Piers Von Berg "Transformative human rights and citizenship education at university. Thinking through questions of learning, methodology and space"

Education systems in many parts of the world are directed towards shaping the human being as an economic worker. Models of human rights education and citizenship or global citizenship education challenge this status quo and offer alternatives to curricula and pedagogy. These are transformational models that seek to transform the learner’s identity, values and norms, not just their cognitive knowledge and understanding; and, some also seek to engage learners in action to challenge injustices, what is termed transformative. As such, transformational and transformative models may be helpful responses to vital challenges of our time. However, they lack clarity on theoretical harmony, processes of learning, positioning in methodology and educational space. For example, transformative education is criticised as lacking an account of how it prevails in neoliberal education systems. In this talk, I will draw on my educational research conducted over the past ten years. I shall attempt to provide some sharper detail on how I understand learning to be a citizen that exercises rights through experiences of compassion in liminal spaces in higher education. This shall link human rights law’s concept of effective participation to the right to access to education. It will also use ideas of liminality, teacher-researcher and ‘felt and attentive practice’ to provide clarity on questions of learning, positioning and educational space.

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