Educational content selection in human rights education at the early childhood education and care level
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.11576/jsse-7813Keywords:
children's rights, content analysis, human rights education, social studies didactics, theorisationAbstract
Highlights:
- Educational content is not a prioritised discussion when suggesting ideas for observing UN Day.
- Empirical insight into ECEC teachers’ ideas on observing UN Day.
- Difficult to work with human rights education without a connection to human rights.
- The four dimensions can offer structures to select content from a subject-didactic perspective.
- Non-governmental and intergovernmental organisations mainly produce educational resources for this level.
Purpose: This study pays attention to educational content in human rights education (HRE) at the early childhood education and care (ECEC) level. It aims to discuss the function of four content selection dimensions for discussing HRE content at the ECEC level.
Design/methodology/approach: The aim is explored through a directed content analysis of 73 online posts suggesting ideas for observing UN Day.
Findings: In the ECEC teachers’ ideas, little attention is paid to educational content. Less than half of the posts include a connection to human rights. Preliminary findings indicate that the four dimensions can aid in structuring a subject-didactic approach to HRE content.
Research limitations/implications: This study contributes to discussing HRE content in ECEC. It provides insight into prevalent ideas and discussions; it does not provide insight into how ECEC teachers practice HRE.
Practical implications: The findings are a starting point for discussing support to ECEC teachers in selecting human rights educational content.
References
Bakken, J., & Andersson-Bakken, E. (2021). Innholdsanalyse [Content analysis]. In E. Andersson-Bakken & C. P. Dalland (Eds.), Metoder i klasseromsforskning. Forskningsdesign, datainnsam-ling og analyse (pp. 305–326). Universitetsforlaget.
Bakken, Y. (2015). “De fattige er ofte brune barn som får gå rundt i undikken”: Om barnlige for-tolkninger av bistands og solidaritetsarbeid [“Poor children are often seen as brown and walking around in their underpants”: reflections on children’s interpretations of aid and soli-darity work]. In K. Børhaug, O. R. Hunnes, & Å. Samnøy (Eds.), Spadestikk i samfunnsfagdid-aktikken (pp. 179–196). Fagbokforlaget.
Bertram, T., Formosinho, J., Gray, C., Pascal, C., & Whalley, M. (2015). EECERA ethical code for early childhood education researchers: Revised version 1.2. EECERA. https://www.eecera.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/EECERA-Ethical-Code.pdf
Brantefors, L. (2019). “They don’t have as good a life as us”: A didactic study of the content of human rights education with eleven-year-old pupils in two Swedish classrooms. Human Rights Education Review, 2(1), 48–69. https://doi.org/10.7577/hrer.2832
Brantefors, L., & Quennerstedt, A. (2016). Teaching and learning children’s human rights: A re-search synthesis. Cogent Education, 3, 1-18. https://doi.org/10.1080/2331186X.2016.1247610
Børhaug, K., & Christophersen, J. (2012). Autoriserte samfunnsbilder [Legitimised images of socie-ty]. Fagbokforlaget.
Børhaug, K., Christophersen, J., & Aarre, T. (2017). Introduksjon til samfunnskunnskap: Fagstoff og didaktikk [Introduction to social studies: educational content and didactic] (3rd ed.). Det Norske Samlaget.
Cassidy, C., Brunner, R., & Webster, E. (2014). Teaching human rights? «All hell will break loose!». Education, Citizenship and Social Justice, 9(1), 19–33. https://doi.org/10.1177/1746197913475768
Christensen, S. A., & Grammes, T. (2020). The Beutelsbach consensus: The German approach to controversial issues in an international context. Acta Didactica Norden, 14(4), 1–19. https://doi.org/10.5617/adno.8349
Christensen, T. S. (2015). Fagdidaktik i samfundsfag [Subject didactic in social science]. Fryden-lund.
