“A Right to Human Rights Education!“

Human rights are a central topic for schools, which - being state institutions - are obligated to respect, protect and fulfil human rights, and human rights education is anchored in the teaching principle of political education. In the framework of the research project “A Right to Human Rights Education!” the implementation of human rights education is evaluated according to the recommendations of the Plan of Action for human rights education in the primary and secondary school systems and the United Nations World Programme for Human Rights Education.

A group of pupils takes on the role of scientists to collect qualitative data on human rights education in grammar schools. For this purpose, interviews with pupils, focus group-interviews with teachers and interviews with headmasters will be conducted. The following questions are in the focus of attention: What is the significance of human rights education? Are human rights addressed in the school context? Which contents are in the spotlight? Which approaches are chosen? Which methods are applied? Which objectives are defined? How is the learning success of human rights education evaluated? How do pupils benefit from human rights education? Which factors are significant for successful realisation of human rights education?

On the basis of this qualitative stocktaking, “good practices” will be collected and recommendations for the implementation of human rights education in grammar schools will be developed and summarised in a project report together with information about the project and the results of the evaluation of the data survey.

The research project “A Right to Human Rights Education!” contributes significantly to the realisation of human rights education in schools and thus to quality assurance and school development generally.

Furthermore, it provides necessary qualitative data for human rights education research.