Introduction

The principles and practices of human rights support the universal values of equal justice, democracy, and dignity. Events such as the Covid-19 pandemic, the murder of George Floyd, and the assault on the U.S. Capitol Building demonstrate the urgent need to protect, respect, and fulfill human rights and democracy at all levels of our society. Globally recognized in documents such as the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948), human rights are the responsibility of “every individual and every organ of society,” including especially our schools and classrooms.

Social studies are central to upholding this responsibility. In the 2014 Position Statement, “Human Rights Education: A Necessity for Social and Civic Learning,” NCSS affirmed the importance of teaching and learning about human rights “from early childhood through advanced education and lifelong learning.” Today, as the challenges to human rights and democracy have proliferated across the globe and domestically, we renew and expand that commitment, highlighting the need for education not only about human rights, but through human rights and for human rights. To equip ourselves and our students to meet our responsibilities and to fulfill the promise of human rights, the National Council for the Social Studies calls for a comprehensive commitment and a coordinated plan of action to (1) recognize the importance of human rights education; (2) integrate human rights education into social studies curricula, schoolwide policies, and classroom practices; (3) develop impactful human rights educators; (4) foster youth engagement and voice; and (5) infuse human rights education into local, state, and national policies.

Background

Following the atrocities of the Holocaust uncovered by the end of World War II (WWII), the global community came together to define the inalienable rights possessed by all members of the human race, regardless of identity or nationality. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights is made up of 30 articles, each of which addresses a different aspect of an individual’s humanity as recognized by the membership of the United Nations. The authors of the document opened the Preamble by stating that the “recognition of the inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family is the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world” (UDHR, 1948), clearly framing peaceful co-existence around the ability of individuals and communities to recognize the value that each member of society possesses.

At the heart of the document is the fundamental conviction that individual members of the global community are responsible for ensuring this peaceful co-existence; individual “understanding of these rights and freedoms is of the greatest importance for the full recognition of this pledge” (UDHR, 1948), making a well informed and educated population the strongest defense against human rights violations that could lead to conflict. In the last statement of the Preamble, the architects of the UDHR stated that the path to individual empowerment should come through “teaching and education,” which would “promote respect for these rights and freedoms” and “progressive measures, national and international” which would “secure their universal and effective recognition and observance” (UDHR, 1948). In the wake of a global tragedy, the leaders of the world saw that a path to future and sustained peace comes through an empowered populace and that the tools to their empowerment come in the form of human rights education. This conviction is also reflected in the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (ICERD), a human rights treaty that the United States ratified in 1994 with consent of the Senate, which includes a commitment of the parties to teach human rights to their people.

From its founding, the United States has been part of a global conversation on how to promote justice and prevent abuse of individual rights. The American commitment to equal and unalienable rights for all has remained part of the American Revolutionary heritage since the Declaration of Independence (1776). As is often the case, the ideals proclaimed in the founding documents of the Declaration of Independence, the Preamble to the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights, and conduct tolerated in actual practice, have sometimes been in conflict. The Declaration of Independence was drafted by revolutionary leaders who held people in slavery; the U.S. Constitution (1789) did not protect suffrage for women or people of color. The transition from aspirational proclamations to legally enforceable protections of human rights required more than a hundred years of activism and advocacy after the end of the Civil War. At the same time, social movements to abolish slavery, expand the right to vote, guarantee rights for workers, eliminate segregation, and respect indigenous self-determination have continued to advance human rights within the United States. These historical events have set the foundation for a society rooted in the ideal that the protection of human and civil rights is inherent to American culture and that the ability for American society to evolve and grow is based in educational frameworks that instill and reinforce these standards in each generation of Americans. Human rights education is a necessary foundation to promote understanding of and motivation to enact human rights in everyday life, as well as in the life of a nation.

The challenges facing mainstream inclusion of education about and for human rights find their roots in World War II and the defense of American values. World War II placed an emphasis on STEM-related fields with a focus on American unity and the reinforcement of democratic values. The war required the government to increase its control over many areas of American society including the field of education. The Education Wartime Commission was created to provide a “unified voice in education” and “[developed] policies and plans of action for American education” in an effort to “preserve democracy” (Conner & Bohan, 2014). The result was a shift away from the inquiry-based progressive education movement of the 1930s to an emphasis on curriculum that would meet the needs of a country mobilizing to defend American values both at home and abroad.