Committee on the Rights of the Child. (2005). General Comment No. 7 (2005), Implementing Child Rights in Early Childhood. United Nations. https://digitallibrary.un.org/record/570528?ln=en&v=pdf
Coysh, J. (2017). Human rights education and the politics of knowledge. Routledge.
Coysh, J. (2018). Exploring power and discourse in human rights education. In M. Zembylas & A. Keet (Eds.), Critical human rights, citizenship, and democracy education: Entanglements and re-generations (pp. 51–66). Bloomsbury.
Dewey, J. (1938). Experience & education. Kappa Delta Pi/Touchstone.
Dunhill, A. (2019). The language of the human rights of children: A critical discourse analysis [Doc-toral dissertation, University of Hull]. Hull Repository. https://hull-repository.worktribe.com/output/4221545
Freeman, M. (2012). Towards a sociology of children’s rights. In M. Freeman (Eds.), Law and childhood studies: Current legal issues (Vol. 14, pp. 29–38). Oxford University Press.
FORUT. (n.d). FORUT Barneaksjonen [FORUT Children’s campaign]. Retrieved 13 January 2025 from https://forut.no/kampanjer/barneaksjonen/
Gagel, W. (1983). Einführung in die Didaktik des politischen Unterrichts. Studienbuch politische Didaktik 1 [Introduction to the didactics of political education. Textbook political didactics 1]. Leske Verlag; Budrich GmbH.
Gloppen, S. (2018). Conceptualizing lawfare: A typology & theoretical framework (CMI/LawTransform working paper). Centre on Law & Social Transformation.
Goodlad, J. I., Klein, F. M., & Tye, K. A. (1979). The domain of curriculum and their study. In J. I. Goodlad, M. P. Ammons, E. A. Buchanan, G. A. Griffin, H. W. Hill, A. Iwańska, J. A. Jordan, F. K. M, R. M. McClure, M. N. J. Richter, K. A. Tye, L. L. Tyler, & E. C. Wilson (Eds.), Curriculum in-quiry: The study of curriculum practice (pp. 43–75). McGraw-Hill.
Hahn, C. L. (2020). Human rights teaching: Snapshots from four countries. Human Rights Educa-tion Review, 3(1), 8–30. https://doi.org/10.7577/hrer.3724
Harcourt, D., & Hägglund, S. (2013). Turning the UNCRC upside down: A bottom-up perspective on children’s rights. International Journal of Early Years Education, 21(4), 286-299. https://doi.org/10.1080/09669760.2013.867167
Hidle, K.-M. W. (2021). Menneskerettsopplæring i rammeplanen for barnehagen [Human rights education in the framework plan for kindergartens]. In K. J. Horrigmo & K. T. Rosland (Eds.), Fagdidaktikk for SRLE. Barnehagens fagområder, kunnskapsgrunnlag og arbeidsmåter (pp. 78–88). Cappelen Damm Akademisk.
Hidle, K.-M. W. (2022). Barns tilgang til erfaringer som er relevante for samfunnsfag: En analyse av kontinuitet og progresjon i planverket for småskole og barnehage [Children’s access to experiences relevant to social studies: analysing continuity and progression in the curricula for the lower primary levels and early childhood education and care]. Acta Didactica Norden, 1(1), 1–25. http://doi.org/10.5617/adno.8788
Hidle, K.-M. W., & Helgesen, E. (2024). Dyp begynneropplæring i samfunnsfag [Deep initial education in social studies]. In E. Helgesen & K.-M. W. Hidle (Eds.), Begynneropplæring i samfunnsfag (pp. 15–34). Fagbokforlaget.
Hidle, K.-M. W., & Rosenberg, A. R. (2024). Menneskerettigheter som begynneropplæring i samfunnsfag: Forenklet eller for enkelt? [Human rights as initial education in social studies: simplified or to simple?]. In E. Helgesen & K.-M. W. Hidle (Eds.), Begynneropplæring i samfunnsfag (pp. 173–192). Fagbokforlaget.
