Education Commons^™

Beyond Carceral "Solutions": Using Transformative Human Rights Education In Domestic Violence Prevention, Alli E. Rios

Master's Projects and Capstones

Domestic violence is a choice a person makes to gain and exert absolute power and control over another person. Unfortunately, the predominant structure for addressing domestic violence - the criminal justice system - is rife with problematic social and structural constructs, like patriarchy, white supremacy, and neoliberalism, which are themselves rooted in issues of power and control (Acheson, 2022). The influence of these factors, which are largely defined by exploitative hierarchies, helps to explain why domestic violence remains prevalent. To more effectively address and prevent domestic violence, research suggests that comprehensive policy and curricular reform are necessary on multiple levels …

Inside The Hirak: The Dynamics Of A Mass Movement For Social Justice And Human Rights, Abdelkader Berrahmoun

International Journal of Human Rights Education

In 2019, Algeria witnessed the emergence of the Hirak mass movement: a pro-democracy uprising marked by epic nationwide demonstrations and trans-formative public dialogue. Hundreds of thousands of Algerians mobilized to protest social injustices and political corruption, educate each other about their common rights, and articulate their collective goals. Through the Hirak’s shared platform, people from all walks of life took to the podium to galvanize the masses through ideas and action. The Algerian Hirak was a form of public pedagogy; a grassroots expression of human rights education. Why is the Hirak so important in the history of global social movements? …

Becoming A Bright Star Through Human Rights Education: (Re)Humanization Through Participation, Daniel Mango

International Journal of Human Rights Education

This essay explores a Human Rights Education (HRE) project that was initiated in the urban slums of Nairobi. The HRE project was combined with photovoice to support participants in the project to become empowered and make lasting change within their communities. The project took place within a pro-gram for young mothers called the Bright Star Initiative. Through 12 weeks of training, these young moms learned about human rights principles, how to apply them to their lives, and how to advocate for change utilizing a human rights framework. The project led to multiple interventions that are currently supporting the populations in …

Evaluating The Past And Charting The Future Of Human Rights Education, J. Paul Martin, Snigdha Dutt

International Journal of Human Rights Education

This article provides an overview of the field of human rights education (HRE) using an input/output schema. It examines the challenges encountered at the delivery points where instructors must contextualize the now extensive corpus of human rights documents and practices to meet the needs, and the political and cultural traditions, of their particular target population. The challenges also point to the dominance of prescriptive over evaluative HRE literature, the degree to which HRE is not a stand-alone activity and the limited HRE-specific teacher training. The authors therefore call for more research on the long-term HRE outcomes of human rights education …

Emotion And Memory In Third-Space Human Rights Education: An Examination Of Two National Museums, Ion Vlad

International Journal of Human Rights Education

This article presents a comparative analysis of human rights education at the National Center for Civil and Human Rights in Atlanta, USA (NCCHR) and the Canadian Museum of Human Rights (CMHR) in Winnipeg. Specifically, what is analyzed is the role of emotion and memory in the construction of the exhibits and the impact on the visitor. The investigation is based on the author’s field observations at these two locations and interviews with staff. The museums are viewed as third spaces of education, situated somewhere between the home and the school, which presents particular dialogic openings in terms of human rights …

“My Life's Work Is To End White Supremacy”: Perspectives Of A Black Feminist Human Rights Educator, Loretta J. Ross, Monisha Bajaj

International Journal of Human Rights Education

This article highlights the contributions and thinking of scholar and activist Loretta Ross on the intersection of human rights, Black feminism and education for liberation. This essay is organized into themes, drawing from Ross’ writings, scholarship that discusses her contributions, and an hour-long conversation between Ross and Monisha Bajaj, Editor-in-Chief of the International Journal of Human Rights Education. Ross explores her own history and introduction to the human rights movement, her radical re-shaping of the field of reproductive justice, and her vision for human rights education after more than five decades of advancing it through her many books and other …

The Role Of Community Building In Second Language Acquisition In The Mainstream Classroom, Alejandro Clemente Fernandez

Doctoral Dissertations

The world is currently suffering from population displacement due to climate change, war, and economic instability which force many people to migrate in search of a better life, and many of these immigrants include school-age children. This mixed-methods research study sought to establish the association between community building, emotion, and second language acquisition by administering a survey to second language learners in the Napa Valley north of San Francisco in the spring of 2020. The participants were fourteen sixth grade students who had been enrolled in the same English and Spanish dual language immersion program since kindergarten.

