educating the next generation (english)

8/9/2019 Educating the Next Generation (English)

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By Kozara Kati &Robert GjediaEdited by Liam Mahony

A Tactical Notebook Published bythe New Tactics Project

of the Center for Victims of Torture

Educating the Next GenerationIncorporating Human Rights Education in the Public School System


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Published byThe Center for Victims of TortureNew Tactics in Human Rights Project717 East River RoadMinneapolis, MN 55455 USAwww.cvt.org, www.newtactics.org

Notebook Series EditorLiam Mahony

2003 Center for Victims of TortureThis publication may be freely reproduced in print and in electronic form as long asthis copyright notice appears on all copies.

Support for the Tactical Notebook SeriesThe Tactical Notebook series was produced with the support of the followingfunders: the United States Institute of Peace, the National Philanthropic Trust, theOrganization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, the United StatesDepartment of State, the Sigrid Rausing Trust (formerly known as the Ruben andElisabeth Rausing Trust), the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation and afoundation and an individual donor who wish to remain anonymous.

Additionally, the King Baudouin Foundation provided grants to our partner theICAR in Romania to support the regional training workshop held there and theproduction of tactical notebooks by workshop participants.

Disclaimer

The views expressed in this report do not necessarily reflect those of the New Tactics in Human Rights Project

or its funders. The project does not advocate specific tactics or policies.


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Table of ContentsAuthors Biography .............................................. 5Editors Preface..................................................... 6Human Rights Education in the Public Schools .. 7

Pilot Projects ......................................................... 9Integration With Other Public Activities .......... 11Results of Human Rights Education .................. 12University Teacher Training............................... 14Learning From Our Experience.......................... 17Conclusion .......................................................... 18Appendices ......................................................... 19

The Center for Victims of TortureNew Tactics in Human Rights Project

717 East River RoadMinneapolis, MN 55455

[email protected]


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June 2003

Dear Friend,

Welcome to the New Tactics in Human Rights Tactical Notebook Series! In each notebook a humanrights practitioner describes a tactical innovation that was successful in advancing human rights. Theauthors are part of the broad and diverse human rights movement, including educators, librarians,health care workers, law enforcement personnel and womens rights advocates. They havedeveloped tactics that not only have contributed to human rights in their home countries but alsocan be adapted for use in other countries and other situations as well to address a variety of issues.

Each notebook contains detailed information on howthe author and his or her organizationachieved what they did. We want to inspire human rights practitioners to think tacticallyto reflecton the tactics they choose in order to implement their larger strategies and to broaden the realm oftactics considered to effectively advance human rights.

In this notebook, we learn about utilizing political opportunities to partner with government and

turn an ambitious vision into reality. The Albanian Center for Human Rights (ACHR) successfullycollaborated with the Albanian Ministry of Education to bring human rights education into allpublic schools in the country. They took advantage of the post-communist transition period,negotiating with the new democratic government officials to launch a long-term process in whichthey would prepare Albanian citizens to participate fully in a democracy. They focused on the nextgeneration the children and on ensuring they learned about human rights. Coming out of apolitical context in which all policies were decided and enacted on a national level, they were ableto create a vision to affect the entire education system and have a nationwide impact. Theysustained momentum by bringing in international support and educational experts and byeffectively cooperating with the governments Institute for Pedagogical Research (IPR). Because oftheir efforts and this cooperation human rights education was incorporated into the public schoolsystem and several teacher training programs.

The entire Tactical Notebook Series is available online at www.newtactics.org. Additionalnotebooks will continue to be added over time. On our web site you will also find other tools,including a searchable database of tactics, a discussion forum for human rights practitioners, andinformation about our regional workshops and international symposium. To subscribe to the NewTactics e-newsletter, please send an e-mail to [email protected].

The New Tactics in Human Rights Project is an international initiative led by a diverse group oforganizations and practitioners from around the world. The project is coordinated by the Center forVictims of Torture (CVT) and grew out of our experience as a creator of new tactics and as atreatment center that also advocates for the protection of human rights from a unique position one of healing and reclaiming civic leadership.

We hope that you will find these notebooks informational and thought-provoking.

Sincerely,

Kate KelschNew Tactics Project Manager


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Human Rights Education in the Public Schools _________________________________5

Kozara Kati and Robert Gjedia

Kozara Kati has worked with the Albanian Center for Human Rights (ACHR) since 1992 and iscurrently its director. She was trained as an educator and taught foreign languages before fleeinginto political exile in 1975. After her return to Albania in 1990 she again worked as a teacher, butquickly moved into an activist role with ACHR. She has since participated in numerous internationalfora, trainings and conferences. Kozara is chairwoman of the National Table for Democracy andHuman Rights for the European Stability Pact, and a member of the Steering Committee of theBalkan Human Rights Network.

Robert Gjedia is a researcher and teacher trainer for primary education in the Institute forPedagogical Research in Tirana, Albania. He was trained as a primary school teacher at theUniversity of Shkodra in northern Albania and in 1988 participated in the Head Start program forprimary education in Washington, D.C. He holds a masters degree in education from WesternCarolina University. Mr. Gjedia has collaborated with ACHR since 1994, and is coauthor of humanrights eEducation (HRE) activities and materials published by ACHR for children age six to 15. He is

also coauthor of HRE curricula for students and teachers in the five pedagogical universities inAlbania.