Horrigmo, K. J. (2014). Barnehagebarn i nærmiljø og lokalsamfunn. Fagdidaktikk: Aktiviteter og opplevelser [Kindergarten children in local communities. Subject didactic: acitivties and expe-riences]. Fagbokforlaget.
Howe, R. B., & Covell, K. (2010). Miseducating children about their rights. Education, Citizenship and Social Justice, 5(2), 91–102. https://doi.org/10.1177/1746197910370724
Hsieh, H.-F., & Shannon, S., E. (2005). Three approaches to qualitative content analysis. Qualita-tive Health Research, 15(9), 1277–1288. https://doi.org/10.1177/1049732305276687
Isenström, L. (2020). Children as growing rights subjects: The significance of teachers’ actions. The International Journal of Children’s Rights, 28, 258-287. https://doi.org/10.1163/15718182-02802012
Isenström, L., & Quennerstedt, A. (2020). Governing rationalities in children’s human rights edu-cation. International Journal of Educational Research, 100, 1–13. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijer.2020.101546
Jerome, L., Emerson, L., Lundy, L., & Orr, K. (2015). Teaching and learning about child rights: A study of implementation in 26 countries. UNICEF. https://www.unicef.org/documents/teaching-and-learning-about-child-rights
Karlsson, S. (2021). Children’s lived rights: The everyday politics of asylum-seeking children [Doc-toral dissertation, Stockholm University]. DiVA Portal. https://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:su:diva-196685
Kipperberg, E. (2018). Barnekonvensjonen: Kompetanse og kunnskapsbehov i høyere utdanning og blant fagfolk i feltet [United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child: competence and need for knowledge in higher education]. Universitet i Stavanger.
Landeszentrale für politische Bildung. (1976). Beutelsbach consensus. https://www.lpb-bw.de/beutelsbacher-konsens
Long, S. (2022). Children’s rights education for the early childhood education and care student. In F. Press & S. Cheeseman (Eds.), (Re)conceptualising children’s rights in infant-toddler care and education: Transnational conversations (pp. 13–27). Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-05218-7_2
Lorentzen, S., Streitlien, Å., Tarrou, A.-L. H., & Aase, L. (1998). Fagdidaktikk: Innføring i fagdid-aktikkens forutsetninger og utvikling [Subject didactic: introduction to subject didactics pre-requisites and development]. Universitetsforlaget.
Louviot, M., Moody, Z., & Darbellay, F. (2019). Children’s rights education: The challenges and opportunities of inter- and transdisciplinary teaching. Inter- and Transdisciplinary Education, 1, 1–7. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.2557607
Lundy, L. (2012). Children’s rights and educational policy in Europe: The implementation of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. Oxford Review of Education, 38(4), 393–411. https://doi.org/10.1080/03054985.2012.704874
Lundy, L., & Martínez Zainz, G. (2018). The role of law and legal knowledge for transformative human rights education: Addressing violations of children´s rights in formal education. Hu-man Rights Education Review, 1(2), 4-24. http://doi.org/10.7577/hrer.2560
Mallon, B., Waldron, F., & Cassaithe, C. N. (2024). Human rights education: A beacon of hope in times of crisis? In B. Mallon, F. Waldron, & C. N. Cassaithe (Eds.), Pushing the boundaries of human rights education: Concepts, challenges and contexts (pp. 1–12). Routledge.
