Teachers’ pedagogical perspectives and teaching practices on human rights in Cyprus: an empirical exploration and implications for human rights education

ABSTRACT

This paper describes a qualitative study that explored the understandings of human rights, pedagogical perspectives and practices in human rights teaching of three Greek-Cypriot elementary teachers. The study revealed some significant challenges in human rights teaching that seemed to be common for all three participating teachers. First, all of the teachers experienced pedagogical difficulties in defining and talking about human rights. A second challenge was that these difficulties seemed to influence both their pedagogical perspectives about the teaching of human rights and their teaching practices. And the third challenge was that the difficulties that teachers faced in preparing their lessons were also reflected in their teaching practices in four ways: the dominance of a “declarational” approach; decontextualization; the trivialization of human rights; and the retreat to familiar discourses and activities. The paper concludes by discussing the implications for teachers, teacher educators, and theory in human rights education.

KEYWORDS:

• Human rights
• human rights education
• pedagogical perspectives
• teaching practices
• Cyprus

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. World culture theorists (e.g. Meyer, Ramirez, and their colleagues) argue that cultural globalization has produced two dramatic worldwide changes that fuel the movement for HRE, pushing human rights concepts to become more prevalent in national curricula: first, the human rights movement itself and the degree to which this shifts perspectives from the individual as a citizen and a member of the nation to the person as a human member of world society; and second, the enormous expansion of mass schooling and the empowerment of the individual in the modern world (e.g. see Suarez & Ramirez, 2007).

2. Turkey invaded in Cyprus on 20 July 1974, in response to a coup d’ etat by Greek military Junta five days earlier. The country is since then divided, forcing 200,000 Greek Cypriots (one third of the total population) to be displaced from their homeland and move to the south; also, 45,000 Turkish Cypriots (one fourth of the total population) were forced to move to the north.

3. The new curriculum has been the result of an ongoing educational reform since 2008, after a governmental decision to reform curriculum programs and the educational system in general. The philosophical basis of the reform is described in a manifesto for a “democratic and humanistic education” in Cyprus (Educational Reform Committee, 2004).

4. Compasito is a manual on HRE for children published by the Council of Europe in 2008. It can be found online at http://www.eycb.coe.int/compasito/.

5. Pseudonyms are used for the three teacher participants as well as all other names that appear in the paper.

6. We are indebted to one of the anonymous reviewers for suggesting this clarification.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Michalinos Zembylas

Michalinos Zembylas is Associate Professor of Educational Theory and Curriculum Studies at the Open University of Cyprus. He is also Visiting Professor and Research Fellow at the Institute for Reconciliation and Social Justice, University of the Free State, South Africa. He has written extensively on emotion and affect in relation to social justice pedagogies, intercultural and peace education, HRE, and citizenship education. His recent books include Emotion and Traumatic Conflict: Re-claiming Healing in Education (Oxford, 2015), Methodological advances in research on emotion and education (with P. Schutz; Springer, 2016), and Peace Education in a Conflict-Troubled Society (with C. Charalambous and P. Charalambous; Cambridge, 2016).

Constadina Charalambous

Constadina Charalambous is an Assistant Professor of Language Education & Literacy at the European University of Cyprus. Her research interests include interactional sociolinguistics, issues of diaspora & mutilingualism, peace education, and language education in contexts of conflict. She has been also involved in teacher-training programs.

Panayiota Charalambous

Panayiota Charalambous is a Collaborating Tutor at the Open University and a Visiting Research Fellow at King’s College London. Her research centers around the study of linguistic and cultural practices in education in divided societies. She has conducted research in literature and literacy practices, foreign language learning and peace education and has published her work in various peer-reviewed journals. In the past, she has worked as a researcher in various Cypriot and European projects and as a teacher training on related topics.