As part of President Franklin Roosevelt’s National War Services Bill, an emphasis was placed on “the education of young people under military age for scientific pursuits.” Disciplines that would help the United States win the war received emphasis and support, while the progressive education movement that had emphasized inquiry and student-based instruction was attacked as “Red,” and its teaching materials banned (Conner & Bohan, 2014). The result is that the field of social studies, where education about human rights finds its closest alignment with content standards, became “the primary vehicle of propaganda” (Conner & Bohan, 2014). Young learners in social studies classrooms found their instruction designed to provide “an understanding of democratic processes, an abiding love to American institutions, and a will to work and sacrifice” (Conner & Bohan, 2014). This was done with a singular focus on the welfare of the American nation without acknowledging the complexities of a global world view. Educational pedagogy designed to encourage students towards critical inquiry of American society was deemed a threat. “School leaders could not encourage students to be critical of U.S. intervention in the war, the draft of 10 million American citizens, or the internment of over 110,000 Japanese Americans” (Conner & Bohan, 2014). Despite the pioneering leadership of the United States in developing humanitarian standards even in times of war, neither the Nuremberg Principles of 1945, nor the expansion of the Geneva Conventions in 1949, figured significantly in U.S. social education.

The legacy of the centralization of education during World War II continues to have an impact in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks and the War on Terror. In the post-World War II era, there continues to be an emphasis on removing course material that is deemed biased or politically motivated (Conner & Bohan, 2014). In the 1950’s, the National Council for American Education (NCAE) asserted that “‘Progressive educational philosophy and practices were undermining national interests.” NCAE wanted these replaced with traditional means of instruction and narrow academic content (Conner & Bohan, 2014; Altenbaugh, 2003, 285). A misplaced association between socialism, as understood by its opponents, and the progressive educational practices that encouraged students to think critically through inquiry became and remains a widespread misconception.

The pressure to conform affects young learners and educators alike. “Teachers … grew weary of questioning the country’s economic system, criticizing the government’s policies, or encouraging students to think critically for themselves” (Conner & Bohan, 2014). The aftermath of the 9/11 terror attacks has had a similar impact on the academic community in regards to inquiry-based and socially engaged education practices that align with education about human rights. Similar to the desire to emphasize democratic values, “censorship in the name of ‘homeland security’ has taken many forms: … passing state and federal congressional legislation that enables government oversight of area studies programs; … and drafting legislation in the House of Representatives - HR 3077 - to monitor professors’ teaching to make sure it is devoid of ‘politically biased’ (that is material that can be interpreted as ‘anti-American’ or ‘anti-Israel’) content” (Knopff-Newman, 2005). The effort to ensure that young learners in American schools are supporting democratic ideas is viewed as a defense against the radical extremism that characterizes the enemy in the War on Terror. “It is within this politico-rhetorical nexus, informed by the response to September 11, 2001 in the form of the nebulous war on terror,” that the questioning of government policy has “been conflated with anti-American feeling, easily translated to a potential platform for ‘terrorist’ action” (Knopff-Newman, 2005).

The increasingly divisive rhetoric following the 2016 and 2020 elections has created a similar environment for educators in which a critique of government policy in the classroom can be perceived as unpatriotic rather than a strategy for developing independent and empowered members of the civic population. The concern that educators of young learners may lead students to question or undermine democratic values at a time when the United States is considered vulnerable has created an environment in which education is focused on measurable content and aligned teaching standards at the expense of human rights teaching guidelines. The focus on measurable learning outcomes can frequently come into conflict with critical thinking standards and inquiry-based learning, as characterized by the College, Career, and Civic Life (C3) Framework for Social Studies State Standards, thereby diminishing the empowerment of young people, especially adolescents who are members of marginalized groups.

