Women’s human rights education trainers in Turkey: situated empowerment for social change

Abstract

This article presents evidence of the links between human rights education and social change by analyzing the long-term effects on 88 trainers engaged in a non-formal adult training program sponsored by a women’s human rights group in Turkey, Women for Women’s Human Rights – New Ways. In this article, I show the transformative impacts of carrying out human rights education on the trainers themselves: in their identity; knowledge, skills, and attitudes; and behaviors in their family and in the workplace. This article extends the treatment of an emerging question within social change theory – that of the long-term influence on activists brought about by their very engagement in these activities. At the same time, because the activists are trainers associated with a human rights education program that infuses critical pedagogy with a feminist perspective, this qualitative case study provides the opportunity to explore ‘situated empowerment’ on trainers in both their personal and professional domains. The article concludes that further studies of human rights educators engaged as long-term trainers will further enrich the social change literature and the treatment of activists.

Keywords:

• non-formal education
• human rights education
• critical pedagogy
• women’s empowerment
• social change

Acknowledgments

I am indebted to Ebru Batik of WWHR for her efforts in inputting the survey data used in this article and for facilitating the translation of open-ended questions. Amber Webb, Sandra Sirota, and Spencer Dudley, graduate students at Teachers College of Columbia University at the time this article was written, also provided helpful assistance in carrying out background research on feminist critical pedagogy and empowerment theory, and offering insights into links with HRE.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. As of December 2013, adult literacy in Turkey was 94.1% for men and 92.2% for women. Primary school attendance (2008–2012) was 90.8% for those living in rural areas in contrast to 93.5% for those living in cities (UNICEF 2013).

2. A one-way ANOVA was performed in order to test if the differences between the means for subcategories of participants were statistically significant. For the category of marital status, only the following subcategories were included in the analyses: marital status (never married, married) and for employer, only GDSS or NGO.

3. The results are presented for all trainers. In instances where the results for GDSS trainers are statistically significantly different than those for other trainers, this is noted.

4. F = 6.87, p < .01.

5. The Directorate General on the Status of Women study (2009) showed that 42% of Turkish women experienced physical or sexual violence in their lifetime inflicted by a relative.

6. F = 4.26, p <.04.

7. ‘Femocrats’ is a term that has been coined for government workers forwarding the agenda of women’s equality and human rights.