Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Human Rights Literacies Research: (Re)think Approaches and Methodologies

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
Human Rights Literacies

Part of the book series: Interdisciplinary Studies in Human Rights ((CHREN,volume 2))

Abstract

In this chapter we aim to put forward some proposals for human rights literacies research which focus on re-envisaged approaches to teach and learn about, through and from human rights. We argue that human rights literacies research should ask questions regarding the shift in human rights advocacy from a top-down to a bottom-up approach, collapse the binaries on which human rights and human rights education are premised and disrupt assumptions that human rights and human rights education are inherently transformative and emancipatory. To achieve this, approaches and methodologies to research need to be rethought. Human rights literacies research needs approaches and methodologies focusing on subjectification (not only socialising people towards normalised patterns of marginalisation), the relational aspects of human rights (which include the relational aspects of human rights knowledge within unique place-space-time), disrupt binaries (which is often reinforced by the use of critical theories) and on closing the gap between the discursive and lived realities. While not negating the fact that critical theory was the historic core of human rights education (cf. Tibbitts, Human rights education. Theory, research, praxis, 2017) and still has a role to play in the developing of human rights literacies, we propose a shift to resistance theories (cf. Baxi, Human rights in a posthuman world. Critical essays, 2007), such as post-colonial and posthuman approaches and methodologies in order to (re)structure human rights, human rights education and human rights literacies from the bottom-up.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 84.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Hardcover Book
USD 109.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Notes

  1. 1.

    The Bill of Rights (1996) is Chapter 2 of the Constitution of South Africa (1996) (new democracy and post-apartheid) and guarantees human rights, equality and human dignity to all its citizens.

  2. 2.

    See Chapter Roux in Part I of this volume for a critical view on education models for human rights education.

  3. 3.

    Also see Fig. 1 in chapter Becker and Roux in part III of this volume for the processes of human rights literacies.

  4. 4.

    The Born Free generation include all students born after 1994 and the beginning of a free and democratic South Africa.

References

  • Ahmed, A. K. (2017). Disrupting power/entrenching sovereignty: The paradox of human rights education. Prospects: Quarterly Review of Comparative Education, 4(1–2), 3–16.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Al Daraweesh, F., & Snauwaert, D. T. (2015). Human rights education beyond universalism and relativism. A relational hermeneutic for global justice. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.

    Google Scholar 

  • Appiah, K. A. (2005). The ethics of identity. Princeton: Princeton University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Aubrecht, K. (2010). Rereading the Ontario review of the roots of youth violence report: The relevance of Fanon for a critical disability studies perspective. In G. J. Defa Dei & M. Simmons (Eds.), Fanon and education. Thinking through pedagogical possibilities (pp. 55–78). New York: Lang Publication.

    Google Scholar 

  • Azoulay, A. (2014). Palestine as symptom, Palestine as hope: Revising human rights discourse. Critical Inquiry, 40(4), 332–364. Retrieved January 20, 2018. https://doi.org/10.1086/676411

  • Bajaj, M. (2011). Human rights education: Ideology, location, and approaches. Human Rights Quarterly, 33, 481–580.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bajaj, M., & Bartlett, L. (2017). Critical transnational curriculum for immigrant and refugee students. Curriculum Inquiry, 47(1), 25–35.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Barad, K. (2003). Posthumanist performativity: Toward an understanding of how matter comes to matter. Signs, 28(3), 801–831 Gender and Science: New Issues.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Barad, K. (2007). Meeting the Universe Halfway. Quantum physics and the entanglement of matter and meaning. London: Duke University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Baxi, U. (2007). Human rights in a posthuman world. Critical essays. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Becker, A. (2015). The (im)possibilities for teaching-learning freedom. South African Journal of Higher Education, 26(5), 70–84.

    Google Scholar 

  • Becker, A. (2017a). Moral responsibility and speaking to the ‘dark side of human rights’. South African Journal of Higher Education, 31(6), 45–60.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Becker, A. (2017b). Rage, loss and other footpaths: Subjectification, decolonisation and transformation in higher education. Transformation in Higher Education, 2, 1–7.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Becker, A., De Wet, A., & Van Vollenhoven, W. (2015). Human rights literacy: Moving towards rights-based education and transformative action through understandings of dignity, equality and freedom. South African Journal of Education, 35(2), 1–12.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Becker, A., & Du Preez, P. (2014). Curriculum and ideology. In P. du Preez & C. Reddy (Eds.), Curriculum studies – Visions and imaginings (pp. 56–75). Cape Town: Pearson.

