Till Örebro universitet

Background: Educating children about human rights is an important step toward strengthening human rights in the global society. Teachers play a crucial role in the enactment of this education. Hence, teachers require extensive human rights knowledge. However, teachers also require knowledge of how their thinking about children and rights influence their pedagogical approaches and strategies in relation to children’s human rights education.

Significance and aims: The aim of this paper is to clarify how teachers’ different rights-teaching mentalities support children’s human rights-learning. By drawing on Foucault’s governmentality perspective I show teachers’ different rights-teaching mentalities and their impact on the enactment of children’s human rights education. This will provide valuable knowledge for teachers, teacher educators and policymakers when performing and/or making decisions about human rights education. 

Theoretical framework: The research draws on a theoretical framework that combines rights theorization and governmentality. The rights theorization (Bobbio, 1996, Orend, 2002), with a view on human rights as continually developing and expanding, creates a background for the study. By using the aspects of government - rationalities, techniques and aims (Foucault, 1987/2003; 1978/1991; Rose, 1999; Dean, 2010), I elaborate on the concept of teachers’ rights-teaching mentalities. With this concept I show how teachers’ theories when merged together with their actions and aims construct teachers’ rights-teaching mentalities and how they influence the education for children’s human rights. 

Research design: The data used in this paper draws on fieldwork from three grade 1 classes in Swedish schools. Each teacher was observed for approximately 50 hours. The observations were documented through field notes. Halfway into the observation period each teacher was interviewed. The aspects of government - rationalities, techniques and aims, guided the analysis. In several steps structures of qualitative similarities and differences were sought and potential rights-teaching mentalities were verified, changed, disappeared and new ones were formed. 

Findings: Six teachers’ rights-teaching mentalities were identified through the analysis. These could be divided into two groups, four rights-promoting mentalities and two rights-restraining mentalities. The rights-promoting mentalities support a positive rights-learning, install feelings of equal value and being an equal rights holder along with forming attitudes and behaviours in line with human rights. On the contrary the rights-restraining mentalities impose a negative rights-learning which can reduce feelings of equal value and being an equal rights holder along with fostering attitudes and behaviours not in line with human rights.