An astounding 92 per cent of survey respondents said teachers place a high value on human rights education, even though they already feel pressured by high expectations and a demanding curriculum. In addition, 94 per cent said it was important for them to acquire more knowledge and skills around age-appropriate methods for teaching human rights.
"There are not enough resources to use to teach students about human rights, especially at the primary level, which is where we need to start before bias sets in," said one respondent, when asked to describe the greatest challenges facing human rights education in Canada.
More strategies, tools and skills needed
Teachers also said they need help with strategies for addressing student concerns about human rights, as well as resources for teaching about current human-rights issues in Canada.
"These survey results confirm a very strong desire by teachers to acquire more tools and skills to help students learn the value of human rights," said CTF President Paul Taillefer.
The CTF-CMHR online survey garnered responses from 2,585 teachers across the country. According to the survey, most schools offer human-rights education, but over 40 per cent of teachers cited insufficient resources to support teaching human rights.
Teachers also indicated a strong desire for access to speakers with personal human-rights stories. A summary of the results can be found here.
National human rights kit
Currently under construction in Winnipeg, the Canadian Museum for Human Rights is the first museum solely dedicated to the evolution, celebration, and future of human rights in Canada. The Museum will help to fill human-rights education gaps through its own content, when it opens next year as a national educational hub, and through strong partnerships with educators at all levels.
As a first step, the CMHR and CTF are working to create the first national human rights toolkit for teachers, creating an unprecedented searchable database of reliable K-12 educational resources on human rights.
As an example of human rights education activity, at École St. Avila in Alberta, students have been participating in a ground-breaking exchange programme with a school in China. In a recent project, they created silk-screened works of art under the guidance of local artist Karen Cornelius, incorporating images of themselves with their writing about the UN Declaration on the Rights of the Child.
In addition to the national teacher toolkit, the Museum and the CTF are partnering with the Assembly of First Nations, Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami, and the Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice and Human Rights to offer a national K-12 initiative called "Canadian Defenders for Human Rights".
EI advocates for peace education
EI believes human rights education has a crucial role in contributing to building a culture of peace, uniting nations and bringing human beings closer together.
“A culture of peace and non-violence is at the heart of fundamental human rights. This educational action concerns the content of education and training, educational resources and material, school and university life, initial and on-going training for teachers as well as for young people and adults. A culture of peace must take root in the classroom from an early age,” stated EI General Secretary Fred van Leeuwen.