    Google Scholar 

  • Becker, A., & Du Preez, P. (2016). Ideological illusions, human rights and the right to education: The in(ex)clusion of the poor in post-apartheid education. Journal of Education, 64, 55–76.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bednarczyk, B. (2017). Human rights education in the context of global education. In J. Zajda & S. Ozdowski (Eds.), Globalisation, human rights education and reforms (pp. 87–109). Dordrecht: Springer.

    Google Scholar 

  • Biesta, G. (2009). Good education in an age of measurement: On the need to reconnect with the question of purpose of education. Educational Assessment, Evaluation and Accountability, 21, 33–46.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cardenas, S. (2005). Constructing rights? Human rights education and the state. International Political Science Review, 26(4), 363–379.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cohen, L., Manion, L., & Morrison, K. (2018). Research methods in education. London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Delanty, G. (2011). Varieties of critique in sociology theory and their methodological implications for social research. Irish Journal of Sociology, 19(1), 68–92.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Deleuze, G., & Guattari, F. (1987). A thousand plateaus. Capitalism and schizophrenia (B. Massumi, Trans.). Minneapolis: The University of Minnesota Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dolan, P., Gundara, J., & King, L. (2011). The role of research for the promotion of rights and values in education: A commemorative paper – 60 years into human rights education. Contemporary issues in human rights education. Paris: UNESCO.

    Google Scholar 

  • Du Preez, P., & Becker, A. (2016). Ontologies and possibilities of human rights: Exploring dissensus to facilitate reconciliation in post-conflict education contexts. Perspectives in Education, 34(3), 1–14.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Du Preez, P., Simmonds, S., & Chetty, D. (2017). Critical transformation in higher education: Ethical reflections on #MustFall movements and concomitant gender-based violence. South African Journal of Higher Education, 31(6), 96–112.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fanon, F. (2017). The wretched of the earth. Cape Town: Kwela Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Flowers, N. (2015). The global movement of human rights education. Radical Teacher, 103, 5–17.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Freire, P. (1998). Pedagogy of freedom. Ethics. Democracy and civic courage. Oxford: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers (Inc).

    Google Scholar 

  • Freire, P. (2017). Pedagogy of the oppressed. New York: Bloomsbury Academic.

    Google Scholar 

  • Galloway, S. (2012). Reconsidering emancipatory education: Staging a conversation between Paulo Freire and Jacques Ranciére. Educational Theory, 62(2), 163–184.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jackson, A. Y., & Mazzei, L. A. (2012). Thinking with theory in qualitative research. Viewing data across multiple perspectives. London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Jansen, D. J. (2009). Knowledge in the blood. Stanford: Stanford University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Kapur, R. (2006). Human rights in the 21st century: Take a walk on the dark side. Sydney Law Review, 28, 665–687.

    Google Scholar 

  • Keet, A. (2012). Discourse, betrayal and critique. The renewal of human rights education. In C. Roux (Ed.), Safe spaces: Human rights education in diverse contexts (pp. 7–28). Rotterdam: Sense Publications.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Keet, A. (2015). It is time: Critical human rights education in an age of counter-hegemonic distrust. Education as Change, 19(3), 46–64.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Keet, A. (2018). Crisis and critique: Critical theory and the renewal of citizenship, democracy and human rights. In M. Zembylas & A. Keet (Eds.), Critical human rights, citizenship and democratic education (pp. 17–35). London: Bloomsbury.

    Google Scholar 

  • Keet, A., Nel, W., & Sattarzadeh, S. D. (2017). Retreating rights: Human rights, pre-theoretical praxes and student activism in South African universities. South African Journal of Higher Education, 31(6), 79–95.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kirchschlaeger, P. G. (2012). Future directions of human rights education. Education and Society, 30(1), 5–17.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mazzei, L. A. (2014). Beyond an easy sense: A diffractive analysis. Qualitative Inquiry, 20(6), 742–746.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Meyer, D. T. (2016). Recovering the human in human rights. Law, Culture and the Humanities, 12(3), 74–84.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mihr, A. (2015). Why holocaust education is not always human rights education. Journal of Human Rights, 14(4), 525–544.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mokani, A., & Higgs, L. G. (2016). The nature of peace education in African indigenous knowledges systems. African Journal of Indigenous Knowledge Systems, 15(3), 191–202.

    Google Scholar 

  • Monaghan, C., Spreen, C. A., & Hillary, A. (2017). A truly transformative HRE: Facing our current challenges. International Journal of Human Rights Education, 1(1), 1–28.

    Google Scholar 

  • Moyn, S. (2014). Human rights and the uses of history. London: Verso.

