Human Rights in Higher Education: Incorporating practical experience
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The November New Tactics on-line dialogue features “Human Rights in Higher Education: Incorporating practical experience”. This dialogue specifically features ideas, experiences and methods from human rights higher education programs for incorporating practical experience into human rights curriculums to better prepare human rights advocates for doing “on the ground” and “in the trenches” human rights work.

The featured resource practitioners (biographical information) include:

  • Abigail Booth, Programme Manager, Head of Nairobi Office, Raoul Wallenberg Institute, Kenya
  • Alice Nderitu, Fahamu (Kenya) in coordination with the University of Pretoria, South Africa
  • Jadwiga Maczynska, Project Manager, Jagiellonian University Human Rights Centre, Krakow, Poland
  • Mingzhen Ge, Shandong University, Human Rights Center, Law School, China
  • Diane Sisely, Director, Australian Centre for Human Rights Education at RMIT University
  • Barbara Frey, Director, Human Rights Program, University of Minnesota, USA
  • Robin Kirk, Director, Duke University Human Rights Center, North Carolina, USA
  • Nicole Palasz, Center for International Education, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
  • Amy Weismann, Deputy Director, University of Iowa Center for Human Rights
  • Susan Atwood, Instructor, University of Minnesota’s Leadership : Leadership for Global Citizenship.
Be sure to take a look at our new collection of articles, guides, and classroom modules for your curriculum: New Tactics Resources for Educators!

Main themes of this dialogue:

  • Stories of Practice: examples of how practical experience is being incorporated in human rights education programs
  • Challenges: ethical issues with incorporating practical experience in human rights education programs
  • Curriculum Resources: creating and simulating practical experience

Please help us to keep this dialogue organized by 'replying' to these main themes, or 'replying' to other comments, instead of creating NEW comments. Thanks!

npearson's picture

Teaching human rights across disciplines

I'm very interested to learn more about your experience regarding the students in your three courses that have "different background and have different needs in human rights education." I may have too many assumptions about the law school course - I'm thinking this content might be more focused on international laws, conventions (e.g., the declaration of human rights, the Geneva Conventions, etc.). Am I seeing this correctly? I'm very curious to know then what is the difference in your course content with those students coming from different disciplines? What academic fields of study are  they coming from and what is there expectation for a  human rights course?

I share you concern about relevant and practical human rights practical application materials being available in languages that are in one's first language to make it possible to truly relate to the issues, content and feel deeply the discussions and debates that surround human rights issues. This is most powerful when conducted in one's first language.

Nancy Pearson, New Tactics in Human Rights Program Manager