The theoretical framework …

Chasing Rainbows: Finding Our Interwoven Narrative And Voice Through Collaborative Auto-Ethnographic Poetry, Michiko M. Kealoha

International Journal of Human Rights Education

When was the first time you discovered our stories together are important?

This notes from the field article documents the author’s journey to discovering collaborative auto-ethnographic poetry as a powerful pedagogical tool to decolonizing peace education and human rights education. With the ability to disrupt colonized academic knowledge through counter-narratives and ancestral practices, collaborative auto-ethnographic poetry can be practiced as therapy, inquiry, liberation, and validation that strengthens voices in an authentic way—equipping people with the ability to promote peace and social justice. What started as a class icebreaker grew into a project that brought communities together on the international stage. …

Decolonizing Approaches To Human Rights And Peace Education Higher Education Curriculum, Danielle Aldawood

International Journal of Human Rights Education

While the project of decolonization within higher education has become important in recent years (Kester et al., 2019), human rights and peace education specifically have undergone critique (Coysh, 2014; Al-Daraweesh and Snauwaert, 2013; Barreto, 2013; Zembylas, 2018; Williams, 2017; Cruz and Fontan, 2014). This critique has focused on the delegitimization of non-Western epistemologies around peace and human rights and the reliance on Eurocentric structures of thought and power within curricular and pedagogical practices (Kester et al., 2019). The decolonization of academic human rights curricula is the primary focus of this research; through interviews and content analysis with U.S. human rights …

Remaking Friendship In Unlikely Places: Queer-Decolonial Educators And Connections Across Experience, Politics, And Pedagogy, Maureen Nicole Osborne

Doctoral Dissertations

Over the past decade, queer and trans advocacy has garnered increased attention in political, popular, and educational debates. The current prevailing models to explain and justify gender and sexual difference rely on understandings of selfhood that were developed in colonial, clinical, U.S., white, and middle-class cultural contexts. The cultural particularity of these most-accessible models has produced marginalization of queer and trans students and educators who have different understandings of gender and sexual difference. Queer-decolonial educators are individuals who are critical of colonial, Western understandings of gender, sexuality, and difference more broadly. These educators often work within contexts that do not …

Prevention And Education: A Case Study Of An Anti-Human Trafficking Nongovernmental Organization In Mumbai, India, Danielle Kraaijvanger

Doctoral Dissertations

The purpose of this qualitative case study was to gain an in-depth understanding of the role of community-based NGOs in developing and delivering prevention interventions and nonformal education programs that work to end human trafficking of at-risk women and children. Specifically, the study explored the intersection between human trafficking and education, and the critical role NGOs play in human trafficking prevention. Essential to understanding this phenomenon was giving voice to the experiences of children who are the recipients of such prevention and education interventions.

An international community-based, anti-human trafficking NGO—Prerana—served as the case study setting. Direct observations and participant interviews …

Peace Education In Kenya: Tracing Discourse And Action From The National To The Local Level, Kathleen Louise Zanoni

Doctoral Dissertations

Recent Presidential elections in Kenya (2017) resulted in a contested re-run election and demonstrated the presence of systemic corruption, a culture of impunity, and a continued rift among civil society. Deep wounds were awakened during this recent election triggering past grievances from the post-election violence in 2007-08. It is critical and timely to explore various cross-sectoral peacebuilding approaches at the national and local levels to increase the capacity of individuals to act as agents of peace. However, peacebuilders often overlook the possibilities that exist within formal education to foster spaces of resistance against direct, structural, and cultural forms of violence. …

Critical Peace Pedagogies At The American Center For Civil And Human Rights And The Canadian Museum For Human Rights: A Comparative Case Study, Ion Vlad

Doctoral Dissertations

The struggle for racial equity in the United States and Canada is ongoing. Troubled historical legacies in both countries have present-day implications. African Americans and Indigenous Canadians are still two of the most marginalized populations from the standpoint of socioeconomics and political representation (Giroux, 2013; Vickers, 2012). In order to redress these problems, human rights and peace education have to pose structural questions and expose systemic unbalances. In the recent past, neoliberalism has had a major influence on the organization and content of American and Canadian formal education, obscuring some of these structural questions (Ravitch, 2013). In this context, human …

Recreating Resistance: Rape Culture Resistance Through Human Rights Education, Hailey D. Vincent

Master's Projects and Capstones

Sexual violence and rape culture are substantial issues in our society and on our college campuses. The goal of this project is to provide research that investigates rape culture on college campuses as a human rights violation and ways to address it in an intersectional manner through human rights education. The research for this project, conducted through a literature review, provides the ability to look at rape culture through a human rights education lens. In response to the research conducted, Recreate Resistance was created as a pedagogical tool for educators in First Year Experience (FYE) programs on college campuses. Recreate …