Questions about the rights and responsibilities of humans in society as well as the methodology through which these rights should be reinforced in society are as old as humankind. Cultures across the globe have for millennia identified people’s rights and guaranteed their protection. Even when tied to group identity—family, band, community, religion, class—socially acknowledged rights have been used to support fairness, compassion for the poor, and justice for members and strangers. International human rights standards are an effort to codify the earlier wisdom of legal, religious and cultural sources about justice. In the modern era, these socially acknowledged rights and norms have often been informally reinforced through education; however, inconsistencies exist in the formal instruction of the substance and application of fundamental human rights.

Rationale

As the world faces a range of increasingly urgent threats to human rights and democracy—including a global pandemic, rising authoritarianism, persistent racial injustice, deepening economic inequality, and a climate crisis—social studies educators and advocates must take action to ensure that our schools and classrooms foster the values of equal justice and human dignity. Human rights education is a practice that can be carried out within the U.S. and across the globe to ensure learner engagement with norms such as equality and justice, and to promote actions that address the most pressing issues of our times. To do so requires a commitment to working in solidarity with partners around the globe to advance human rights education at the local, national, and international levels. The explicit inclusion of human rights education (HRE) within the American school system contributes to the development of an empowered and empathetic civic population prepared to tackle the complex challenges of a rapidly globalized society. While the United States was an early leader in establishing the international human rights system, in more recent years it has lagged behind other countries in integrating HRE into educational policies and practices. Today, we have an opportunity to more fully embrace these essential pillars of modern democratic life.

Recommendations for Effective Implementation

In recent years, human rights education has emerged as a thriving area of study, and is becoming increasingly institutionalized across K-12 and higher education settings. In some secondary settings, standalone human rights courses are either mandated or offered as an elective. Even in the elementary and middle grades, human rights activities, lessons, and materials are being employed in social studies units and social-emotional wellness activities. In some universities, human rights and/or human rights education programs, both at the undergraduate and graduate levels, are growing in depth and scope. HRE in non-formal settings, such as through community-based learning, is on the rise as well.

Human rights education has a clear and present role within contemporary national social studies education. As of 2016, 42 U.S. states referenced human rights in their social studies curriculum standards. Human rights education is also referenced in the C3 Framework and in the NCSS National Standards for the Preparation of Social Studies Teachers. Effective human rights education is an integral and necessary area of study that can enable young people to understand human rights principles, apply those principles to daily life, and engender informed action to defend and advance dignity and justice.

The National Council for the Social Studies enumerates recommendations for effective implementation of human rights education through five guiding tenets:

(1) Recognizing the importance of HRE; (2) Integrating human rights education into social studies curricula, schoolwide policies, and classroom practices; (3) Developing the impactful human rights educator; (4) Fostering youth engagement and voice; and (5) Infusing HRE into local, state, and national policies. NCSS members, educators, teacher education programs, policymakers, and other stakeholders are encouraged to use these recommendations to assist in the development and sustainability of HRE practices and programs within their respective settings.

Recognizing the Importance of Human Rights Education

Human Rights Education is a lifelong process of teaching and learning that helps individuals develop the knowledge, skills, and values to fully exercise and protect the human rights of themselves and others; to fulfill their responsibilities in the context of internationally agreed upon human rights principles; and to achieve justice and peace in our world.

For classroom educators, challenges such as lack of awareness of the human rights framework, inadequate instructional or methodological preparation, rigidity of curricula, lack of teacher autonomy, marginal support from colleagues or supervisors, and the ever increasing demands of classroom life are clear roadblocks. As a result, there might be some reticence on the part of the educator to incorporate human rights education. It also may not be immediately obvious or apparent that the aims of human rights education complement the disciplinary goals of social studies education.

When utilized, human rights education should focus on developing skills such as critical thinking, collaboration, creativity, problem solving, civic discourse, and informed action, all of which are clearly articulated in the C3 Framework as crucial for youth development. Moreover, through effective human rights education, young people can be exposed to robust content that draws on historical, political, social, cultural and economic trends and patterns, and makes deep past-to-present connections. For example, a lesson on the 2016 Standing Rock Crisis and Protests developed through a human rights lens could help students critically examine social and economic consequences of U.S. environmental decisions, and/or the broader historical patterns of cultural violence perpetrated against Indigenous Peoples.