    Google Scholar 

  • Murris, K. (2017). Reading two rhizomatic pedagogies diffractively through one another: A Reggio inspired philosophy with children for the post-developmental child. Pedagogy, Culture & Society, 25(4), 531–550. Retrieved April 05, 2018. https://doi.org/10.1080/14681366.2017.1286681

  • Ngubane, Z., & Naidoo, P. (2016). Education: A human right or a privilege? Exploring the gap between rhetoric and reality. African Journal of Rhetoric, 8, 232–257.

    Google Scholar 

  • O’Malley, M. P., & Nelson, S. W. (2013). The public pedagogy of student activism in Chili: What have we learned from the Penguins’ Revolution? Journal of Curriculum Theorising, 29(2), 41–56.

    Google Scholar 

  • Osler, A. (2015). Human rights education, postcolonial scholarship, and action for social justice. Theory & Research in Social Education, 43(2), 244–274.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Outerbridge, D. (2010). The fact of blackness: A critical review of Bermuda’s colonial education system. In G. J. Defa Dee & M. Simmons (Eds.), Fanon and education. Thinking through pedagogical possibilities (pp. 105–122). New York: Lang Publication.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pitsoe, V. J., & Letseka, M. M. (2018). An Afrocentric paradigm in education and research. In M. M. Sefotho (Ed.), Philosophy in education and research. African perspectives (pp. 37–49). Pretoria: Van Schaik Publishers.

    Google Scholar 

  • Postma, D. (2016). The ethics of becoming in a pedagogy for social justice. A posthumanist perspective. South African Journal of Higher Education, 30(3), 310–328.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ranciére, J. (2012). The politics of aesthetics. London: Continuum International Publishing Group.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Ranciére, J. (2015). Dissensus. On politics and aesthetics. London: Bloomsbury Publishing.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Roux, C. (Ed.). (2012). Safe spaces: Human rights education in diverse contexts. Rotterdam: Sense Publishers.

    Google Scholar 

  • Roux, C. (2017). Human rights literacies and students’ paradoxical understandings of tolerance and respect. South African Journal of Higher Education, 31(6), 61–78.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Roux, C., & Becker, A. (2016). Humanising higher education in South Africa through dialogue as praxis. Educational Research for Social Change, 5(1), 131–143.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Roux, C., & Becker, A. (2017). On critique, dissensus and human rights literacies. South African Journal of Higher Education, 31(6), 1–8.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Salinas, D., & Fraser, P. (2012). Educational opportunity and contentious politics. The 2011 Chilean student movement. Berkley Review of Education, 31(1), 17–47.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sen, A. (1999). Development as freedom. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Simmonds, S., & Du Preez, P. (2017). Discourses shaping human rights education research in South Africa: Future considerations. South African Journal of Higher Education, 31(1), 9–24.

    Google Scholar 

  • Simmons, M. (2010). Concerning modernity, the Caribbean Diaspora, and embodies alienation: Dialoguing with Fanon to approach an anticolonial politic. In G. J. Defa Dei & M. Simmons (Eds.), Fanon and education. Thinking through pedagogical possibilities (pp. 171–190). New York: Lang Publication.

    Google Scholar 

  • Simons, M., & Masschelein, J. (2010). Governmental, political and pedagogic subjectification: Foucault with Ranciére. Educational Philosophy and Theory, 42(5–6), 588–605.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sirota, S. (2017). The inconsistent past and uncertain future of human rights education in the United States. Prospects. Quarterly Review of Comparative Education, 47(1–2), 101–117.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Smith, H. A., & Haslett, S. J. (2017). Children’s rights in education research: From aims to outcomes. Cambridge Journal of Education, 47(3), 413–438.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • South African Constitution. (1996). The Constitution of the Republic in South Africa. Cape Town: Government Printers.

    Google Scholar 

  • Suárez, D. (2007). Education professionals and the construction of human rights education. Comparative Education Review, 51(1), 48–70.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Tapliyal, N., Vally, S., & Spreen, C. A. (2013). “Until We Get Up Again to Fight”: Education rights and participation in South Africa. Comparative Educational Review, 57(2), 212–213.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Tarc, P. (2013). What larger conditions and logics are in play? Democracy and Education, 21(1), 1–4.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tascón, S., & Ife, J. (2008). Human rights and critical whiteness: Whose humanity? The International Journal of Human Rights, 12(3), 307–327.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Tibbitts, F. (1999). “Welcome to the Global Human Rights Education List.” Human Rights Education Association (HREA). Retrieved November 20, 2017, from http://www.hrea.org/lists/hr-education/markup/msg00000.html

