The human rights imperative in teacher education: developing compassion, understanding, and advocacy

Citation

Hudson, D.-M. (2024), "The human rights imperative in teacher education: developing compassion, understanding, and advocacy", Journal for Multicultural Education, Vol. 18 No. 4, pp. 587-588. https://doi.org/10.1108/JME-10-2024-242

Editors Gloria T. Alter and William R. Fernekes’ informative, urgent book is a call to educators “to develop an accurate, in-depth understanding of human rights […] so that pre-service and in-service educators will know and be able to apply…democratic practices in the classroom and school-wide environments” (p. 1). The book is divided into three parts that do the work of establishing the imperative for teacher education programs to adopt human rights education (HRE) frameworks when preparing teachers for K-University classrooms, especially in the USA, and how integrating and further development of HRE in education settings, primarily through higher education, has the potential to address the human rights issues we face and have faced. The authors and editors argue that HRE must be integrated into teacher education programs globally, in the pressing need to educate all children of the understanding that we all exist within a connected human family. When the United Nations General Assembly approved the Declaration on Human Rights Education and Training in December 2011, the USA remained neutral. On this, Alter and Fernekes deliver a scathing critique pointing to the failure of earnestly addressing our humanitarian issues.

Section I (chapters 1, 2, 3 and 4) is thematically organized around the epistemological origins of the HRE framework, which introduces readers “to an expanded conception of citizenship that goes beyond the national boundaries and discusses critical decolonial perspectives focusing on the Global South” (p. 10). Section II (chapters 5, 6, 7 and 8) builds on the foundations established in previous chapters by providing pedagogical approaches to content and norms for establishing democratic classrooms, teaching about global migration in middle school, LGBTQ+ rights in elementary education, and how other issues-based content could be integrated into 9–12 curriculum that are often left out of teacher training, but directly impact communities in which educators serve, like Native American rights and climate justice. Section III (chapters 9 and10), the conclusion, explores ways teacher education can be reformed to embrace the HRE framework and how HRE can be incorporated into professional development activities for pre-service and in-service educators in K-University settings.

For educator training programs and K-12 administrators, Section I provides the theoretical underpinnings and historical contexts that supported the HRE framework, that could be especially useful in programs that embrace constructivist and critical approaches to pedagogical training. In Section II, each chapter contains the content, practical application and resources needed to stand on its own as a consciousness-raising and compassion cultivating chapters. The section centers ways educators can help children develop healthy self-respect and acceptance of others, from diverse backgrounds and family dynamics. It is a powerful section for both in-service and pre-service educators that need support in developing advanced pedagogical proficiency in and dispelling misinformation about decolonization in the Global South, LGBTQ+ rights and causes of migration. Section III imagines the possibilities for the HRE framework that could exist beyond traditional settings, for example, “youth participating as equal partners in shaping their learning experience” (p. 235) or teacher education programs partnering with community-based organizations which could leverage “their [organizations’] decades of experience and collaborate in creating experiential learning opportunities for young people…immediately applying their knowledge and skills to current issues” (p. 235). Of remarkable relevance is the possibility of how HRE engages with decolonizing and critical pedagogies. HRE allows teacher educators to “address the colonial past that is tied up in the human rights framework and welcome the critique of the field” (p. 237).

Today we are grappling with several critical issues in the USA. The lack of compassionate treatment of migrants seeking asylum, the ongoing climate justice issues disproportionately impacting Indigenous, Black and Latinx communities and widespread bans on education around race and history in the USA all underscore the importance of the HRE framework. Unfortunately, legislation restricting how teachers and schools can teach about race and history, may discourage how educators engage with the HRE framework, which underscores the book’s urgency. While reading, one is constantly reminded of the potential power of HRE by invoking the critical pedagogies of Freire (1996) that can “transform both self and society by moving learners from a rigid and dogmatic mental attitude toward a dynamic, agile, and dialectical consciousness that facilitates action” (Alter and Fernekes, 2023, p. 39). Throughout this book, one is presented with the message that a society can be transformed in just ways. Regardless of what policies restrict us today, the HRE framework can serve as one of the many tools needed to do the transformative work of building more democratic, resilient and sustainable schools, people, communities and futures.