Martínez-Bello, V., Martínez-Rojas, Á., & Lahuerta-Contell, S. (2020). A critical analysis of the ex-plicit and implicit treatment of human rights education in early childhood education text-books. Frontiers in Education, 5, 1–9. https://doi.org/10.3389/feduc.2020.565139
Meland, A. T. (2023). Hvordan forstå progresjon i barnehagens rammeplan [How to understand progression in the kindergarten’s framework plan]. Nordisk barnehageforskning, 20(1), 22–35. https://nordiskbarnehageforskning.no/index.php/nbf/article/view/355/475
Ministry of Education and Research. (2016). Meld. St. 28 (2015-2016). Fag-fordypning-forståelse. En fornyelse av Kunnskapsløftet [Subject-immersion-understanding. A renewal of the Knowledge Promotion Reform]. Government.no. https://www.regjeringen.no/no/dokumenter/meld.-st.-28-20152016/id2483955/
Ministry of Education and Research. (2017). The framework plan for the content and tasks of kin-dergartens. Norwegian Directorate for Education and Training. https://www.udir.no/in-english/framework-plan-for-kindergartens/
Moody, Z., Perry-Hazan, L., & Darbellay, F. (2024). Children’s human rights education: Conceptu-al foundations of school students’ learning processes. Cambridge Journal of Education, 54(6), 681–699. https://doi.org/10.1080/0305764X.2024.2426477
Moen, K. H., Buaas, E. H., & Skjæveland, Y. (2021). Det var en gang… Historie og tradisjoner i den flerkulturelle barnehagen [Once upon a time… History and traditions in the multicultural kin-dergarten]. Universitetsforlaget.
National Committee for Research Ethics in the Social Sciences and the Humanities. (2022). Guide-lines for research ethics in the social sciences and the humanities (5th ed.). The Norwegian Na-tional Research Ethics Committees.
Okafor, O. C., & Agbakwa, S. C. (2001). Re-imagining international human rights education in our time: Beyond three constitutive orthodoxies. Leiden Journal of International Law, 14(3), 563–590. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0922156501000280
Ongstad, S. (2006). Fag i endring: Om didaktisering av kunnskap [Subject in change: about didactisation of knowledge]. In S. Ongstad (Ed.), Fag og didaktikk i lærerutdanning. Kunnskap i grenseland (pp. 19–59). Universitetsforlaget.
Ongstad, S. (2012). Fra kunnskap, via kontekst, kjerne og komparasjon til kommunikasjon: En fagdidaktisk utviklingslinje? [From knowledge, via context, core and comparison: a subject didactic line of development?]. Nordidactica - Journal of Humanities and Social Science Educa-tion, 1, 1–25. https://journals.lub.lu.se/nordidactica/article/view/18931
Parker, W. C. (2018). Human rights education’s curriculum problem. Human Rights Education Review, 1(1), 5–24. https://doi.org/10.7577/hrer.3724
Phillips, L. (2016). Human rights for children and young people in Australian curricula. Curricu-lum Perspectives, 36(2), 1–14.
Quennerstedt, A. (2019). Teaching children’s human rights in early childhood education and school. Örebro University.
Quennerstedt, A. (2022). Children’s and young people’s human rights education in school: Cardi-nal complications and a middle ground. Journal of Human Rights, 21(4), 383–398. https://doi.org/10.1080/14754836.2021.2014795
Quennerstedt, A. (2024). National curriculum as promoters or obstructers of human rights edu-cation: The example of Sweden. In A. Osler & B. Goldschmidt-Gjerløw (Eds.), Nordic perspec-tives on human rights education: Research and practice for social justice (pp. 182–196). Routledge.