Albanian Center for Human Rights (ACHR)Aid Norway Albania (ANA) was registered in the Tirana District Court in March 1992 as a Norwegianand Albanian NGO. In 1995 the ANA was re-registered as the Albanian Human RightsDocumentation Center (AHRDC) and in 1997 was renamed and re-registered as the Albanian Centerfor Human Rights (ACHR).

ACHR works toward the emancipation and democratization of civil society in Albania. Its mission isto develop a stable civil society on sound principles of democracy and human rights and to build

awareness of human rights standards through human rights education; documentation,information and publications; lobbying and advocacy; and local and international networking.

ACHR pursued the tactics and strategies presented in this notebook in cooperation with educationalinstitutions around the country. We hope that you will find our experience incorporating humanrights education into the Albanian education system useful in your own work.

The Institute of Pedagogical Research (IPR)The Institute of Pedagogical Research, founced in 1969 in Tirana, Albania, is part of the Ministry ofEducation & Science. It is responsible for the compilation of national curricula for primary andsecondary schools in Albania and for in-service teacher training for all subjects and levels of pre-university education.

Albanian Center for Human RightsRruga Kont Urani 10Tirana, Albania


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6_________________________________ Human Rights Education in the Public Schools

Editors Preface

In this installment of our tactical notebookseries, Kozara Kati and Robert Gjedia describehow, over a ten-year period, a human rightseducation program was integrated into theentire public education system in Albania,

from elementary schools to the universitiesthat train teachers. It is an inspiring exampleof what can be achieved if one thinks big,takes advantage of a political transition andbuilds a collaborative alliance with thegovernment.The Albanian Center for Human Rights(ACHR) wants to transform Albania into a realdemocracy, where people understand theirrights and truly participate in theirgovernments decision making. To do thisthey must overcome decades of

indoctrination and institutional inertia. Theyhave chosen to focus on the future on thechildren who are the entire next generationof Albania by changing the educationsystem to reflect human rights values. To dothis they have needed to build a closecollaboration with the government and withthe entire pedagogical community. Together,ACHR and the governments Institute for

Pedagogical Research have implemented aseries of tactics to achieve this goal. They builtup strong international contacts, both forfinancial support and educational expertise;organized mass trainings of teachers;developed a formidable collection of newAlbanian curriculum materials for teachinghuman rights; set up 42 pilot schools and

human rights education centers throughoutthe country; and implemented a newuniversity curriculum for the training offuture teachers.

Many human rights organizations resist theidea of working with the government, as theyfear being manipulated and co-opted. ACHRsexperience shows that, at least with somegovernments, this resistance may come at acost of making a significant impact on society.Because ACHR saw what it could gain bycollaborating with the government, theywere able to change the entire public school

system. Their story may encourage others toset similarly ambitious goals.

Liam Mahony, series editor


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Human Rights Education in

the Public Schools

The Experience of the Albanian

Center for Human Rights: Introduction

After 45 years of an oppressive andisolationist communist dictatorship, in 1991Albania faced a new world of democraticpossibilities, with mountains of inheritedpolitical, economic and social problems andan institutional infrastructure ill-prepared toface them. Education was a particularchallenge. To make the most of their newdemocracy, Albanians needed an educationalsystem that prepared its citizens for criticalthinking and encouraged politicalparticipation. Instead, it had the remains of adogmatic and rigid communist educationalsystem and curricula, which could notadequately teach students their rights andduties in this new society.

The Albanian Center for Human Rights(ACHR) developed an ambitious plan tointegrate human rights education into theofficial curricula of all public schools in thecountry. In this tactical notebook we describehow ACHR took advantage of the uniquepolitical moment provided by the post-communist transition, negotiated

collaboration with the Albanian Ministry ofEducation and its Institute for PedagogicalResearch (IPR), and implemented the plan. Bythe end of the decade, we had developedspecial curricula material in many subjects forall age groups, trained thousands of teachersto use the materials, set up 42 pilot schoolsthroughout the country, and initiated acurriculum in the teachers colleges tointegrate the teaching of human rights intotheir preparation.

Background

Like all Eastern European countries in theearly 1990s, our country was moving towardspluralism. The process was very painful. Thecommunist regime of Enver Hoxha had beena closed-door dictatorship for 45 years, andhad inflicted deep, almost incurable wounds.Over 6,000 people had been executedwithout trial. Three hundred thousand had

been tortured physically and psychologically,and sent to communist prisons. Albania evenresembled a giant bunker, with 700,000defensive concrete structures built to keeppeople under the psychological threat of aforeign enemy who might attack at any time.The regime encouraged and promoteddogmatic thinking in both the governmentand the general population everything wasblack and white, with no value placed onnuanced or objective reasoning. Dissenting oralternative views were invisible and theeducational system was structured toreplicate this situation in each newgeneration.

With the support of the Norwegian HelsinkiCommittee, ACHR was set up in March 1992,shortly after the fall of the communistregime. ACHR was established around thefundamental principle that new generationsshould be raised to understand and enjoytheir rights, and should be provided with themechanisms and skills for living in a societythat is open to ideas, to a market economyand to pluralism.

