Table Of ContentTheories of human rights in relation to understandings of human
rights education: the relevance to diversity
by
Ådne Valen-Sendstad
A Thesis submitted to
The University of Birmingham
For the degree of
PhD
School of Education
The University of Birmingham
14th of April 2010
University of Birmingham Research Archive
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ABSTRACT
This study explores theories of human rights in order to assess how these are reflected in
human rights education (HRE). It uses and develops Dembour‟s (2006) four way
categorisation of human rights schools, that is, the natural law, deliberative, protest and
discourse schools. The thesis is text-based and uses a hermeneutic methodology. HRE is
examined mainly at a higher level such as teacher education, using academic texts as sources
rather than manuals for schools. A particular question for the research is how the issue of
diversity is addressed both in the human rights theories and in the writing on HRE, in the
context of the need to envision HRE for a pluralist society.
The findings of the study are that the perspective of the protest school is the one most
deployed in HRE, but that the other schools have potential for deepening how human rights
and HRE might be approached at teacher education level. The study proposes a model for
HRE that combines three perspectives: (a) overlapping consensus and normative dialogue,
(b) empowerment and (c) double responsibility. These are argued to enable teachers to
address complex issues of rights as they relate to diversity and difference.
DEDICATION
To my three wonderful daughters Marit, Janne and Lise
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I firstly want to especially thank my supervisor Professor Lynn Davies. It has been an
exciting journey with stimulating discussions and constructive criticism. Her sharp and clear
reading and comments have continually impressed me, I am most grateful for her support.
I am also grateful for the support I have received from the staff of Oslo University College.
My colleges and friends Dr Per Jarle Bekken and Robert Kvalvåg have provided many
stimulating dialogues and discussions. Prof. Joron Phil has read and commented on several
chapters. Ragnvald Thilesen has also given his support.
Writing in a foreign language is a challenge and in the end Dr Brian McNeil helped me
improve my English and thoroughly checked my text. I am grateful for his help.
I am also grateful for the help and support I have received from my colleague and friend
David Glass at Vestfold University College, Norway.
Ascot Road has been my home from home on my visits to Birmingham. I want to
particularly thank Jenny Banks Bryer for being my host these years. Ascot Road has been a
lively house with discussions and good meals, my thanks to Gaye, Cally, Chloe and Joseph.
I want to thank Judith and Malcolm Savidge for their hospitality and for introducing me to
the wonderful English countryside.
I want to thank Kari and Tommy Furvann for supporting me and my family during this
project. They have made a decisive contribution. They have in particular made it possible for
me to travel, which I have done a lot both to Oslo and Birmingham, I am most grateful.
Finally I want to thank my own family, my daughters and wife, for support and patience.
They have had to deal with a father and husband whose focus has been on books and his
laptop for a very long time.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Chapter 1 Introduction 1
1.1. Personal motivation 3
1.2. Research questions 4
1.3. Background to the project 5
1.3.1. Human Rights 6
1.3.1.1. The four schools 8
1.3.2. Education in human rights 9
1.3.3. Diversity, multiculturalism and pluralism 13
1.4. Sources 19
1.4.1. Criteria for sources on human rights 20
1.4.2. Pedagogical sources 22
1.5. Current status of the field 23
1.6. Personal theoretical position 25
1.7. Method 27
1.8 Outline of the thesis 29
Chapter 2 The natural law school 30
2.1. Minimalist universalism 32
2.1.1 Comments 36
2.1.2. Minimalist universalism and HRE 36
2.2. Strong universalism 39
2.2.1. Comments 45
2.2.2. Strong universalism and HRE 46
2.3. Tentative universalism 50
2.3.1. Comments 60
2.3.2. Tentative universalism and HRE 61
2.4. Natural-law school and diversity 62
2.5. Comments 64
Chapter 3 The deliberative school 70
3.1. Jürgen Habermas 71
3.1.1. Comments 77
3.2. John Rawls 79
3.2.1. Comments 86
3.3. A third way 88
3.3.1. David Ingram 88
3.3.2. Iris Marion Young 95
3.3.3. Abdullahi Ahmed An-Na´im 98
3.3.4. Bikhu Parekh 102
3.3.5. Comments 107
3.4. Diversity and the deliberative school 111
3.5. HRE and the deliberative school 113
Chapter 4 The protest school 126
4.1. Costas Douzinas 128
4.1.1. Comments 132
4.2. Upendra Baxi 134
4.2.1. Comments 149
4.3. The protest school and HRE 151
4.4. Protest school and diversity 162
4.5. Comments 165
Chapter 5 The discourse school 174
5.1. Talal Asad 176
5.2. Makau Mutua 181
5.3. Wendy Brown 186
5.4. Marie-Benedicte Dembour 192
5.5. Jacques Derrida 197
5.6. Diversity in the discourse school 205
5.7. Comments 206
5.8. Discourse school and HRE 211
Chapter 6 Concluding discussions 219
6.1. The four schools and HRE 220
6.1.1. Natural law school 221
6.1.2. Deliberative school 223
6.1.3. Protest school 226
6.1.4. Discourse school 228
6.1.5. HRE and the human rights schools 230
6.1.6. Some conflicting views and syntheses 233
6.2. Diversity in the human rights theories and in HRE 237
6.3. HRE related to human rights theories 245
6.3.1. Normative dialogue/overlapping consensus 246
6.3.2. Empowerment 250
6.3.3. Double responsibility 253
6.4. Concluding reflections 258
Chapter 1: Introduction
The topic of this thesis is human rights education (HRE). The thesis aims to
approach HRE from the general human rights discourse. It is a study of how human rights
are understood in normative and political theories, which aims from these perspectives to
study understandings of HRE. The thesis will analyse those HRE sources which reflect or
discuss HRE on a theoretical level. My assumption is that there are relations between the
ways HRE is understood and general human rights theories, and I want to study the relation
between the two fields and their frameworks. Further is a third element, a sub-question for
both frameworks, that is, how they deal with diversity.
