Description
Education is the only human right that is compulsory. Appearing in all major human rights treaties, including the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), education is a multiplier of rights – it enhances all other human rights when fully implemented. Nonetheless, there is a distinct absence of empirical research on how children’s rights are implemented within education (Quennerstedt and Moody, 2020; Gillett-Swan, Thelander and Hanna, 2021). Indeed, there is a tendency for children to be the focus of teaching about their rights, but not of research examining everyday realisation of these rights in schools. As Scotland has incorporated the CRC, which comes into force in July 2024, this gap in research requires attention.This seminar presents the findings of a small research project, funded by the Royal Society of Edinburgh, that examined how children’s rights are realised in schools in Scotland, from the perspective of young people. Employing a children’s rights-based research design, co-researchers from one secondary school and one primary school were recruited and coached on children’s rights and research. Co-researchers advised on what aspects of school they felt were furthest from children’s rights realisation, and used this capacity building as a basis to carry out semi-structured interviews with their peers. Preliminary analysis of these interviews indicates that safety, health and violence in schools are pertinent issues which need addressed, but also that the manner in which adults deal with issues that arise in schools requires a more informed rights-based approach.
| Period | 5 Mar 2025 |
|---|---|
| Held at | Scottish Government |
| Degree of Recognition | International |