From the beginning, ACHR focused its workon the education system, considering itselfresponsible for supporting the developmentof a modern and democratic civil society, andpreparing its strategies and tactics to achievethis through the integration of human rights

into the public education system. Wecommitted ourselves to making teachers andpupils aware of human rights, helping themlearn to create a democratic environment inschools, providing them with informationabout international human rights institutionsand instruments, preparing human rightstrainers and training teachers in the strategiesand tactics of human rights education andconflict resolution.

In its first decade ACHR implemented avariety of tactics, including public seminars in

human rights, numerous publications,lobbying in parliament, a human rightsdocumentation library and police educationon human rights. Our biggest achievement byfar, however, has been the human rightseducation project in the public school system.We describe here the several phases of thisproject:


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8_________________________________ Human Rights Education in the Public Schools

Conceiving the plan and forming analliance with the Ministry of Education.

Preparing pedagogical trainers andcurricular materials; training teachers.

Setting up the first pilot school.

Expanding the project nationally toinclude pilot schools in every district.

Developing university programs toprepare school teachers for human rightseducation.

Launching the plan in 1993 the Norwegianand Dutch Helsinki committees invited ACHR,along with the Ministry of Education andScience (MoES) and the Institute ofPedagogical Research (IPR), to participate in aproject aimed at changing the methodologyof the educational system. IPR is a specializedstate institution under MoES, responsible forin-service training of teachers in Albania andfor compiling curricula for pre-universityeducation. MoES was at first apathetic to theinitiative, but IPR was very interested. ACHRwas of course very enthusiastic, but lackedexperience.

Since IPR had decision-making authority overcurricular materials and teacher training, itwas able to start working immediately withACHR on these parts of the plan, and the twoorganizations quickly developed a goodworking relationship. Some IPR experts werealready interested in these newmethodologies, and some had attendedtraining programs in Europe and the UnitedStates. This helped build the partnership.

The more ambitious parts of the project thepilot schools, for instance requiredcollaboration with MoES leadership. So, whilework proceeded on trainings and materials,ACHR met several times with the minister and

other high-ranking staff, employing the bestlobbying abilities they could muster. In 1995MoES finally signed a formal agreement,permitting ACHR to implement human rightseducation (HRE) projects in the public schools.The agreement was renewed in subsequentyears (Appendix 1 contains the translated textof the 1998 agreement with MoES), andagreements were also signed with the

Institute of Pedagogical Studies and withdistrict education departments. These formalagreements built credibility for the program,and encouraged cooperation at all levels ofthe educational system. MoES began to play amore active role in recommending thatvarious educational departments include HREin the schools, and a collaborative team ofrepresentatives from ACHR, IPR and MoESpropelled the entire process from then on.

The agreement demonstrated an under-standing that the political system could notbe changed without simultaneous change inall other societal systems economic, culturaland social. As part of the difficult transitionfrom the communist regime, our governmentwanted to promote democracy within theeducation system. The Albanian Parliamenthad ratified the Convention on the Rights ofthe Child in 1993 and integration of HRE inpublic schools was the first step towardimplementing the convention. The HREagreement specified that pilot schools becreated in every district in Albania through acollaborative process involving ACHR, IPR andvarious branches of the education systemitself.

It was a unique historical moment and ACHRhad many advantages in beginning its work:partners in the HRE project were able to builda solid long-term partnership, the project

benefited from the support of highlyqualified and efficient international expertsand ACHR garnered a high level of publicsupport, both generally and within theeducation system.

Despite these advantages, however, the taskwas daunting. The joint organizing team hadlong debates on how to promote this newfield of education among the 40,000 teachersin Albania. Some on the team felt that HREcould be a separate subject in the curriculum,while others were convinced that this would

be ineffective because the school system wassaturated with Marxist-Leninist ideology in allsubjects and at all levels. There was alsoconcern that a separate course might overlapwith existing courses on civic education. Inthe end, the IPR experts decided on a cross-curriculum education in human rights, to beintegrated into all subjects.


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The implementation of HRE could never havebegun without the generous support of ourinternational collaborators: the Helsinkicommittees that were the initial impetus forthe work, the Norwegian Group of Women

and the Swedish group who trained the firsttrainers in Albania. The Norwegian and Dutchgovernments provided funding for the entireHRE process.

Pilot Projects: Trainings,

Curricular Materials and the

Pilot SchoolTo implement the HRE program we firstneeded a core group of Albanian HREteacher-trainers. We prepared 20, selected

from IPRs pedagogical experts with criticalsupport from international trainers.1 These 20became the seed trainers for all subsequenttrainings and later for the pilot schools. Thisformation of a corps of HRE trainers was acrucial early step, as nothing like this hadexisted before in Albania. We then carriedout four large training sessions in each of thefour largest districts in the country, involvinga total of over 600 teachers. At the same timeACHR completed a national needs assessment,in cooperation with the same experts.

In a survey conducted three months after thefirst trainings, we discovered that manyteachers had immediately brought the newtechniques to their classrooms.2 This was asubstantial achievement for us as the existingeducational system was completelydictatorial, while HRE methods are moreparticipative and encourage interaction.Teachers are urged to move beyond thelecture methodology, and to be conscious

1 In addition to a number of Albanian experts from IPR,we are grateful to individual international trainers FeliciaTibbitts, Nancy Flowers, Hkan Wall, Helge Bachman,Rognhild Lager and Anne Halvorsen.

