Table Of ContentRoutledge Research in Cultural and Media Studies
ACTIVATING CULTURAL AND
SOCIAL CHANGE
THE PEDAGOGIES OF HUMAN RIGHTS
Edited by
Baden Offord, Caroline Fleay, Lisa Hartley,
Yirga Gelaw Woldeyes, and Dean Chan
As the litany of human rights abuses continues to grow every day, many
politicians and journalists around the world, even key thinkers, have
pronounced the “end of human rights”. Yet clearly what we need at this
frightening juncture is new, cutting edge, and deeply reflective human rights
education. “There is nothing innocent about doing human rights education”,
this important book proclaims, and with this, and through remembering
Paulo Freire, it activates an honest, incisive, and compassionate inquiry on
how to practice human rights education more truthfully. Encountering the
exemplars drawn from a wide range of contexts and perspectives in the global
North and global South, readers of this book will be enthralled, activists will
be energized, and educators more alert and hopeful.
John Nguyet Erni, Fung Hon Chu Endowed Chair of Humanics,
Hong Kong Baptist University, and author of Law and Cultural Studies:
A Critical Rearticulation of Human Rights
Commemorating the birth of Paulo Freire a century ago, Activating
Cultural and Social Change embodies the spirit of Freire. Understanding
that power vis-á-vis multiple critical theoretical lenses must be named and
interrogated, this book gathers diverse voices to query and unravel socially-
just activism, pedagogy and community in order to solidify a way of being
that internalizes human rights. Enacting Freire’s commitment to radical
love, the authors work together to revolutionize cultures, societies and ways
of knowing which connect, emancipate and honor all beings.
Shirley R Steinberg, Research Professor, Traditional Territories of the
Treaty 7 Region and Métis Nation of Alberta, Werklund School of
Education, The University of Calgary, Canada
Activating Cultural and
Social Change
In this thought-provoking book, a diverse range of educators, activists, academics and
community advocates provide theoretical and practical ways of activating our
knowledge and understanding of how to build a human rights culture.
Addressing approaches and applications to human rights within current socio-cultural,
political, socio-legal, environmental, educational and global contexts, these chapters
explore tensions, contradictions and complexities within human rights education. The
book establishes cultural and educational practices as intrinsically linked to human rights
consciousness and social justice, showing how signature pedagogies used by human
rights practitioners can be intellectual, creative or a combination of both. Across three
sections, the book discusses ways of bringing about holistic, relevant and compelling
approaches for challenging and understanding structures of power, which have become a
global system, while also suggesting a move from abstract human rights principles,
declarations and instruments to meaningful changes that do not dehumanise and
distance us from intrinsic and extrinsic oppressions, denial of identity and community,
and other forms of human rights abuse.
Offering new critical cultural studies approaches on how a human rights
consciousness arises and is practised, this book will be of great interest to scholars
and students of cultural studies, education studies, critical sociology, human
rights education and human rights studies.
Baden Offord is an educator, social justice activist and researcher in the field of
cultural studies and human rights.
Caroline Fleay teaches human rights and engages in research and advocacy with
people from asylum seeking backgrounds in Australia.
Lisa Hartley is a researcher, educator and activist whose work is focused on
questions of human rights, social justice and social change.
Yirga Gelaw Woldeyes researches on social and epistemic injustices focusing on
African experiences and Ethiopian traditions. He writes creatively on belonging and
diasporic lives.
Dean Chan is a freelance editor and research development consultant. He has
published widely on Asian and Asian Australian visual culture, digital media and
cultural studies.
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Activating Cultural and Social Change
The Pedagogies of Human Rights
Edited by Baden Offord, Caroline Fleay, Lisa Hartley, Yirga Gelaw Woldeyes and
Dean Chan
Activating Cultural and
Social Change
The Pedagogies of Human Rights
Edited by Baden Offord,
Caroline Fleay, Lisa Hartley,
Yirga Gelaw Woldeyes, and
Dean Chan
First published 2022
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
and by Routledge
605 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10158
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa
business
© 2022 selection and editorial matter, Baden Offord, Caroline Fleay,
Lisa Hartley, Yirga Gelaw Woldeyes and Dean Chan; individual
chapters, the contributors
The right of Baden Offord, Caroline Fleay, Lisa Hartley, Yirga Gelaw
Woldeyes and Dean Chan to be identified as the authors of the editorial
material, and of the authors for their individual chapters, has been
asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright,
Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or
reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or
other means, now known or hereafter invented, including
photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval
system, without permission in writing from the publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or
registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and
explanation without intent to infringe.
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
Names: Offord, Baden, 1958- editor. | Fleay, Caroline, editor. |
Hartley, Lisa, editor. | Woldeyes, Yirga Gelaw, 1977- editor. | Chan,
Dean, editor.
Title: Activating cultural and social change : the pedagogies of human
rights / Edited by Baden Offord, Caroline Fleay, Lisa Hartley, Yirga
Gelaw Woldeyes and Dean Chan.
Description: Abingdon, Oxon ; New York, NY : Routledge, 2022. |
Series: Routledge research in cultural and media studies | Includes
bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2021037864 (print) | LCCN 2021037865 (ebook)
| ISBN 9780367487270 (hardback) | ISBN 9781032123141
(paperback) | ISBN 9781003042488 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Human rights‐‐Study and teaching. | Culturally
relevant pedagogy. | Social change‐‐Study and teaching. | Education,
Humanistic. | Human rights workers.
Classification: LCC JC571 .A136 2022 (print) | LCC JC571 (ebook) |
DDC 323‐‐dc23/eng/20211004
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021037864
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021037865
ISBN: 978-0-367-48727-0 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-032-12314-1 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-1-003-04248-8 (ebk)
DOI: 10.4324/9781003042488
Typeset in Galliard
by MPS Limited, Dehradun
In this, the centenary year of Brazilian Paulo Freire’s birth
(1921–1997), we dedicate this book in his memory to all educators
who strive for social justice.
Contents
List of figures xii
List of contributors xiii
Preface and acknowledgements xix
Foreword: imagining and enacting hopeful futures in
human rights education xxii
1 The pedagogies of human rights: in truthfulness, what
should be done? 1
BADEN OFFORD, CAROLINE FLEAY, LISA HARTLEY, YIRGA
GELAW WOLDEYES AND DEAN CHAN
PART I
Contexts 13
2 Context-centred decolonial pedagogy for human rights
education in Africa 15
YIRGA GELAW WOLDEYES
3 Human rights pedagogy in context: critical Indigenous
studies 32
MARCELLE TOWNSEND-CROSS
4 “Here we are equal”: refugee-run schools as a vehicle
for human rights pedagogy 47
MUZAFAR ALI, LUCY FISKE AND NINA BURRIDGE
5 The pedagogics of disability–Indigenous
intersectionalities in the age of austerity 60
KAREN SOLDATIC AND MICHELLE FITTS