Rosenberg, A. R. (2020). Social studies in early childhood education and care: A scoping review focusing on diversity. Contemporary Issues in Early Childhood, 21(4), 312–324. https://doi.org/10.1177/1463949120953911
Rosenberg, A. R. (2022). Children as human rights activists? Critical perspectives on NGO and IGO learning materials produced for early childhood education and care. International Journal of Children’s Rights, 30(3), 675–702. https://doi.org/10.1163/15718182-30020014
Rosenberg, A. R. (2024). Menneskerettsopplæring som faglig innhold i fagområdet nærmiljø og samfunn: En eksplorerende studie om samfunnsfagdidaktiske utfordringer som kan oppstå når menneskerettsopplæring skal tilpasses barnehager [Human rights education as educational content in the learning area local community and society. An exploratory study about social studies didactic challenges that can arise when adapting human rights education to early childhood education and care] [Doctoral dissertation, University of Agder]. AURA. https://hdl.handle.net/11250/3166140
Sadownik, A. R. (2020). Superdiversity as a trajectory of diversity in Norwegian early childhood education and care: From collection of differences to participation and becoming. Contempo-rary Issues in Early Childhood, 21(4), 284–296. https://doi.org/10.1177/1463949120966088
Sakka, T., & Gouscos, D. (2023). Children’s rights education via game-based activities: An intervention in kin-dergarten. International Journal of Serious Games, 10(1), 53–79. https://doi.org/10.17083/ijsg.v10il.546
Tellgren, B. (2019). Teaching about and through children’s human rights in early childhood edu-cation. In A. Quennerstedt (Ed.), Teaching children’s human rights in early childhood education and school: Educational aims, content and processes (pp. 34–55). Örebro University. https://www.diva-portal.org/smash/get/diva2:1528599/FULLTEXT04.pdf
Tibbitts, F. (2018). Contested universalism and human rights education: Can there be a delibera-tive hybrid solution for schooling? In M. Zembylas & A. Keet (Eds.), Critical human rights, citi-zenship, and democracy education: Entanglements and regenerations (pp. 101–120). Blooms-bury.
Tibbitts, F., & Fritzche, P. (2006). Editorial. JSSE - Journal of Social Science Education, 5(1), 1–15. https://doi.org/10.4119/jsse-369
Tvärråna, M. (2018). Theories of justice among eight-year-olds: Exploring teaching for an emerg-ing ability to critically analyse justice issues in social science. Nordidactica - Journal of Human-ities and Social Science Education, 4, 43–64. https://journals.lub.lu.se/nordidactica/article/view/19077/17266
Tønnessen, R. T., & Tønnessen, M. (2007). Demokratisk dannelse [Democratic bildung]. Fagbokforlaget.
UNESCO. (2001). Universal declaration on cultural diversity. http://portal.unesco.org/en/ev.php-URL_ID=13179&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=201.html
United Nations. (1989, November 20). Convention on the rights of the child. United Nations. http://www.ohchr.org/EN/ProfessionalInterest/Pages/CRC.aspx
United Nations. (2011). United nations declaration on human rights education and training. United Nations. https://www.ohchr.org/EN/Issues/Education/Training/Compilation/Pages/UnitedNationsDeclarationonHumanRightsEducationandTraining(2011).aspx
United Nations, UNESCO, & United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights. (2006). Plan of action for the first phase of the world programme for human rights education. United Nations. https://www.ohchr.org/en/publications/training-and-education-publications/plan-action-first-phase-world-programme-human
Vesterdal, K. (2019). Championing human rights close to home and far away: Human rights edu-cation in the light of national identity construction and foreign policy in Norway. Human Rights Education Review, 2(1), 6–24. https://doi.org/10.7577/hrer.2907
Waldron, F., Mallon, B., & Cassaithe, C. N. (2024). Human rights education in a time of crisis: A pedagogy of possibility. In B. Mallon, F. Waldron, & C. N. Cassaithe (Eds.), Pushing the bounda-ries of human rights education. Concepts, challenges and contexts (pp. 221–235). Routledge.
Waldron, F., & Oberman, R. (2016). Responsible citizens? How children are conceptualised as rights holders in Irish primary schools. The International Journal of Human Rights, 20(6), 744–760. https://doi.org/10.1080/13642987.2016.1147434
Winje, G., Hallanger, A., Tangen, A. B., & Hermansen, I. E. (2008). Fra divali til halloween: Etikk, religion og filosofi [From divali to halloween: ethics, religion and philosophy]. In T. Moser & M. Pettersvold (Eds.), En verden av muligheter. Fagområdene i barnehagen (pp. 118–136). Universitetsforlaget.
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2025 JSSE - Journal of Social Science Education

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.