2 It is not the focus of this notebook to detail the humanrights teaching methodologies we use, but rather toemphasize the organizational process of implementingthe program. Information on the pedagogical methodscan be found in some of the sources in appendices 2 and3.

of the different roles they can play in theclassroom.3

We next began preparing materials tailoredfor Albanian classrooms. We drew from HREmaterials produced in other countries translating, amending and adding to them tofit the Albanian cultural situation. A studentactivity book translated from Swedish, forexample, demonstrated the most importantelements of the Convention on the Rights ofthe Child while another text included theUniversal Declaration of Human Rights andadditional material on the Albanian situation.

In 1995 we saw some of the first concretefruits of the agreement with the Ministry.Together with the trainers and teachers fromour first trainings, our experts produced a setof pupil activity books for every level fromfirst to eighth grade. Although we hadtechnical support from other Europeaneducational experts, this was very much anAlbanian effort, tailored for Albanian schools.The ministry then used government funds toprint570,000 copies of these booklets anddistribute them throughout the countrysschools. We are currently revising a secondedition.

By this time we had developed strong skills intraining and had produced a number ofteachers manuals and pupils booklets. Wewere ready for what we saw as a critical stepin transforming the Albanian school system:the creation of a model or pilot school. The

3 The program outlines a series of potential teachingroles, each with strengths and weaknesses; these includedemonstrator, defender, expert, authoritarian, counselor,instructor, manipulator, confronter, moderatorandfacilitator. The idea is to combine the best of the old andthe new and to encourage creativity and flexibility inboth teachers and students, keeping the classroom aliveand dynamic.


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10 _______________________________ Human Rights Education in the Public Schools

pilot process is fairly standard in thedevelopment of new educational programs,so it was well understood by pedagogicalexperts, the ministry and donors.

This first school, established in Tirana, was tobecome the testing ground for all our future

materials, a model to be replicatedthroughout Tirana and then the entirecountry. It contained documentation centersand pupils resource centers and sought tomodel the environment and democraticclimate we wanted to create in all schools.We used the pilot school first to train theteachers within the school itself and later totrain four to five teachers invited from eachof Tiranas 47 schools, expanding ourinfluence to the entire system.

We saw over time that the differences

between our pilot school and the traditionalschools were quite noticeable:

The curriculum was enriched with cross-curricular activities linked to HRE anddemocracy.

The school was open for collaborationbetween teachers, pupils and parents.

Parents preferred this school for theirchildren.

Pupils demonstrated stronger capacities inconflict resolution.

Pupils demonstrated high achievements inthe learning process.

Pupils recognized and accepted theirduties and responsibilities in the school, athome and in the community.

We also convinced MoES to recommend thatall schools initiate HRE. This not only helpedus receive increased cooperation from districtschool systems, but meant that MoES would

begin delivering materials to the schools,allowing teachers to begin HRE even beforeACHR was able to interact with them directly.

DEVELOPING THE PILOT SCHOOLS

Each year we used the following steps to launch the pilot school process in the six regions chosenfor that year:

Step One: In cooperation with the education department, we selected the pilot schools for the

year. These schools were chosen based on their central location within the district, the interestof the school and staff in being an HRE pilot school and the appropriateness of the environmentand infrastructure for use as a training center.

Step Two: With one primary teacher, one secondary teacher and one vice director orheadmaster from each pilot school selected for that year, we conducted a one-week teachertraining in Tirana.

Step Three: These trained teachers in turn carried out a two-day teacher training in the pilotschool, assisted by ACHR and IPR experts, for all the schools teachers

Step Four: The pilot school then organized a series of two-day teacher-training sessions for smallgroups of teachers from all other district schools. This eventually resulted in all teachers being

trained usually about 300-400 in a district.

We now have specialized HRE seminars forteachers in all specializations of compulsoryeducation. These seminars are developed incooperation with the pilot schools, theeducation departments and IPR; ACHR is

sometimes able to cover expenses formaterials and trainers.

IPR and ACHR specialists focus not only onpreparing teachers, but on gauging theirknowledge, attitudes, and understanding of


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Human Rights Education in the Public Schools _______________________________ 11

HRE concepts. Teachers are evaluated in areassuch as human rights and its history;international conventions, national legislationand human rights institutions; the integration

of human rights into curricula; methodologiesof HRE; and human rights activities in and outof the classroom.

Integration With Other

Public Activities and

Discussions

As we were expanding, building momentumand setting up these pilot schools, we werealso conducting public activities anddiscussions on HRE, while working to

strengthen our alliances and supportnetworks, involve more people, sustain thosealready interested and refine our thinking. In2001, while we were establishing six pilotschools, we were also conducting thefollowing events:

April 2-5, 2001: Three-day seminar onPilot schools training centers of humanrights education in the districts; 69participants (headmasters andrepresentatives of education directoratesfrom Permet, Peqin, Gramsh, Puke,

Delvine and Lac).

April 7, 2001: Round-table discussion onIntegration of human rights education inthe official curricula; 30 participants.

May 5-June 8, 2001: Training of teachersin six new pilot schools: Permet, Peqin,Gramsh, Puke, Delvine and Lac; more than264 participants trained.

Round table on capacity building anddevelopment of human rights education.

Representatives from NGOs working inHRE discussed different experiences andways of cooperation.

