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!

JadwigaMaczynska's picture

Arguing your case

Dear Amy and Abigail,

from my perspective I agree that academia tend to be more reluctant in adopting new approaches and involving practical aspects in their teaching. This concern was shared by many collegues of mine and some of them even emphasised that it is the more long established and otherwise renowed institutions, which might be more suspicious of 'novelties'.

Otherwise I think that well-aimed marketing can sell a lot of ideas and often it is the urge to be competitive, which facilitates implementing a new programme. Most instututions would not like to be left behind and perceived as less advanced then the others and I think this 'let's be innovative here' note often proves succesful while arguing your case with the superiors. The Legal Clinics idea, which has been in operation in Poland since 1997 only, started with one 'experimental' programme  and is now present at almost all major universities, both public and private, which teach law. Somehow even if you do not like the game, once others start it, you feel compelled to join, even if only for ambition reasons. 

 Jadwiga Maczynska, Project Manager, Jagiellonian University Human Rights Centre, Krakow, Poland

Jadwiga Maczynska, Project Manager, Jagiellonian University Human Rights Centre, Krakow, Poland