Human Rights Education in the Constructivist Paradigm

Introduction

            Human Rights Education is the need of the hour. The major objective behind this is the moldings of personality among the learners by sensitize them the various issues related to human rights violations. Human Rights Education is meant to be given to school and college students so that they become sensitive and aware of the human rights violations. All of us have an equal right to think, to express ourselves, to earn a livelihood in any law abiding manner to live in a self respecting manner and no individual is entitled to snatch these rights from anyone else. The Protection of Human Rights Act 1993 rightly emphasized the need for human rights literacy among various sections of the society and promotes awareness of the safe guards available for the protection of these rights.

            Human Rights Education is neither confined to some topics to be discussed in the curriculum nor to institutional teaching-learning programme. Even outside the classroom Human Rights Education has wider scope. A theoretical level of learning human rights does not facilitate Human Rights Education in the true sense. The methodology adopted in the present School education system in Kerala is adequate enough to impart Human Rights Education effectively

Social Constructivism and Human Rights Education

Social Constructivism views knowledge as not a static entity rather it is dynamic and undergoes changes. According to Social Constructivism it is impossible to separate learning from its social context. Hence social issues and issues related to human rights violation can be brought to classroom and discuss along with the content. Moreover meaningful; learning takes place in collaboration. For this, Group Discussions, Debate, Symposium and other group activities can be organized for effective Human Rights Education. The content of the curriculum should be connected to the social/ regional issues. This would help the learners to create awareness about human rights violations among themselves.

Issue based curriculum

            Within the purview of Social Constructivism Kerala state school curriculum has incorporated Issue based curriculum in the school education. For this, the eight issue domains were identified for classroom discussions. They are:

·         Human Rights Management

·         Lack of Universal Cohesive Vision

·         Lack of eco-friendly urbanization

·         Issues related to agriculture

·         Lack of Cultural Consciousness

·         The issues of the Marginalised

·         Issues related to health and public health

·         Lack of scientific land water management

Discussions on these issue domains and sub issues facilitate the best medium for imparting Human Rights Education. Each issue domain comprises of a number of sub issues which are closely related to Kerala context. While discussing these issues in the classroom learners engage in different activities which are both creative and productive. The learners can go deep into the sub issues and find out the causes and suggest suitable remedial measures. These in-depth examinations enable the learners to widen their social perspective and intellectual level and they would become socially committed citizens.

We can trace the roots of many social problems that we encounter in these issue domains. Each of these general issues has many locally specific variants. We can help the learners develop a method for approaching each of these issues. The students have to deal with issues related to human rights violations and formulate their ideas, opinions and attitudes about them. The Issue based curriculum should ignite thoughts and activities among learners. Moreover they should be able to intervene in the thoughts, activities and perspectives of the people around him. Learning of this kind becomes linking of experiences with a social aim.

Teacher Local Text (TLT)

            Teacher Local Text is the secondary learning, material prepares by the teacher along with the students for the effective discussion of the issues in the classroom. The Teacher Local Text comprises of newspaper reports, articles published in the periodicals, research reports, photographs, audio and video materials that are closely linked with the issues. These secondary materials enable the learners to make awareness about different issues and human rights violation. These materials have validity since they are based on genuine incidents. These materials are capable enough to sensitize the students about human rights violations. Teacher Local Text has social base and consists of familiar incidents to the learners. These materials can evoke the mind of the learners and enable them to protest against human rights violations.

            Teacher Local Text is the planning document of a teacher who is preparing to conduct learning activities in the class. This document helps the teacher to present the learning issues and to lead the learning activities in the classroom. The major advantages of TLT are:

·         It helps the learner to make observations about the life around and intervene meaningfully in his environment.

·         It links learning with the social context.

·         It encourages observations/investigations and uses the findings in learning.

Techniques of teaching

            Social Constructivism endorses any technique of teaching that facilitates collaborative learning. Hence those techniques of teaching that promotes collaborative effort of learners get prominence in Social Constructivism. The techniques like Group Discussion, Debate, Role play, Dramatization, Field visit, case study etc. can be used for imparting Human Rights Education in the constructivist paradigm. The above mentioned techniques are being widely used in the classrooms and those are adequate techniques for imparting Human Rights Education. The chief feature of the techniques is that they are directly connected with social contexts. The collaborative effort of the learners in the classroom activities enable the learners to interact with each others in the social life. It helps the learners to respect others and acknowledge the dignity and individuality of the fellow learners. These activities can nourish the value of tolerance among the learners.

Conclusion

            Human Rights Education is intended to sensitize the learners about human rights violations in their social scenario and enable them to protest against such violations. Any method/ technique can be adopted on the classroom to provide Human Rights Education but only thing keep in mind is that it should evoke social awareness and commitment among the learners. In this sense Constructivist paradigm is adequate enough for imparting Human Rights Education.