Power, agency and rights : a critical participatory action research study on the transformational potential of human rights education

Lough, Emma (2024) Power, agency and rights : a critical participatory action research study on the transformational potential of human rights education. PhD thesis, Lancaster University.

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Abstract

This thesis examines the value of a Community Development approach to enhancing the transformative potential of community-based models of Human Rights Education (HRE). The UN’s definition of HRE builds on the idea of human rights as a set of accepted standards and the purpose of pedagogical spaces to build a culture in which they are normalised and respected. Yet since the recent proliferation of HRE, growing numbers of accounts take a critical perspective that confronts the conservatism and historicism of HRE in its traditional “declarationist” form (Keet, 2007, p. 7). This critical orientation calls for a pedagogical “renewal” to return HRE to its emancipatory purpose and positions Critical Human Rights Education (CHRE) as a route forward (Keet, 2012, p. 7). Yet given the relatively recent interest in this field, there is a comparative lack of practice-based studies that explore the critical position, and consequently the viability of CHRE as an alternative to the “declarationist” model. In this study, I use a Critical Participatory Action Research (CPAR) methodology to explore the ways in which an approach to HRE modelled on Margaret Ledwith’s (2020) framework for Community Development may enhance its potential to create spaces for critical learning and transformative action. I do so by examining the way in which a UKbased Civil Society Organisation (CSO) piloted an HRE initiative with four community-activists over a six-month period. I suggest that, while there is need for more practice-based studies, Community Development is well positioned to advance CHRE through its direct engagement with issues around power and agency and argue for a closer alignment between the two fields with opportunities to strengthen both the theoretical and practical learnings between the two.