Menneskerettsopplæring som faglig innhold i fagområdet nærmiljø og samfunn : En eksplorerende studie om samfunnsfagdidaktiske utfordringer som kan oppstå når menneskerettsopplæring skal tilpasses barnehager.

Abstract

The purpose of this social studies didactic project is to contribute with insight into human rights education in a social studies context and with tools for didactic discussions about working with human rights education. I do this by exploring which social studies didactic challenges can lie in the obligation of human rights education for early childhood education and care.

The Framework Plan for kindergarten’s content and tasks (Ministry of Education and Research, 2017, s. 57) gives human rights education a prominent position in the local community and society learning area, known as social studies in early childhood education and care (ECEC). Aligning with ECEC’s societal mandate, the ECEC is a significant promulgator of values where ECEC teachers aim to transfer attitudes and values to children, a group that, according to Eidhammer and Leer-Salvesen (2023, s. 125), is very susceptible to influences and uncritical. At the same time, the ECEC shall also ensure that children can begin to develop critical thinking by making them capable of asking questions, seeking knowledge and showing resistance on behalf of themselves and others (Ministry of Education and Research, 2017). This double ambition creates a tension between legitimatising current attitudes, societal relations and institutions, as well as developing children’s ability to think critically. The local community and society learning area shall contribute to achieving the double ambition, which gives the topic of human rights a somewhat different objective than what the United Nations (UN) (2011) aims to achieve with human rights education. While the learning area has normative and objective ambitions, the UN has more normative ambitions. Therefore, it is essential to contribute with insight into human rights education in a social studies context.

Diversity is an ethical imperative for human rights (cf. UNESCO, 2001, arts. 4 and 5). Therefore, this explorative study started with a literature review of previous social studies didactic research on diversity in ECEC. Research article 1 shows several problems which have implications for the realisation of human rights education, particularly regarding respect for diversity and children’s rights. Therefore, it was necessary to explore human rights education further. In research article 2, I analyse learning materials for non- and intergovernmental organisations. The analysis shows that the learning materials present an uncritical notion of human rights, position children in particular roles, and present a dichotomous image of either rights-respecting or non-respecting countries, which creates challenges for working with human rights education in the context of social studies. In research article 3, I analyse ECEC teachers’ self-developed resources used when observing UN Day. The analysis shows that ECEC teacher pay little attention to human rights content and prioritise a focus on diversity or fundraising, which creates further challenges for working with human rights education in the context of social studies. I demonstrate three overarching challenges with the obligation to work with human rights education. These are challenges with the educational content, engaging children in human rights-related actions, and thematising human rights and diversity in human rights education.

This dissertation is an essential contribution to the didactic field of social studies and human rights education. According to Børhaug and Bøe (2022), there is little knowledge about ECEC teachers’ subject didactic choices. This might be linked to the fact that research about the local community and society learning area is still being established (Hidle & Krogstad, 2019). Although several countries included human rights education in their framework plans, there is little research on this education for children of kindergarten age (Hidle, 2021a; Phillips, 2016b; Quennerstedt, 2019, 2022a). Norwegian (Kipperberg, 2018), Irish (Long, 2022) and Scottish (Cassidy et al., 2014) ECEC teacher-students report that they feel they are not prepared for working with human rights education. These studies indicate a need to strengthen ECEC teachers’ knowledge base to make professional judgments for human rights education.

Working with human rights education can be a complex and demanding task. First, scholars disagree with the UN’s formal definition of human rights education (Coysh, 2014; Keet, 2015). Secondly, there are many different approaches to human rights education (Bajaj, 2011; Louviot et al., 2019; Tibbitts, 2017; Vesterdal, 2021). Thirdly, it is possible to approach this education several professional angles and, fourthly, from different theoretical traditions. The influence dimension with the UN and non- and intergovernmental organisations is a fifth dimension. With little knowledge available, it can be challenging to conduct professional judgment of a demanding and complex task (Børhaug & Bøe, 2022). This underscores the need for contributing with research about that aims to adapt human rights education to different educational levels.

This study has an exploratory and sequential design with one preliminary stage and two sequences. The empirical data material consists of previous research, ruling documents, and human rights education resources, which I analysed with different variations of text analysis. I discuss the study’s findings considering Walter Gagel’s social studies didactic theory, the social studies didactic agreement Beutelsbach Consensus and the concept of societal law from below. These theoretical perspectives offer an opportunity to discuss the overarching research problem considering the normative and objective ambitions for human rights education in the context of social studies at the ECEC level.