June 11, 2001: National symposium:Visions of political parties for reform inthe education system.

September 29-30, 2001: Two-day trainingseminar with educators working inkindergartens.

November 16-17, 2001: Two-day seminaron Setting up a democratic climate in

school, with headmasters, educationdirectors and teachers. A plan of actionwas designed.

November 24-26, 2001: Three-day seminarwith parents and community members onThe Impact of the Human RightsEducation Project on relationships amongparents, students and teachers.

December 10, 2001 (International HumanRights Day): A second national conferenceon the implementation of the HRE

project. Deans of pedagogical universities,headmasters from pilot schools andtrained teachers participated in thisconference.

December 12, 2001: Round-tablediscussion with elementary schoolteachers and students from pedagogicaluniversities on problems of democraticdecision-making processes in schools.

December 15-16, 2001: Seminar withteachers from elementary schools in

Tirana on Integration of Human RightsEducation in different school subjects.


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Results of Human Rights Education

Results

1993 - 1999 1999 2000 2001 2002 (Jan-Oct) TOTAL

Pilot schools 19 6 6 6 6 43

Teachers3500 800 711 880 638 6529

Trainers 400 34 26 40 38 538

Specialists - - 20 30 30 80

In Kosovo - - 60 475 20 555

In 1997 the Norwegian Human Rights HouseFoundation carried out an external evaluationof the HRE process. Through this and othermonitoring, we noted the following benefitsof our project:

Children better understood their rightsand responsibilities.

Teacher-pupil cooperation created aclimate of trust and optimism in class. Thechildren felt comfortable and were willingto take part in activities.

The activities enhanced the teachersprofessional capacities, and the HREinteractive methodology helped themimprove their teaching in other subjects.(Many HRE methods, techniques andstrategies suggested to the teachers hadbeen unknown to them before.)

Interactions with the pupils parents tookon a different character. There was warmcommunication among teachers, parentsand children.

Pilot schools changed their learningfacilities, which now sparkled withculture. The children felt free and fullyenjoyed the right to be educated.Children felt freer to talk, were moreopen and openly expressed their views.

In every school the libraries nowcontained very good HRE books.

Numerous seminars on alternativelearning methods were organized forteachers. Group work, open discussionsand products prepared and presented byparticipants are now central to thetraining. This benefits teachers andtrainers as well as children.

An eight-year-old was offered something toeat that he did not like. I dont like it. I willnot eat it. The angry father replied, If youdont eat it, you will be beaten. The boyresponded, Father, the teacher tells us thatthe Convention on the Rights of the Childdoes not allow anyone to beat theirchildren. The next day the angry father wentto meet with the teacher.

Despite these gains, major challenges werestill evident. Some of the ready-madematerials were not effective at motivatingteachers or children. Some were monotonous

or offered nothing new. More importantly,beyond generic materials, the teachersneeded help in addressing real human andchildrens rights issues present in their owncommunities and schools. These problemsvaried from one school to the next. Illiteracy


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in one area, blood feuds4 in another,difficulties due to migration, etc. The HREapproach needed to be adapted to help withsuch real and pressing local needs. We hadmade real progress in extending the programnationally, but we wanted to raise the workto a higher level, to provide Albanianteachers with professional skills for dealingwith childrens rights at school. We havelearned since that our trainings have helpedteachers to identify specific topics fordiscussion and brainstorming activities bothwith children and parents. For instance inMalsia e Madhe (a district in northernAlbania) activities dealing with cases of bloodfeuds were organized with both children andparents. In three districts in the South Albaniawe organized activities concerning minorityrights (involving Roma, Greek andMacedonian minorities), includingintercultural activities bringing childrentogether to learn together.

Recently, ACHR has taken polls of Albanianteachers to measure how effectively theprograms materials are being integrated intothe classroom.

68% percent of the teachers in thepilot schools had participated in ACHRtrainings and the majority evaluatedthem as very efficient.

73% of those asked said they used theHRE teacher activity books in class.

42% said they had developed HREactivities in their classes.

51% expressed confidence in theirskill level in organizing HRE activitiesin class. In addition, HRE is nowincluded in one chapter of thestandard subjects of civic education,involving one week or ten hours of

4 In northern Albania, a blood feud occurs when a personis killed and it is considered obligatory that the victimsfamily kill a member of the killers family. This can createa cycle of killing spanning generations. The communistregime had eliminated this practice, insisting onmaintaining a monopoly on killing, but the practice hasreappeared since the fall of communism.

teaching in all grades from one toeight.


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cities, allowing students in the project tobegin employing their HRE training inprimary schools.

At the end of the term we tried differentways of evaluating the students. We gave

multiple-choice tests. We had them writepapers on the field of HRE. We held debates.We asked them to create visual images of therights of the child.

We then produced a report on the pilotprocess and organized a national symposiumon HRE at pedagogical universities,in whichall Albanian teachers universitiesparticipated. In a very professional debateinvolving deans as well as teachers wediscussed the achievements and problems ofthe two-year process, and ultimately theuniversity participants themselves proposedmaking HRE a compulsory subject in theofficial university curriculum. In addition,representatives of the schools that trainsecondary teachers expressed their interest inincluding HRE in the curricula of studentsstudying to be teachers of languages andliterature; mathematics and physics; historyand geography; and biology and chemistry.

That was a significant achievement, in termsboth of professionalism and of obtainingfunds from donors who were enthusiasticabout supporting the project. In just threeyears, we had succeeded in convincing all theuniversities that prepare primary schoolteachers to implement a mandatory HREprogram. The universities have now fullyembraced the program and cover expensessuch as textbooks and other supplies.

Results of Human Rights

Education in Pedagogical

Universities

Trained 2000 2001 2002* Total

Students 100 100 60 260

Pedagogues 25 25 15 65

Specialists 10 10 15 35

ResourceCenters

5 - - 5

*Numbers reflect January through October2002.


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Steps Involved in Implementing University Curriculum Pilot Process:

Approached the deans of the universities that train teachers.

Selected 20 students and five pedagogues at each university for the pilot process.

Students and pedagogues completed a needs-assessment questionnaire.

Experts and pedagogues designed the pilot course (including the eight teachingmodules) based on this questionnaire and on discussions with experts, teachers andstudents, also taking into account experiences in other countries.

Held seminars with the five groups of students to introduce the techniques.

Held a three-day seminar with the 25 pedagogues, training them to teach the modules.

Began the pilot course (one four-month term); had teachers and students experimentwith the eight modules at each school.

Evaluated the pilot process using a questionnaire and other methods.

Held a national symposium with representatives of each university.

Wrote a final report on the pilot process.

Universities agreed to implement the curriculum.

Experts amended the curriculum based on lessons from the pilot process.

University HRE Training of SpecializedSecondary School Teachers

The next challenge was to introduce HRE intothe curriculum of those schools that preparesecondary school teachers of Albanianlanguage and literature, mathematics,physics, biology, chemistry, history andgeography. Since these schools are adjacentto those that prepare primary school teachers,the new project could utilize the HREResource Centers that had already beenestablished.

In cooperation with the five universities,ACHR established another pilot process thisone involving mixed groups of 20 students:five from languages and literature, five frommathematics and physics, five from historyand geography and five from biology andchemistry. ACHR again used surveys toestablish the HRE knowledge of both the

students and the pedagogues; we then

organized preliminary seminars with thegroups, and conducted training sessions forthe pedagogues.

For students of this level the HRE curriculumneeded substantial change, and practicalactivities had to be modified for the oldersecondary school students. The most delicateand professional task of the project was thepreparation of booklets for the differentsubject areas. After considerable discussionand teamwork, HRE educational specialists6

6 It was a truly international collaboration. Participantsincluded Felicia Tibbitts (USA), Nancy Flowers (USA),Hakan Wall (Sweden), Helge Brochman (Norway), AnaHalvorsen (Norway), Petrit Muka (IPR Albania), AstritDautaj (IPR Albania), Marjana Sinani (PRI Albania),Violeta Xhanari (teacher), Idajete Asimja (teacher),Robert Gjedia (IPR Albania), Rezana Vrapi (IPR Albania),Albana Lama (IPR Albania), Fatbardha Gjini (University),Vehbi Hoti (University), and others.


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created the following curricular material, thefirst of its kind in HRE anywhere in the world:

Language, Literature and HumanRights

Math, Physics and Human Rights

History, Geography and HumanRights

Biology, Chemistry and HumanRights

Civil Education, Foreign Languagesand Human Rights

When this pilot process was complete, all fiveuniversities again agreed to implement the

new curriculum. As of March 2003, HRE isnow a compulsory subject in two of theuniversities and an optional subject in the

other three. ACHR considers this projectcomplete and very successful. The universitiesthemselves will now sustain these programs,and newly graduated teachers will arrive attheir first day of teaching with a backgroundin human rights education.

Overall, these education programs have costACHR over US$2 million in the course of adecade. The entire collaborative process, ofcourse, also involves funds from IPR and theMinistry. By 2002, ACHR employed 17 full-time and 20 part-time workers on the project.

Our work has begun to expand beyondAlbania. Albanian experts are now runningHRE training programs in Prizren (Kosovo)and Prilep (Macedonia) and ACHR is planninga regional conference to present the AlbanianHRE model to participants from both stateand nongovernmental organizations in theBalkan region.

Learning From Our

Experience

It is our hope that people in other countriesand situations can learn from our HREexperience. Educational systems in all nationscould benefit from a more consciousintegration of human rights concepts intotheir curricula and from helping teacherslearn how to bring the culture of humanrights into the classroom.

The democratic transition after the fall of thecommunist regime in Albania certainly gaveus a strong advantage; it is difficult to

imagine implementing HRE on a nationallevel without the support we received fromthe government and, particularly, MoES.There are many governments, however, thatnominally embrace the notions of humanrights in their diplomacy, their foreign policyand their constitutions, yet have notinstitutionalized human rights education intheir schools. These states could be pressuredto implement explicit HRE programs in order

to be sure that citizens are being taught theirrights and obligations in a democratic society.To achieve this goal, we suggest thefollowing steps:

Build a collaborative relationship with thegovernment: You will first need to formcontacts and create alliances within thegovernment and its education ministry. Thisprocess will differ from one state to another,depending on the political situation, thegovernments approach to human rights andthe bureaucracys level of sophistication andprogressive thinking. Even without theadvantage of a promising political moment,you may be able to slowly pressure and lobbythe government to support your initiative.