Reimagining Ability, Reimagining America: Teaching Disability In United States History Classes, Maya L. Steinborn

Master's Projects and Capstones

In service to the FAIR Education Act (2012) and the awareness-raising mission of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (2008), this project reviews historical and educational literature about disability in the United States and provides a curriculum guide for teaching Human Rights Education (HRE) and disability studies (DS) at the high school level in California. This project traces the historical development of deficit attitudes toward disability back to the colonial era, uncovering the dichotomy between the vast resources in DS and the ableist omission of disability from K-12 curricula. Survey data and interviews further show how teachers …

Four Chords To Freedom - Human Rights Education Through Music Performance, Noah Romero

Master's Projects and Capstones

The purpose of this field project is to develop and implement a workshop called Four Chords to Freedom, which combines music performance with decolonizing, postcolonial feminist human rights education to serve as a space for transformative praxis in formal and non-formal educational settings. This field project includes observations from the activity, as well as recommendations for educators who are interested in combining human rights education with music performance to explore pedagogical approaches that develop skills and orientations centered on a critical understanding of human rights.

Effects Of The Green Life Nature Education Program For 4th Grade Students Who Attend Bay Area Title One Schools: A Mixed-Methods Study, Jessica Blundell

Doctoral Dissertations

This explanatory sequential design mixed-methods evaluation measures the effects of the GLNE program on (a) students’ personal and social skills (b) students’ stewardship of the environment (c) students’ knowledge and understanding of science concepts. Quantitative survey data and qualitative data from a phenomenologically-based study are analyzed and compared in order to understand the impact of attending Green Life Nature Education (GLNE) program, the only Bay Area Residential Outdoor School that serves urban youth with no-cost programing.

The quantitative data from student surveys implies that in general, attending GLNE has a neutral impact on students. While there were several negative impacts …

Translating Transformative Human Rights Education Through Visual Languages & Informal Spaces, Jazzmin Chizu Gota

Master's Projects and Capstones

This project examines methods, theories, and practices of translating human rights education through multiple vernaculars. Developed as a workshop in sociocultural syntax deconstruction and an educational human rights education website focused on the domestic population of the US, the project focuses on localizing human rights concepts to the public vernacular of the country. Human rights education (HRE) and media and information literacy (MIL) are expanded and redefined as social literacy, or the ability to navigate and decode the present, complex realities that both HRE and MIL were developed to address. Reframing media and visual arts as an archive of past …

The Role Of Gender And Education In The Perpetration And Prevention Of School-Related Gender-Based Violence, Sabrina James

Master's Theses

This study examines how gender ideologies contribute to violence in and around schools while looking through a peace research framework proposed by peace studies scholar Johan Galtung (1969). The study explores school-related gender-based violence (SRGBV) in three regions—the United States, India, and Central Africa—and highlights the universal and destructive nature of SRGBV as a serious obstacle to the right to education and achieving education for all.

In addition, the study examines three promising initiatives in the aforementioned regions that combat SRGBV. The aim of the study is to contribute to the dialogue of effective strategies for addressing SRGBV vis-à-vis gender …

"My Gut Has To Feel It": A Participatory Action Research Study Of Community College Educators Navigating The Emotional Terrain Of Human Rights Education, Lindsay Padilla

Doctoral Dissertations

Informed by feminist theories of emotion and the concept of critical emotional praxis, this PAR study highlights the emotional terrain of four Northern California community college teachers who teach human rights. The following meta-question guided this research: "Given the role of emotions in challenging injustice, as well as in engaging in personal and societal change, what role do emotions play when teaching in a community college?" Data sources included journals, monthly meetings, final reflection narratives, and exit interviews, which were culled for emergent themes. The findings indicate that the co-researchers in this study experienced emotional ambivalence (the simultaneous experience of …

Human Rights Education: Ideology, Location, And Approaches, Monisha Bajaj

School of Education Faculty Research

As human rights education (HRE) becomes a more common feature of international policy discussions, national textbook reform, and post-conflict educational strategies, greater clarity about what HRE is, does, and means is needed. This article reviews existing definitions and models of HRE, and argues that ideology—as much as location or other variables—offers a means of schematizing varying approaches to HRE. This article reviews models organized around principles of global citizenship, coexistence, and transformative action in the context of one nation-state (India), and suggests that the mutability and adaptability of human rights education are its strength.