Children s Rights Education

Children’s
and Social Work:
C t
Contrasting
ti MModels
d l andd
g
Understandings

Didier Reynaert, MaEd – University College Ghent – Ghent University

Maria Bouverne-De Bie, PhD – Ghent University
Stijn Vandevelde
Vandevelde, PhD - University College Ghent – Ghent University
 Ou e
Outline
• Introduction
• Goal
• Defining Children’s
Children s Rights Education
• Children’s Rights Education as an
I l
Implementation
t ti Strategy
St t for
f the
th UNCRC
• Children’s Rights Education as Social
Action
p
• Conclusion: Implications for Social Work
2
Theory and Practice
 Introduction
oduc o
• 1989: Adoption UNCRC
• Article 42:
“States Parties undertake to make the principles
and provisions of the Convention widely
known, by appropriate and active means, to
adults and children alike.”
 Introduction
oduc o
• ‘New’ field in social work: children’s
rights education as a social work
practice
• Social work as a “human
human rights
profession” (cf. international
definition of social work)
 Introduction
oduc o
• Policy and practice: committed to
develop learning materials and
programmes for the realisation of a
g
“culture of human rights”
• Little explored in academic
research
 Goa
Goal
• Better understanding of children’s
rights education:
– How is the notion of ‘education’
understood?
– Can different educational concepts be
distinguished?
– If so, by what are they characterized?
 Defining
g Children’s Rights
g Education

• Different typologies
• Shared communalities:
– Goals
– Target groups
– Educational context
– Themes
 Defining
g Children’s Rights
g Education

• Children’s Rights Education as an

umbrella
• Under-theorized field in social work
 Children’s Rights Education as an
Implementation Strategy for the UNCRC

• 3 characteristics:
1. The dominance of teaching g
2. Children’s rights education as an
instrumental practice
3. Individualization & professionalization of
the children’s rights education field
 Children’s Rights Education as an
Implementation Strategy for the UNCRC

1 The dominance of teaching:

1.
– Starting point: the rights children have
– H i kknowledge
Having l d aboutb t children’s
hild ’ rights
i ht iis
a premise to practice its rights
– Children’s
Children s rights education = being
educated about children’s rights

Education = teaching
 Children’s Rights Education as an
Implementation Strategy for the UNCRC

2 Children’s
2. Children s rights education as an
instrumental practice
– children’s
hild ’ rights
i ht are presented
t d as objective
bj ti
knowledge
– gap-problem
‘gap problem’:: gap between daily life of
children and the rhetoric of children’s rights
– ‘human
human rights from above’
above (Ife,
(Ife 2006)
 Children’s Rights Education as an
Implementation Strategy for the UNCRC

3 Individualization of the children’s

3. children s rights
education field
− Children are considered
Child id d as autonomous
t and
d
responsible citizens (individual consumers
of rights)
− Shift from state to individual
 Children’s Rights Education as an
Implementation Strategy for the UNCRC

3 Professionalization of the children’s

3. children s
rights education field:
− Professional
P f i l experts
t on children’s
hild ’ rights
i ht and
d
didactics
− Concerned with standard
standard-setting-
setting
implementation-monitoring (‘global
children’s
children s rights industry’)
industry )
 Children’s Rights Education as
social action
• 2 characteristics:
1. Children’s Rights Education and
Society
g
2. Children’s Rights Education as a
Self-critical and Open Practice
 Children’s Rights Education as
social action
1 Children’s
1. Children s Rights Education and
Society
– Hemrica
H i &H
Heyting
ti (2004)
(2004): social
i l practices
ti
are:
• Context dependent: “human
human rights from below”
below
• Discourse-dependent: protection and liberationist
discourse on children’s rights
• Perspective-dependent: welfare and justice
perspective
 Children’s Rights Education as
social action
1 Children’s
1. Children s Rights Education and
Society
– Every social
E i l practice
ti relates
l t tto th
the social
i l
system and structural processes
– Interplay between the ‘individual’
individual and the
‘social’; between daily life and social
conditions
 Children’s Rights Education as
social action
2 Children’s
2. Children s Rights Education as a Self
Self-
Critical and Open Practice
– Reflection
R fl ti about
b t meaning i off children’s
hild ’
rights in daily contexts…
– …inin dialectical relationship with the social
social,
cultural an historical context of society
 Children’s Rights Education as
social action
2 Children’s
2. Children s Rights Education as a Self
Self-
Critical and Open Practice
– Understanding
U d t di and dddefining
fi i children’s
hild ’
rights (‘law in action’)
– Understanding the conditions under which
children’s rights are obstructed from being
realized
 Conclusion: Implications for
Social Work Theory and Practice
• Social work can take opposite positions
in the discussion on children’s rights
(education) rights or law
(education), law.
• Social workers as ‘social policy
administrators
d i i t t (Roose
(R & De
D Bie,
Bi 2008)
vs. social workers as ‘agents of change’
 Ques o s
Questions?
Didier Reynaert
Research Assistant
Faculty of Social Work and Welfare Studies
y College
University g Ghent
Voskenslaan 362
9000 Ghent
Tel.: 0032 (0)9/242.26.68
( )
Fax: 0032 (0)9/243.87.93
E-mail: didier.reynaert@hogent.be