  • Tibbitts, F. (2002). Emerging models for human rights education. Issues of Democracy, 7(1), 6–13.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tibbitts, F. (2017). Evolution of human rights education models. In M. Bajaj (Ed.), Human rights education. Theory, research, praxis (pp. 69–95). Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Tibbitts, F., & Ferneskes, W. R. (2011). Human rights education. In S. Totten & J. E. Pederson (Eds.), Teaching and studying social issues: Major programs and approaches (pp. 87–117). Charlotte, NC: Information Age Publishing.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tibbitts, F., & Katz, S. R. (2017). Dilemmas and hopes for human rights education: Curriculum and learning in international contexts. Prospects. Prospects: Quarterly Review of Comparative Education, 47(1–2), 31–40.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Tibbitts, F., & Keet, A. (2017). Curriculum reform in transitional justice environments: The South African human rights commission, human rights education and the schooling sector. In J. Zajda & S. Ozdowski (Eds.), Globalisation, human rights education and reforms (pp. 87–109). Dordrecht: Springer.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Tibbitts, F., & Kirchschlaeger, P. G. (2010). Perspectives of research on human rights education. Journal of Human Rights Education, 2(1), 1–31.

    Google Scholar 

  • United Nations. (1948). Universal Declaration of Human Rights (The Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights). Retrieved March 18, 2018, from http://www.ohchr.org/EN/Issues/Education/Training/Pages/Decade.aspx; United Nations Commission on Human Rights on a World Program for Human Rights Education (2004/71).

  • Villegas, F. J. (2010). Strategic in/visibility and undocumented migrants. In G. J. Defa Dei & M. Simmons (Eds.), Fanon and education. Thinking through pedagogical possibilities (pp. 55–78). New York: Lang Publication.

    Google Scholar 

  • Waghid, Y., & Davids, N. (2013). Citizenship, education and violence. On disrupted potentialities and becoming. Rotterdam: Sense Publications.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Yeminici, A. (2016). Peace education: Training for an evolved consciousness of non-violence. All Azimuth, 5(1), 5–25.

    Google Scholar 

  • Zajda, J., & Ozdowski, S. (2017). Globalisation and human rights education: Emerging issues. In J. Zajda & S. Ozdowski (Eds.), Globalisation, human rights education and reforms (pp. 87–109). Dordrecht: Springer.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Zembylas, M. (2017a). Re-contextualising human rights education: Some decolonial strategies and pedagogical/curricular possibilities. Pedagogy, Culture and Society, 25(4), 1–13.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Zembylas, M. (2017b). Re-contextualising human rights education: Some decolonial strategies and pedagogical/curricular possibilities. Pedagogy, Culture & Society, 25(4), 487–499. Retrieved April 06, 2018. https://doi.org/10.1080/14681366.2017.1281834

  • Zembylas, M., & Bozalek, V. (2014). A critical engagement with the social and political consequences of human rights: The contribution of the affective turn and posthumanism. Acta Academica, 46(4), 29–47.

    Google Scholar 

  • Zembylas, M., Charalambous, P., Charalambous, C., & Lestos, S. (2016). Toward a critical hermeneutical approach of human rights education: Universal ideals, contextual realities and teachers’ difficulties. Journal of Curriculum Studies, 49(4), 497–517.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Žižek, S. (2005). Against human rights. New Left Review, 34, 115–131.

    Google Scholar 

  • Žižek, S. (2009). First as tragedy, then as farce. London: Verso.

    Google Scholar 

  • Žižek, S. (2012). The lesson of Ranciére. Afterword in Ranciére: The politics of aesthetics. London: Continuum International Publishing Group.

    Google Scholar 

  • Žižek, S. (2014). Trouble in Paradise. From the end of history to the end of capitalism. London: Penguin.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Stellenbosch University, Stellenbosch, South Africa

    Anne Becker & Cornelia Roux

Authors
  1. Anne Becker
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Cornelia Roux
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Anne Becker .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Curriculum Studies, Stellenbosch University, Stellenbosch, South Africa

    Cornelia Roux  & Anne Becker  & 

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2019 Springer Nature Switzerland AG

About this chapter

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this chapter

Becker, A., Roux, C. (2019). Human Rights Literacies Research: (Re)think Approaches and Methodologies. In: Roux, C., Becker, A. (eds) Human Rights Literacies. Interdisciplinary Studies in Human Rights, vol 2. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-99567-0_4

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-99567-0_4

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-99566-3

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-99567-0

  • eBook Packages: Law and CriminologyLaw and Criminology (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation