Education for Global Citizenship in

Rights Respecting Schools

with Peter Barton

The UNCRC provides a powerful basis for Global Citizenship because:

• It is a universally agreed statement of rights for all the world’s children

• It carries the message that all human beings are of equal worth

• It provides a strong moral framework for :

- predicting and understanding the consequences of our actions for the rights of others, both positive and negative, and

- for developing empathy and solidarity with those whose rights are denied or abused

• It helps young people understand that they can support the rights of others or be obstacles to the opportunity of others to enjoy their rights depending on how they go about their lives

• The UNCRC provides a language and set of moral concepts for thought and dialogue about children’s (and adults’) rights across the world

• It promotes the empowerment and active participation of young people

Children’s Rights and Global Citizenship• Children as young as Key

Stage 1 can understand that buying fair trade products supports the rights of farmers and their families in the Majority World

• They come to understand that our ability to enjoy our rights is often linked to the denial to others of opportunities to enjoy their rights

• Grace (Year 6) said: “Changing how the world trades will actually help more people than giving money.”

Rights-Respecting Schools and Global Citizenship

It’s about taking action for Justice and

Solidarity

rather than

Pity and Dependency

It’s about enabling children to be Rights-Respecting Global Citizens in everything they do:

Participation Thinking critically Collaborating

Reviewing the school, including teaching and learning

Being able to initiate change Using persuasive dialogue

Debating controversial issues

Practising democracy Challenging rights infringements

Creating an ‘Eco-school’ Engaging with their local community

Global Connections through Human Rights ( global rights and responsibilities)Through our behaviour, each of us can potentially do things which . . .

• Support the rights of others

• Have our own rights supported by the actions of others

• Prevent others from enjoying their rights

• Have our own rights obstructed by the actions of others

• The nurse in the UK from Kenya• The farm labourer from Nairobi, Kenya• The school pupil from Nairobi, Kenya• The investment banker from London• The live-in household worker from a country in SE Asia• The florist from a town in southern England• The worker in a shoe factory in a country in SE Asia• The cotton farmer in the Mid-West USA• The cotton farmer in a country in West Africa• The student from Sudan• The Chinese oil engineer working in Sudan• A child living in a village in Southern Sudan• The fruit-picker in East Anglia• The resident in a nursing home in the ‘home counties’• The school teacher in the UK