[hr-education] Re: Teaching and neutrality

Ed,

I appreciate your thoughtful response.

As a school teacher in Northern Ireland, I am very aware that probably
nobody is actually 'neutral'.  Everyone has a background - (political,
cultural, social etc) that affects their view of the world.  Admittedly we
all act in a prejudicial manner from time to time, sometimes without even
noticing it.

I do accept that teachers' beliefs can interfere with their teaching ­
this is where professionalism comes into play.  Teachers have the
responsibility to behave in a professional manner especially when teaching
about values such as Human Rights.  Regardless of the teacher's viewpoint,
they should deliver the course professionally, to the best of their
ability.  If they are being unfair or imbalanced in the classroom then
this is wholly unacceptable.  Teachers should be judged on their teaching
not their beliefs.

I am delighted that the students I teach in Belfast, Northern Ireland
often question what I teach.  This illustrates to me that they have the
ability to think for themselves.  I agree with Ed - we don't want to
coerce students.  I have been working on a type of online learning that
promotes independent learning in Citizenship / Human Rights.  The online
activities focus on 'THINKING SKILLS' to develop independent thinkers and
learners.

I strongly believe that student assessment must not be based on attitudes,
otherwise we as Human Rights / Citizenship educators run the risk of being
labelled 'social / political engineers.' In my classroom assessment is
based on skills which pupils develop such as: empathy, problem solving,
decision making, communication and listening to others, (I also use a
little content / knowledge based assessment.)  If by the end of a
Citizenship course a student can make a decision and logically justify it,
then the teacher has done a good job.

Adrian Witherow
Belfast
N. Ireland



Ed O'Brien <eobrien@streetlaw.org> wrote:

>Adrian,
>
>You make an interesting point which has got me thinking.
>
>I think teachers should be neutral and students must decide for themselves
>what rights and responsibilities they believe are right for them. Students
>must also decide whether they support human rights or don't. No one should
>be coerced. We want students to question what we teach including human
>rights and democracy, don't we?
>
>Students should learn what democracy is and that virtually all societies
>have voiced support for the UDHR and signed other human rights treaties. A
>teacher's "neutrality" doesn't mean that the teacher doesn't teach that
>human rights and democracy are accepted norms. In my view, teachers cannot
>in fact be neutral on human rights and that includes democracy which I
>believe is a system of government which aims to fulfill Article 21 of the
>UDHR. I think we want teachers in our schools that support human rights
>and democracy, don't we? But should this be a quality that is required of
>teachers before we let them teach? What if the courses they will teach
>includes human rights?
>
>Another challenging question is: is it wrong for a teacher to give a
>student a failing grade because that student does not support democracy
>and human rights? Are we teaching just knowledge or are there attitudes we
>expect students to have at the end of their human rights education? In
>various treaties, state parties agree to uphold human rights but must
>citizens (students in my example) also agree to this?
>
>




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