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Felisa
Tibbitts, Case Studies in Human Rights
Education: Examples from Central and Eastern Europe,
Council of Europe/HREA, 1997 ALBANIA CASE: TEXT DEVELOPMENT AT THE PRIMARY SCHOOL LEVEL
I. Content and Approach of the Texts "We have tried to meet the needs of the children, but of course it is your task to decide what to do in the classroom." Such was the advice handed out by a leader of the Albanian text development teams as the Children's Activity Books for Forms 1-8 were formally presented to educationalists in Fall 1995. This message affirmed an overall orientation of the books, to support the autonomy and choice of the teacher in the process of promoting democratic culture in the classroom. The human rights Activity Books were developed under the auspices of the Institute of Pedagogical Research as part of a human rights education project carried out in cooperation with Western partners in the Netherlands and Denmark. The project was developed to help alleviate what was perceived to be a widespread condition of either ignorance or confusion over the content and meaning of human rights in Albania, a condition exacerbated by many years of isolation from the international community. The core of the project entails materials development and field testing, as well as infusion of human rights education into all in-service teacher training. The results were Activity Books that were distributed to every primary school child in Albania (approximately 400,000) in Winter 1995. These books were the first cross-curricular text to become available in Albania, as well as the first resources widely available in human rights. Other materials under development include a Teacher's Methodological Guide, posters, and multiplication of translated human rights education resources available from abroad.
The three modes of instruction used for the Children's Activity Books are individual, group work and role playing. The lessons are generally simple and designed so that they can be shortened into a 15-minute time period for integration into a regular subject lesson, or extended into a full 40-minute period, such as that available with a homeroom or open hour period. The principles exemplified in the Activity Books stem from the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Within this overarching framework, several activity themes are interwoven throughout the years of texts, with a special emphasis on rights and responsibilities. A text development team leader, Astrit Dautaj explained that they wanted children to be "active participants in a democratic society, to contribute and to know that they are responsible for their own rights, and also the rights of others in the community." Other recurring themes included who am I; needs and wants; friendship; family and country. Treatment of these topic were designed to reflect the age development of the students. The goals for the students include the development of self expression, listening skills and conflict resolution in the classroom, acceptance of differences, empathy and awareness of rights and duties. There are lessons that try to show that conflict is normal and that children should express their own opinions, but not so as to intrude on other people's rights of self expression. The lessons introduce simple human rights principles but avoided direct reference to politics; instead activities promoted concepts related to HRE and democracy, such as the avoidance of discrimination. Cases where children's rights were not respected were also raised. For example, there is a lesson for the 4th Form called, "Without Family" concerning children without parents in Albania. In this activity, children are asked to comment and reflect upon the child and to propose possible solutions to this situation. The goal of the exercise is to recognize that there are social problems that require solutions, and that the individual, as well as the government, shares in this responsibility. Throughout the Activity Books, issues particular to Albanian life and psychology, and that touch upon human rights and children are raised. These include not only the problems of children without parents, but blood revenge, children of war, and integration of immigrant children into school life. One lesson uses the diary of the young girl, Zlata, from war-torn Bosnia, which portrays a situation where the girl, home-bound, is without contact with friends or able to go to school. In the lesson, the Albanian children are asked to put themselves in Zlata's position and to write a letter of support to her. Gender issues are addressed directly, including roles and responsibilities in the home, which tend to be quite traditional in Albania. The children are first asked to respond to pictures depicting role reversals in the home, where the women are smoking and enjoying themselves in the living room while the men are in the kitchen doing the dishes. They then discuss what roles they play and why they do, or do not, help out around the house. One of the points of the lesson is to encourage children to reflect upon their habits, their origins, and to consider participating in household tasks, whether they are girls or not.
An Alternative at the Primary School Level: Infusion of Human Rights into Civics In Romania, alternative civics culture texts were developed for the 7th and 8th Forms at the Institute of Educational Research. The topical outline of these texts were modeled loosely on the formal civic culture curriculum developed by the Ministry of Education, but adapted so as to include human rights principles as the underlying value system and activity-based methodologies. It is the constructivist methodologies, including open discussion, small group and project work, that set the alternative text apart most from that used in other classes. The topical outline
for the 7th Form civic culture text, pertaining to the individual
and society, contained the following topics: Chapter I. The
meaning of human rights in the context of civic education Chapter II. The
identity of the person Chapter III. The
relationships of the individual with other persons and social
groups Chapter IV. Norms
and laws Chapter V. The
individual and the environment Teachers in Romania are experimenting with the use of this text in their civics culture classes, required for one hour a week in the 7th and 8th Forms. Pilot school teachers report that substantial additional preparation is required on their part in order to select organize activities for the children, but that the resulting student enthusiasm and participation makes it all worthwhile.
