CT Civic Health Index. Additionally, while completing a 1-semester civics course is a high school graduation requirement, Connecticut does not currently have statewide standards in social studies.

The above factors and contexts provide the basis on which the HRCH is designed to respond to the threats to democracy that have manifest across the globe. Rising authoritarianism and democratic backsliding are apparent from Brazil to India, from Russia to the United States. These more recent trends build on and exploit endemic challenges to democracy, including economic inequality, anti-Semitism, and white supremacy, in ways that create deep divides within and among communities. Building trust and creating common ground for democratic deliberation and self-government requires addressing these historic legacies and contemporary divisions in ways that affirm shared humanity, solidarity, and justice. Human rights principles and practices are, therefore, critical grounds on which to elaborate new forms of participatory citizenship around which civics education can be organized. Human Rights Close to Home is attempting just such a re-grounding by bringing together educators, youth, and community-based advocates, in conversation with expert teacher educators and human rights scholars, to develop and implement a novel form of civics education in Connecticut.

Sub Unit

• Peace Education SIG

Chair

• Sandra Sirota, University of Connecticut

Individual Presentations

• Re-Imagining human rights education as a model for citizenship education - Ian McGregor, Universtiy of Connecticut; Sara M Harvel, University of Connecticut

• Human Rights Close to Home: Program Overview - Glenn Mitoma, University of Connecticut; Jacob Skrzypiec, University of Connecticut

• Human rights education for civic action: teacher and youth engagement in an intensive, intergenerational program promoting human rights close to home - Sandra Sirota, University of Connecticut

• Charting a future for human rights education through storytelling - Kristi Rudelius-Palmer, University of Minnesota

Discussant

• Amy M Argenal, University of San Francisco