Human Rights and Citizenship: useful concepts and tools for novice teachers

Abstract

This paper advocates the usefulness to novice teachers of the frameworks afforded by human rights and citizenship. It suggests how students and teachers in the early years of their careers may derive both encouragement and legitimation from the concepts of human rights and citizenship when their teaching addresses controversial issues via context or process. It is based on the author's experience in three mixed comprehensives in the English Midlands with widely differing catchments.