Teachers Methodological Guides. Because human rights education necessitates the promotion of a democratic culture in the classroom, as well as activity-based methods that are unfamiliar to most teachers in Central and Eastern Europe, written methodological guides can be a critical support. One such guide was developed by the Lithuanian Centre for Human Rights in Winter 1995, with the support of the Council of Europe. The main aims of the guide were: - to acquaint teachers and pupils with the main documents of Human and Children's rights; - to show the possibilities of integrating human rights teaching with the existing curriculum; - to provide
teachers with a knowledge base for teaching human rights
intelligently and clearly. The Methodological Guide contains two major sections. The first presents key human rights documents, including the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (and extracts and protocols ratified by the Republic of Lithuania), the Declaration of Children's Rights as well as the Convention on Children's Rights, and relevant excerpts from the Lithuanian Constitution. The second section focused on the methodology of teaching human rights. Emphasis was placed on using primary documents and non-textual sources in infusing human rights into the secondary school classroom. Methods presented were: 1. Prospects for integrating human rights problems into the secondary school curricula. 2. Methodologies specific to human rights documents, including the UDHR, the Children's Convention, and the Lithuanian Constitution. 3. Use of the mass media in teaching human rights, including pupil development of newspaper, and mock radio and television broadcasts. 4. Use of table games for consolidating knowledge about human rights. 5. Using photographs and cartoons in teaching human rights. 6. Use of drama in teaching human rights. 7. Using conflict resolution games in teaching human rights.
II. Processes for Text Development In Romania, a curricular specialist from the Institute of Educational Sciences, Dakmara Georgescu, was responsible for developing the alternative civics texts. This project was conducted in conjunction with the Netherlands Helsinki Committee. For the development of the first draft, Dakmara worked independently, with supportive textual examples from abroad, participation in foreign training seminars, and external reviews by foreign specialists and colleagues at the Institute of Educational Sciences. However, the texts underwent a full-year of field testing with the cooperation of a handful of dedicated teachers positions in different parts of Romania. Their written feedback, combined with classroom observations and interviews with them and their students, lead to significant improvements in the text drafts. In Estonia, text development for optional human rights education courses for Forms 6-8 was underway in Winter 1995. Text writing teams were comprised of teachers as well as specialists from Tallinn Pedagogical University, organized by a non-governmental organization, the Jaan Tonisson Institute. In addition, a larger committee of human rights and educational specialists from Estonia were gathered in an Advisory Committee to advise the teams on the content and execution of the text writing. In order to help prepare the teams for their tasks, model examples were provided from Western and Eastern Europe. In addition, an intensive three-day text development workshop was organized in conjunction with the Danish Centre for Human Rights and the Netherlands Helsinki Committee. The major topics of the seminar were the content and methodology of human rights, the organization of work on the text development teams, and text production (including layout, editing and computerization). Reviews by the Advisory Committee and Western specialists will take place periodically in the text development process, which will be followed by field testing in Estonian schools. In Albania, the Vice-Director of the Institute of Pedagogical Research, Petrit Muka, formed an eight-member text development team, mostly comprised of practicing teachers. The large group was further divided into two teams: one dealing with the individual Activity Books for Forms 1-4, and one with Forms 5-8. The teams were deliberately chosen so as to include teachers as well as curricular specialists. The fact that teams rather than individual curricular specialists was novel for Albania, and this aspect of the process promoted a sense of collaboration as well as professional development on the part of all participants. As a starter, the teams were provided with translations or original work in human rights education done by Western specialists. The purpose of these books was to provide models for content, as well as methodology, for the Albanian writing. The project did not want the books to be content-based, as was common in the Albanian system, but to try something new that would really be interesting for children. The resources included It's Only Right,'s Only Right, UNICEF; Teacher's Resource Book,'s Resource Book, Håkan Wall; ABC of Teaching Human Rights, United Nations; Teaching for Human Rights (Australian Human Rights Curriculum for Forms 1-10), and methodological books on activity-based methods already available at the Institute of Pedagogical Research. Members of the teams were given latitude to develop activities using these resources as inspiration, and their work was supervised by the team member who was a curricular specialist. The team leaders, Mariana Sinani (Forms 1-4) and Astrit Dautaj (Forms 5-8) guided the teachers so that the activities would be accessible to young children. They helped to assure that the lessons were age appropriate, activity-oriented, adaptable in terms of their use in the school environment (e.g., cross-curricular as well as extra-curricular in nature) and constructivist in approach. After the drafts were developed, a human rights specialist was brought in from abroad to review the texts, and to offer suggestions for improvement. Another revision process will take place following the field testing and feedback from Albanian teachers in selected classrooms throughout the country. In the meantime, text developers get immediate feedback from the pupils with whom they work in their own classrooms, as well as the teachers with whom they work during organized in-service trainings. The teachers who participated in the project remain very satisfied with their experience in text development, which proved to be as rewarding as it was initially challenging. Mimosa, a primary school teacher in the 1st Form, said that in addition to enjoying the experience, she knew that it had changed her. She said that although she began by wanting students to be more aware of their rights, her own consciousness about rights was raised. "This year, I think that I will be a better friend to the children."
Felisa Tibbitts
© Human Rights Education Associates, 1997
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