Human rights education resources for teachers - rightsED
Education principles and learning outcomes
The Australian Human Rights Commission believes that the appropriate approach to human rights education in the classroom is one that is engaging, relevant and discursive.
If human rights are about human experiences, human rights education resources should draw students into real-life situations relevant to their own experiences. They should be:
- Contextual: human rights are discussed in social contexts relevant to the learners.
- Skills-oriented: human rights education develops skills, and is linked with literacy, numeracy and decision making skills.
- Cross-curricular: human rights, as human experience, are relevant to all aspects of learning.
- Discursive: learning is based on discussion, exchanging ideas and values, understanding human communication.
- Inclusive: allow all students, regardless of their learning styles/abilities, to participate.
Learning outcomes
The Commission's human rights education resources for teachers – rightsED - are designed to assist student in developing:
- an understanding of what human rights are and an understanding of the origins of modern human rights
- an appreciation of the meaning and significance of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and other human rights instruments
- an understanding of how human rights instruments are applied in Australian law and society
- an understanding of the role of the Australian Human Rights Commission and its complaints process
- an ability to apply the concepts of human rights to their daily lives
- research and fact-sourcing, and an ability to think creatively and to communicate information to others
- decision making skills, within an individual, group and class context
- literacy skills, including critical literacy, code breaking and comprehension skills, through reading and responding to a variety of texts, both orally and through writing
- skills in describing, reflecting, interpreting, analysing, evaluating and higher order thinking.