Human rights education involves explicit references to human rights standards and norms, such as equality, participation and accountability. These expectations are clearly outlined in the United Nations Declaration on Education and Training. Teaching “about” human rights is important to ensure that learners are provided critical knowledge and understanding of these standards and norms, while also learning about past and present global issues whereby human rights might be protected and/or violated.The message of human rights education is also evident in the ways in which it is taught—that is, “through” human rights. By utilizing pedagogical approaches such as inquiry, open discussion, critical thinking, and participatory learning, educators can formulate learning experiences that strive to respect the rights of both the educator and young person. Human rights education is also “for” human rights, encouraging a lasting effect on learners about the importance of understanding and promoting human rights in their classrooms, communities, and society. By utilizing about, for, through in their practice, namely striving to move along this three-tiered continuum and incorporating all elements into their professional practice, educators can begin to cement HRE as foundational to youth development. In this way, educators can be a force for positive change, cultivating and challenging young people to see themselves as active players in the defense of dignity and justice.

School leaders play a pivotal role in recognizing and supporting the vision of human rights education. School leaders, as part of their core mission, have a responsibility to think and plan for the needs of young people. As such, they must ask themselves, “How do I effectively help our students become informed, engaged citizens ready to take on the challenges of an ever evolving global community?” Recognizing the value of HRE can serve to enhance both transformative student growth and a positive school climate. To meet these educational impacts, school leaders can take deliberate steps to support and encourage students in the study of human rights through integrated coursework, in-school workshops/programs, out-of-school field trips, service learning, and other experiential opportunities.

Local, state and federal policymakers also have a role to play in shaping the inclusion of human rights education. By recognizing the inherent value of human rights education for the teaching of social studies and/or other disciplines, policymakers can begin to work as contributive, supportive stakeholders in advancing many of the educational aims discussed, but not always achieved, in recent years. If policymakers believe that preparing students as informed, engaged, empathetic global citizens and as active, caring members of their local communities is vital to a strong democracy and thriving American life, recognizing human rights education as a necessary component to social studies education is essential.

Integrating Human Rights Education into Social Studies Curricula, Schoolwide Policies, and Classroom Practices

Educators are consistently struggling with challenges such as time, space, and opportunity to infuse more into their coursework and curricula. Educating about, for, and through human rights should not be viewed as an additional hurdle, but as an opportunity to invigorate social studies education. The NCSS position statement, “A Vision of Powerful Teaching and Learning in Social Studies,” states that “Powerful social studies teaching combines elements of all the disciplines as it provides opportunities for students to conduct inquiry, develop and display data, synthesize findings, and make judgments.” The inclusion of HRE teaching practices and policies throughout the collective school community is important to creating nurturing learning environments. The development of standalone human rights courses and HRE specific teaching units (mandated or elective) using the C3 inquiry framework is an ideal. This provides explicit direct instruction opportunities for students to engage in human rights education. However, this may not always be possible, given certain classroom or school constraints. Another pathway is to envision human rights education as integrative and intersectional with other social studies disciplines. Educators can utilize HRE principles to deepen existing courses such as U.S. History, World History, Civics, Psychology, Sociology, and others by teaching about, for, and through human rights. Moreover, human rights learning experiences reflective of appropriate child development can and should be developed for the elementary and middle school levels.

The dignity and human rights of every child should be central to any classroom or school-wide policy. Educators, school leaders, and all school community stakeholders should ensure that when designing or implementing any classroom or school-wide policy, this commitment is met and sustained.

School leaders can support this integration work by providing space, time, and resources for educators to effectively implement HRE into their curricula or practice. Working with classroom educators as equal stakeholders in crafting the human rights classroom, and providing professional trust and faith in educators to do this good work is vital.

Developing the Impactful Human Rights Educator

Classroom educators, both at the PK-12 and higher education levels, need explicit and robust training on how to integrate human rights education into their classroom practice. Many educators have not been adequately equipped in their pre-service training both in terms of content knowledge or pedagogical processes to effectively integrate HRE. As a result, pre-service and in-service educators who aspire to integrate human rights education into their practice must conduct their own independent research or seek out training programs using their own time and financial resources to do so, while meeting the increasing demands of an ever-evolving teacher field.

