An Examination of the Transformative Effect of Learning by Teaching Method in Human Rights Education

Abstract

Human rights education constitutes a significant component within the global human rights regime. In the realm of human rights education, transformative approaches have gained prominence, emphasizing the necessity of educational practices beyond traditional classroom settings. This study aims to examine the impact of participatory methodologies employed in human rights education on enhancing individuals’ learning and awareness regarding human rights issues. Specifically, we employ the pedagogical technique of “learning by teaching”, grounded in the principle that teaching is an effective means of learning. Through our research, we ascertain that the implementation of the learning by teaching approach effectively heightens the awareness and knowledge of all participants concerning human rights matters. Moreover, our study reveals that individuals who engaged in instructing their peers exhibited a more comprehensive and nuanced understanding of subjects such as women’s rights, slavery, and refugees’ human rights when compared to those who solely attended lectures. The majority of these peer tutors also experienced transformative learning although transformative learning remained limited among the peer learner group. Consequently, our findings not only contribute to the existing body of literature on pedagogy in the field of International Relations but also stimulate further discussions pertaining to human rights education.

Keywords:

• Learning
• teaching
• learning by teaching
• peer education
• human rights education
• participatory methods

Disclosure statement

The authors report there are no competing interests to declare

Ethics approval

Ethics approval was obtained for this research from Yaşar University Ethics Committee.

Data availability statement

Data will be available from the authors upon request

Notes

1 For transformative learning to occur, it is not necessary that a person experience all the stages or experience them in an order. (Kitchenham 2008,113).

2 Ethics approval was obtained for this research from Yaşar University Ethics Committee on 6.11.2020. Decision number: 4.

3 Unpaid Care Work interactive tool available at this link: https://interactive.unwomen.org/multimedia/explainer/unpaidcare/en/index.html. Retrieved on 15 December 2023.

4 My Life as a Refugee interactive tool available at this link: https://unric.org/en/my-life-as-a-refugee/. Retrieved on 15 December 2023.

5 Slavery Footprint interactive tool available at this link: https://slaveryfootprint.org/. Retrieved on 15 December 2023. Information on the tool is taken from Philantrophy News Digest website available at https://philanthropynewsdigest.org/features/on-the-web/slavery-footprint#:∼:text=Background%3A%20Launched%20on%20September%2022,brainchild%20of%20Justin%20Dillon%2C%20a. Retrieved on 15 December 2023.

6 Intercoder reliability was tested using Krippendorff’s alpha for these codes. The range was between 0,79-1,00.

Additional information

Funding

This research was funded by Raoul Wallenberg Institute.

Notes on contributors

Defne Günay

Defne Günay is an Associate Professor in International Relations at Yaşar University. She received her PhD in Politics from the University of Sheffield. Her research interests are EU foreign policy, communication and politics of climate change, EU-Turkey relations.

Zahide Melis Özün Çöllüoğlu

Zahide Melis Özün Çöllüoğlu is a research assistant in the Department of International Relations at Yaşar University. Her research interests are security studies, conflict resolution, outer space politics, space security and theories of international relations.