By human rights theories, I mean theories or philosophies that develop a general
understanding of human rights or how they are used. It means frameworks behind human
rights rather than discussions of concrete norms. The theories may be informed by various
academic fields such as anthropology, law, sociology, normative or political philosophy.
Most of the theories used in this thesis will be in the fields of normative and political
philosophy where there are the most direct constructions of human rights frameworks. They
may be supportive, but also critical of aspects of human rights. Some of the theories give
foundation and legitimation to rights; in a way they predate human rights as codified and
enshrined in conventions. Some take up discourse and other critical theories in their
understanding of human rights, and some of these may move back to the historical origin of
human rights to see where they come from and how this history has influenced their use.
Other theories start from the human rights norms and do not look behind the principles but
focus on their application. All of these perspectives are relevant to the understanding of
human rights frameworks. I call them all human rights „theories‟ because they in many
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different ways elaborate an understanding of human rights from normative and critical
platforms, using different theoretical horizons. All these theories, in different ways, are
prescriptive of how human rights should be understood and used. They represent a variety of
understandings of human rights and that makes them a particularly interesting area for study.
For this reason it also makes it interesting and relevant to study similarities to HRE discourse
and which of these perspectives do or do not have an influence on HRE.
By „theories‟ of human rights education I mean texts which present and reflect on
HRE at a theoretical level. These may be related to general human rights or to pedagogical
theories. I call them „theories‟ because what they do is to prescribe in theoretical ways how
HRE shall be understood and done. Much HRE literature is linked to one right or selections
of norms within human rights, e.g. education for democracy, peace education and
intercultural education. HRE in terms of, for instance, democracy education seeks to see the
development of democratic understanding as part of HRE. But democracy could be seen as
much more than human rights even though rights norms such as freedom of expression or
freedom of association are contained within the notion of democracy (Davies, 2000). HRE
has a similar relation to citizenship education, in that human rights are universal and broader
than a particular citizenship education (Kiwan, 2005). I am not however entering the debate
about which is the proper subject in the school curriculum for HRE. My main focus is on
education in human rights norms themselves. This is not to underestimate the importance of
human rights as democracy or as part of citizenship education or in the other perspectives
which are applied, but I see human rights norms as a field and topic in its own right, and I am
interested in how these principles are understood in theoretical approaches to HRE.
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The context of this thesis is HRE in formal and public schools in diverse, pluralistic
and multicultural societies. My thesis is theoretical but in the background is formal education
in primary and secondary schools in “western” societies such as Norway. These schools
increasingly have students with different cultural, religious, non-religious or normative
backgrounds, with diverse identity groups and groups who share common experiences
related to social structures such as class or gender. Identities are not singly situated, but have
complex combinations. Human rights principles become particularly important in these
settings, and my interest is to see if and how diversities have an impact on the framework of
human rights and HRE.
1.1. Personal motivation
I embark on this thesis as a lecturer with a special responsibility for religion and secular
worldviews and in particular for philosophy and ethics. My students are teacher education
students at a university college in Norway.
In Norway we are moving from a Christian-based moral education. We now call this
„Christian and humanistic‟. But our society has become more pluralist and multicultural, and
it seems important to redefine a common ground. This is the background to my interest in
human rights. I also found that the students had little knowledge of human rights. My own
knowledge and understanding was also limited, and this made me keen to get a better
understanding of human rights. The present thesis is the result of this process.
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