Teacher education programs serve an essential role in preparing social studies teachers to develop young people into informed, active global citizens. Understanding and applying the principles of human rights education, namely educating about, for, and through human rights, can be a powerful tool for achieving this goal. As proposed in Standard 5 of the NCSS National Standards for the Preparation of Social Studies Teachers, social studies teacher education programs should consider changes to their pre-service preparation coursework to include explicit training on human rights education. This can be done in a variety of ways, including integrating HRE into the coursework of social studies methods courses and hosting professional development opportunities focused on HRE practice. In addition, teacher education programs can begin to develop opportunities for pre-service educators to take on student teaching placements within a classroom or department setting where human rights education is integrated into the coursework, or engage in school-based internships focused on a particular human rights project or program.

Educators need supportive school leaders in order to grow and learn as continuously developing professionals. School leaders can support educators by allowing and encouraging them to attend professional development and training focused on human rights education. By doing so, school leaders will enable those educators to gain deeper strength as practitioners, and will assist educators in developing stronger instructional practices and spaces of learning that are friendly to human rights in their schools. Moreover, when educators, especially those who teach social studies, are supported and challenged to engage in continuous adult learning focused on human rights education, there is a greater likelihood they will hold themselves responsible for the furthering of spaces that are friendly to human rights. This can have a ripple effect onto other members of the school community, engendering broader collective responsibility to support and sustain critical conversations, inquiry, social-emotional development, and positive school and community climates. School leaders themselves have a role to play here in the development of schools that are friendly to human rights. Department chairs, school principals, district leaders, superintendents, and even Board of Education members are encouraged and should consider attending HRE professional development with their educator teams. These leaders should also work in both supervisory and collaborative roles with educators and young people in the development of human rights curricula, programs, and positive school culture. This shoulder-to-shoulder collaborative approach will help students, teachers, and school leaders alike to share in the creation of stronger, more equitable systems of learning, and will establish human rights education as a vibrant, sustainable presence in classrooms and schools.

Fostering Youth Engagement and Voice

Young people have some of the greatest opportunities to become engaged, active global citizens through well crafted, robust human rights education opportunities. For educators, shaping and supporting a learning environment that is human rights friendly, namely an environment where human rights are learned, taught, practiced, respected, protected and promoted every day, is critical. Young people should feel that their learning is rights centered, and that both their peers and educators promote ​​equality, dignity, respect, non-discrimination, and engaged participation. Additionally, in fostering youth engagement, educators should ask themselves, “How can I create learning opportunities that are not solely teaching about human rights, but for and through human rights?” Learning about human rights issues and abuses is important, but when young people develop attitudes, skills, and abilities that promote respect for and defense of human rights, education is enlivened. Young people should be encouraged to learn through participatory methods such as role plays, discussion, debates, mock trials, games, simulations and community-based projects. Students should be encouraged to engage in open-minded examination of human rights concerns, critically reflect on their environment with opportunities to draw upon their own lived experiences and perspectives, and develop their own informed conclusions and choices. Human rights education can be transformative when it includes an action dimension, providing young people with opportunities to act on their beliefs and understanding while addressing challenges at local, state, regional, national, or international levels. Universal human rights represent a positive value system, a set of standards to which everyone is entitled. Students can make connections between these values and their own lived experiences. By studying historical examples and contemporary dilemmas they can develop a sensitivity to the call of humanity in even the most extreme circumstances. This approach recognizes that the individual can make a difference and provides opportunities to explore examples of individuals who have done so.

Infusing HRE into Local, State, and National Policies

In the years following the adoption of the College, Career, and Civic Life (C3) Framework for Social Studies State Standards, states have made deliberate efforts to redesign their social studies curricula and requirements to align to this new inquiry-driven model. The C3 Framework and subsequent state models have readily focused on civic preparedness as a guiding principle of social studies learning. At the same time, some states have begun to both redesign their social studies standards and adopt additional curricular mandates that specifically deepen the teaching of social studies through the lens of race, equity and social justice. Mandates such as the teaching of African American, Latinx, LGBTQIA+, Indigenous Peoples, Asian American, and Pacific Islander histories have grown in depth and scope in recent years. In some cases, state or federal courts have ordered more appropriate education for one or more underserved groups. State departments of education and school districts are increasingly becoming aware of the thirst for more learning regarding these marginalized narratives, and are being challenged by educators, community leaders, parents, and young people alike to integrate these important histories into existing or new social studies curricula. State and local policymakers can take bold action by supporting these initiatives, while at the same time infusing standards aligned with universal human rights into each respective curricular mandate area. When possible, employing a human rights framework can provide an effective means for integrating these important narratives and histories into the social studies core. State and local policymakers should also support university, district, or community-based projects, programs, or grant initiatives that target all forms of human rights education. By doing so, policymakers can play a decisive role in the fostering of innovative projects and transformative learning spaces for youth and adults alike.

