Education for children's rights in Ireland before, during and after the pandemic

Abstract

This paper analyses the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the ‘education rights’ of children in the Irish context, with a particular focus on children's/human rights education (C/HRE). C/HRE can support children and young people to understand and explore the issues which limit people's lives and consider actions to uphold their own rights and the rights of others. The breadth and depth of the provision of HRE can be considered across ‘education about rights’ (including knowledge and understanding of human rights values, norms and frameworks), ‘education through rights’ (rights respecting educational approaches) and ‘education for rights’ (empowerment to realising and upholding rights) (UN 2011). The paper situates this framework against three additional dimensions. Firstly, it considers the children's rights issues within a historical national context. Secondly, it explores the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the education rights of children in Ireland. Finally, with a future orientation, the paper considers how C/HRE can strengthen education, meeting the challenges of the Covid-19 pandemic, the legacies of longstanding children's rights issues, and future human rights challenges.

Keywords:

• Children's rights
• human rights education
• children's rights education
• pandemic
• futures

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Benjamin Mallon

Dr Benjamin Mallon is Assistant Professor in Geography and Citizenship Education in the School of STEM Education, Innovation & Global Studies in the Institute of Education, Dublin City University. He researches and teaches in the areas of citizenship education and geography education, with a particular focus on pedagogical approaches which address conflict, challenge violence and support the development of peaceful societies

Gabriela Martinez-Sainz

Gabriela Martinez Sainz is an Ad Astra Fellow and Assistant Professor in Education at University College Dublin researching and teaching on children’s rights, global citizenship and education for sustainable development. Her overarching research interest is understanding how key elements essential for global, plural and sustainable societies – such as sustainability, human rights and citizenship – are taught and learnt.