We found that having the cooperation of thegovernments own pedagogical experts wascritical: IPR waspartof the government buthad a very keen interest in curriculumdevelopment as well as direct decision-making authority over curricular materials.Thus ACHR and IPR were able to advancequite far in the process even before theministry signed a formal agreement.


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You will want to seek out those governmentagencies which are most closely connected toyour objective that will benefit from theinitiative. Other possibilities for building thisgovernmental alliance include:

Building alliances with prominentindividualswho can work with theministries or agencies.

Using the support of internationalorganizations, other governments, orNGOs to strengthen your claims and helppersuade the government to collaboratein your efforts.

Calling attention to internationalagreements your government has alreadysigned (such as the Convention on theRights of the Child) to convince them oftheir responsibilities.

Building grassroots pressure upward fromthe schools and teachers associations.

Presenting your mission as one of assistingthe government in providing the besteducation possible for your countryschildren.

In some situations you may find that you canpush for the integration of human rightseducation in schools at the provincial orregional level, rather than at the nationallevel. Identify the institutions that control thecurriculum, whatever government level theymay belong to, and build collaborativerelationships there.

Seek out international support: ACHR hasfound that there is a wealth of expertise andsupport in the international community forhuman rights education. There are alsointernational agencies and organizationswilling to provide financial support, whichcan give you not only the economic resources

necessary to implement a large project, but ahigh level of international credibility for yourplan. A government may be more responsiveto a proposal that it perceives to have broadinternational political, technical and financialsupport.

Use pilot projects: At each stage of thisprocess we learned a great deal from using

the disciplined methodology of pilot projects.These projects can demonstrate the strengthsand weaknesses of a proposed educationalmethodology, and the lessons you learn willenable you to design a much more effectiveprocess for wider implementation. Further toyour advantage, the pedagogical communityis already familiar with pilot projects, and assmaller and safer investments they are easierfor school administrators and governmentofficials to accept. They can promote such aproject to their institutions as a necessary andpromising experiment, but can later save faceby backing away from a full implementationif it seems to pose political risks. A pilotproject can thus gain can you entrance tothese institutions and provide momentumeven before the full-scale implementation ofyour strategy. If the pilot goes well, theseadministrators will be in a strong positioninside the education system to argue forbroader implementation of the overall plan.

Nurture alliances and cooperation at alllevels: The importance of empowering andbuilding alliances with administrators cannotbe underestimated. We made special effortsto invite headmasters, for instance, to ourHRE trainings and involve them in theplanning of the pilot schools. If you facestrong resistance from the governmentbureaucracy, you may find it helpful to invitegovernment functionaries to your trainings. If

these HRE trainings successfully create aparticipatory and lively environment forlearning, they will also have a positive effecton the bureaucrats who attend. This is a goodway of nurturing alliances within theadministrative bodies whose support youneed.

Build on existing national expertise:Thoughour educational system had been deeplydamaged by political dogma, a corps ofprofessional teachers and experts inpedagogy and curriculum development

remained. It was essential that we takeadvantage of their skills and expertise, andinvolve them in our work. We were not tryingto bring in a foreign methodology and forceit on the Albanian Ministry and teachers,saying, Your methods are all wrong, so do itthis way. On the contrary, our approach tothe educational professionals wascollaborative: Lets take advantage together


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of the opportunity this political transitiongives us and develop an educational systemthat will move Albania into a better future.This collaborative approach with the

government, the Ministry, the educationaladministrators and the teachers was crucialto our success.

Conclusion

The political situation in your country maynot seem to hold great promise forequivalent attempts to change the publiceducation system. But we encourage you tolook for opportunities and to use the modelswe have developed as inspiration. Perhapsyou can present our experiences to

authorities in your educational system toprove the viability of a broad and ambitiousnational HRE initiative. If you are alreadyinvolved in HRE work in your country, wehope some of our tools and methods will insome small way help you advance yourimportant work. We will only create a trulydemocratic society if our educational systemscan become saturated not with politicaldogma but with the culture of human rights.


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Appendix 1: Text of Agreement Signed With the Ministry of

Education and Science

REPUBLIC OF ALBANIA

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND SCIENCE

ELEMENTARY EDUCATION DIRECTORY

ALBANIAN CENTER FOR HUMAN RIGHTS

Nr 4704 Prot.

COOPERATION AGREMENT

Signed between the Ministry of Education and Science (called herein MASH) and the AlbanianCenter for Human Rights (called herein QSHDNJ), on the continuation of the joint project:

Human Rights Education at School

For the implementation of this project of pilot schools in the field of human rights education,QSHDNJ undertakes:

To implement the project qualitatively during all the planned stages.

To cooperate with MASH and the Education Departments in districts for theselection of pilot schools.

In cooperation with the Education Departments in districts and the leaders of theschools that are to be selected as mentioned above, to select the staff that is goingto work for the project, on the jointly decided criteria.

To publish auxiliary materials for teachers and pupils.

To provide curricular material for the class that is going to be known as the humanrights class.

To cooperate with the pilot school staff for the implementation of all the stages ofthe project.

To remunerate financially the specialists for the training of the educators.

To perform the generalization and evaluation of the project results and present it toMASH in order to include them in the schooling system, after the latter has done itsown evaluation.