Additionally, federal education officials and policymakers should make deliberate efforts to incorporate human rights principles and terminology into any new legislation focused on civic education, racial justice, sustainability studies, climate change education, or comparable issues. This will enable all stakeholders to begin to recognize that education in any of these areas has a clear and present human rights dimension. Infusing human rights or human rights education principles into federal education policy will not only benefit stakeholders in the United States, but can positively impact our standing on the world stage. By taking bold action to this end, policymakers can help to restore the reputation of the United States as a beacon of civic values and democracy, and to repair harm that has been done to our global reputation. Moreover, reaffirming our belief in supporting human rights and human rights education with fidelity demonstrates a commitment to our children. Policymakers can elevate our educational efficacy on the world stage, and help our children keep pace among their global youth counterparts who are increasingly more prepared for the challenges that lie ahead. Actions to this end can show that we as a nation are willing to go above and beyond to ensure that our children are taught and nurtured to be informed, participatory global citizens ready to take on an ever complex world.

Bibliography

Advocates for Human Rights (2016). Human rights in state social studies standards: An analysis. Report prepared for Human Rights Educators USA. Minnesota, MN: The Advocates for Human Rights, https://tinyurl.com/4x5vnf7a, PDF file.

Amnesty International (2021). Human Rights Friendly Schools. www.amnesty.org/en/human-rights-education/human-rights-friendly-schools/.

Conner, C.J. and C.H. Bohan. (2014). “The second world war’s impact on the progressive educational movement: assessing its role.” Middle and Secondary Education Faculty Publications 74. Retrieved from https://scholar works.gsu.edu/mse_facpub/74.

Hantzopoulos, Maria and Monisha Bajaj. Educating for Peace and Human Rights: An Introduction. London and New York: Bloomsbury Academic, 2021.

Knopff-Newman, M. (2005) “Fair and Balanced?: On Academic Freedom in Post 9/11 America.” Palestine-Israel Journal of Politics, Economics, and Culture 12 (2-3). 101-108.

National Council for the Social Studies (2013). College, Career, and Civic Life (C3) Framework for Social Studies State Standards. www.socialstudies.org/standards/c3.

National Council for the Social Studies (2014). “Human Rights Education: A Necessity for Effective Social and Civic Learning.” www.socialstudies.org/position-statements/human-rights-education-necessity-effective-social-and-civic-learning.

National Council for the Social Studies (2018). “National Standards for the Preparation of Social Studies Teachers.” www.socialstudies.org/standards/national-standards-preparation-social-studies-teachers

National Council for the Social Studies (2016). “A Vision of Powerful Teaching and Learning in the Social Studies.” www.socialstudies.org/social-education/80/03/vision-powerful-teaching-and-learning-social-studies.

Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights. “International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination.” OHCHR (1969), www.ohchr.org/en/professionalinterest/pages/cerd.aspx.

Sirota, S. “The inconsistent past and uncertain future of human rights education in the United States.” Prospects 47, 101–117 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11125-018-9417-1

United Nations. (1948). Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Retrieved from

www.un.org/en/udhrbook/pdf/udhr_booklet_en_web.pdf.

United Nations General Assembly (2011). U.N. Declaration on Human Rights Education and Training. www.ohchr.org/EN/Issues/Education/Training/Pages/UNDHREducationTraining.aspx

This position statement was drafted by Christopher Buckley, a social studies teacher in Brookfield Public Schools, CT: Glenn Mitoma, Assistant Professor of Human Rights and Education and Director of Dodd Human Rights Impact at the University of Connecticut; and Jacob Skrzypiec, a social studies teacher in Manchester Public Schools, CT.