Methodologies:
Workshop Strategies for Human
Rights Education
Because
human rights education is relatively
new, people with even a little
experience in the field are
frequently called upon to teach
others. The following recommendations
for an effective human rights
training could be applied to
many different settings: a seminar
for students, a training for
social justice advocates, an
in-service program for teachers,
a staff-development presentation
for an organization, a training-of-trainers
for future human rights educators.
Components for an Effective
Workshop
1) Build the workshop with a FUNNEL-LIKE
DESIGN, starting broadly in a manner which engages participants
personally and becoming increasingly focused on specific
human rights issues as you approach the end. The workshop
should move towards commitment and action with participants
addressing the following questions:
What do I want to accomplish in
my community?
What do I need now to move me towards
that goal?
2) Promote PARTICIPANT OWNERSHIP
of the workshop by:
a) seeking consensus in decisions
regarding the direction the workshop should move;
b) returning periodically to the agenda
to be sure you are on the right path for the participants.
3) Choose activities that are SENSITIVE
TO THE DIFFERENT TYPES OF PARTICIPANTS. Factors to be
considered include participants’ age, education level,
race, ethnicity, age, gender, income class, and geographic
location. Also important are the human rights concerns participants
and their community consider important.
4) Help participants to feel PART
OF SOMETHING LARGER than the workshop itself and to
appreciate that human rights education efforts are being
undertaken by people all over the nation and world.
5) Encourage participants to ARTICULATE
WHAT THEY HAVE LEARNED.
6) Provide participants with some kind
of FOLLOW-UP SUPPORT as they begin to introduce human
rights into their work.
1) Involve participants in a WARM-UP
ACTIVITY. Select the activity based on a particular
workshop goal: a) introducing each other, b) presenting
a core theme, c) sharpening understanding of concept of
human rights, d) creating rapport and climate for co-operation
and sharing, e) identifying how a human rights perspective
can be applied to participants work.
2) Involve participants in a variety
of ACTIVITIES during the course of the workshop.
Participants need actually to do activities and not just
talk about how to do them with others. Especially when training
educators, provide adequate time to discuss an activity
after its completion: its purpose, its value, its adaptability
to different groups and settings, and how it might have
been done differently.
Select activities that include different
learning styles (e.g., reading, discussion, problem solving,
acting, artistic expression, listening, viewing, and physical
movement).
3) Involve participants in an ACTIVITY
THAT DIRECTLY RELATES TO THEIR WORK. This might –
a) help participants recognize that
they probably are already engaged in some human rights
education
b) provide participants with an opportunity
to indicate what they have been doing in the area of human
rights
c) enable participants to identify
human rights issues of particular importance to them which
have not yet found a place in their work
d) help participants identify places
in their existing work where human rights activities and
themes might be integrated
e) help participants identify strategies
likely to be successful in overcoming obstacles to the
implementation of human rights education. Encourage them
to identify potential obstacles, allies, and networks
of support
I can't respect the teacher
who doesn't dream of a certain kind of society that he
would like to live in, and would like the new generation
to live in. [Educators should pursue] a dream of a society
less ugly than those we have today.
-Paulo Freire
