Design-based development of educative curriculum material for deliberative human rights education

ABSTRACT Human rights education (HRE) is an urgent historically and globally recognized challenge for societies. However, it has not been sufficiently addressed by empirical and theoretical research in education. Based on the UN Declaration on Human Rights Education and Training (UNDHRET), there is wide agreement that HRE should include education about, through, and for human rights. We argue that a situated deliberative pedagogy can offer these three dimensions to HRE. However, this is not without challenges for teachers and students. One way to deal with these challenges and support this pedagogical innovation is to design curriculum material that supports teachers. To contribute to this, we conducted a design-based research (DBR) aimed at participative designing of educative curriculum material for human rights deliberative education. Four teachers participated in two phases of the study. Two participated in refining the material’s structure and its controversies and the other two participated in discussing the dilemmas and activities relating to implementation of the material at school with their 11th- and 12th-grade students. The results show participatory educative curriculum material designed for holistic HRE: about, through, and for HR. The implications and problems of the design process associated with a deliberative curriculum for HRE are discussed.