For the implementation of this project of pilot schools in the field of human rights education,MASH, in cooperation with Education Departments in districts, undertakes:

To allow QSHDNJ to work in the whole pre-educational and educational systems inthe country for the education of human rights, relying on international and regionalinstruments and on the domestic legislation, and to advise all the EducationDepartments in the country about this.


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To establish appropriate conditions for the implementation of the project, puttingat its disposal specialists from MASH, ISP, and Education Departments.

To cooperate with QSHDNJ for the selection of pilot schools.

To perform an evaluation of the whole activity of pilot schools, in accordance with

its goals and expected results, as designed in the project, as well as of thegeneralizations presented by QSHDNJ.

For an appropriate implementation of the agreement, attached to it is the status of pilot schools inthe field of human rights education and the project for their establishment.

As per the legislation in power, the pilot schools are in direct subordination to MASH and EducationDepartments.

In cases of flaws in the qualitative implementation of the project, the parties are entitled to presenttheir objections and to demand from each other to take the necessary measures for the eliminationof those flaws. In cases of grave disagreements, they can agree to change the terms of the projector to terminate it.

The legislation in power in the Republic of Albania is applied to what is not explicitly written in thisagreement.

For the Ministry of Education and Science

Eduart O S M A N i

Elementary Education Director

For the Albanian Center for Human Rights

Kozara K A T i

Executive Director

Tiran, on 28.09.1998

This agreement comes into powerimmediately.


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My rights for - manual for teachers compiled by the officers of the Education Departmentand by external contractors for the Institute of Pedagogic Studies and the Ministry of Educationand Science.

Videowith different aspects from the activity of a pilot school

Continuous information on the activity of ACHRin the relevant page at the newspaper Teacher(MoES)

Tests for the evaluation of knowledge and abilitiesin the field of human rights

First steps: manual for beginning human rights education (2,000 copies). This manual containsbasic activities for teachers and others who work with youngsters and who wish to relatehuman rights to their educational practices

Leaflet "Human rights education activities of ACHR

Leaflet "A world that should change"


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Appendix 3: Recommended English-Language Sources on

Human Rights Education

This notebook has not attempted to describe the many available resources and methodologies inhuman rights education, as that would require a much more space. We do recommend you seek outsuch resources and provide this short list of places to start.

1.First Steps published by Amnesty International

2.Teaching and Learning Human Rights in the School published by UNESCO

3.Methodologies of Human Rights Education by Robert Kohl

4.Monitoring of HRE published by the Council of Europe, 2002

More information on human rights education can also be found on the following web sites:

Human Rights Education Associates: www.hrea.org. HREA is an international NGO that trainsactivists and professionals in human rights education through many different avenues. Therewebsite has online forums, databases and discussion boards where people can access informationon human rights. It also offers distance education courses for advocates, organizations,professionals and educators and describes how different countries have implemented human rightseducation.

Human Rights Resource Center: www.hrusa.org. This organization, part of the University ofMinnesota Human Rights Center and Library, provides human rights education and human rightsworkshops. The web site also provides resources and access to the Global Human Rights EducationListserv.

Human Rights Internet: www.hri.ca. Helpful to those interested teaching human rights, this sitedetails five components of effective human rights education (HRE). There are numerous links toother HRE information, and the site contains an educational database that allows visitors to searchfor anything related to human rights education, from courses to textbooks.

Council of Europe: www.coe.fr. The Council of Europe is an intergovernmental organization thatlegislates conventions and agreements on all major issues, except defense, facing European society.Its stated aims are to help solve the continent's social problems and to promote pluralisticdemocracy, human rights, the rule of law, and Europe's cultural identity and diversity. In terms ofhuman rights education, the Council of Europe helps teachers to incorporate human rights issuesinto their daily curriculum, teaching networking techniques, methodologies and ideologies.


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Appendix 4: Modules for the Human Rights Education Course

for Primary School Teachers in the University

Based on the results of a needs assessment, feedback from deans, teachers and students, andassistance from international experts, we designed a course for primary school teachers, dividedinto the eight 120-minute teaching modules:

Module 1: Human rights concepts and history

Module 2: Classifications of human rights

Module 3: Universal Declaration of human rights

Module 4: The Convention on the Rights of the Child

Module 5: Human rights Protection Mechanisms

Module 6: HRE as a cross-curricular element of educating primary and secondary school pupils

Module 7: HRE Methodology at school

Module 8: Practical activities for pupils and students

In 2001 ACHR published a college textbook for students/teachers and pedagogues, entitled HumanRights. This textbook, in addition to being a complimentary tool to the University teachingmodules, is designed to be of general educational benefit in other settings as well.

Module format

The modules were built in two parts:

I. Theory (60 minutes): comprehensively elaborates ideas, concepts and numerous views on thetopic.

II. Practice (60 minutes): divided into two special activities:

Activities for adults (30 minutes), which includes case studies, group work, interactive activities, inwhich, through practice, students learn about the topic. The pedagogue prepares written orphotocopied material, additional literature, etc.

Activities for pupils (30 minutes), in which the pedagogue takes on the role of the teacher, whilethe students act as pupils.


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Notes


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Notes


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For a full list of publications available in the Tactical Notebook Series,

go to www.newtactics.org.Online you will also find a searchable database of tactics andforums for discussion with other human rights practitioners.

educating the next generation (english)

Documents