How Adolescents in 27 Countries Understand, Support, and Practice Human Rights

Abstract

An understanding of human rights among young people forms a foundation for future support and practice of rights. We have used data from 88,000 14-year-olds surveyed in the 1999 International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA) Civic Education Study to examine country differences in students' knowledge pertaining to human rights compared with other forms of civic knowledge, and in students' attitudes toward promoting and practicing human rights. A hierarchical linear modeling (HLM) analysis examines studentlevel predictors (e.g., gender and school experiences) and country-level predictors (e.g., history of democracy) of rights-related knowledge and attitudes. Countries with governments that pay more attention to human rights in intergovernmental discourse (i.e., dialogue between nations and international governing bodies) have students who perform better on human rights knowledge items. Students' experiences of democracy at school and with international issues have a positive association with their knowledge of human rights. Significant gender differences also exist. Looking at rights-related attitudes, students with more knowledge of human rights, more frequent engagement with international topics, and more open class and school climates held stronger norms supporting social movement citizenship, had more positive attitudes toward immigrants' rights, and were more politically efficacious. Implications are drawn for psychologists and educators

Teaching Tolerance in a Globalized World: An Introduction

“…In line with previous researchers (e.g. Isac et al 2012;Janmaat 2014;Torney-Purta et al 2008; Torney-Purta and Barber 2011), we acknowledge that several explanatory mechanisms must be taken into account when studying attitudes toward equal rights. We expect that the attitudes of young people toward equal rights may be impacted along different lines and that explanatory variables can be situated at different levels, including, individual background characteristics and experiences (e.g.…”

“…Isac 2015;Torney-Purta et al 2008) have shown consistent individual differences in political tolerance. Female students, students with more civic knowledge, higher educational expectations and a higher socioeconomic status tend to have more favorable attitudes toward immigrants.…”

“…International large-scale assessments ( (Caro and Schulz 2012), most studies (Barber et al 2013;Elchardus et al 2013;Isac 2015;Isac et al 2012;Janmaat 2014;Torney-Purta et al 2008; Torney-Purta and Barber 2011) operationalize tolerance in terms of positive attitudes toward immigrants or, applying Weldon's (2006) conceptualization, in terms of political tolerance toward immigrants. Taken together, these findings have pointed to the importance of different explanatory mechanisms.…”

The relationship between political participation intentions of adolescents and a participatory democratic climate at school in 35 countries

“…While 'developmental science has until recently ignored civic engagement, focusing overwhelmingly on cognitive and social development leading to work or family formation' (Sherrod et al 2010: 2), political socialization studies have long neglected political participation outcomes as well (Marsh 1971). Non-cognitive outcomes of school experiences can included attitudes like trust or tolerance, feelings of efficacy, or the intention to participate in civic life (Hahn 1998;Hess 2009;Torney-Purta et al 2008;Westheimer and Kahne 2004). In this article, we focus on a behavioral outcome of school experiences: the intention to participate in different forms of civic and political engagement.…”

“…Although these definitions differ slightly, the focus of most definitions is on the possibility to discuss freely and to develop a personal opinion on politics and other issues in class. Previously, open classroom climate has been related to political engagement (Campbell 2008), political trust and interest (Ehman 1980), tolerant attitudes and support for equality (Hahn 1998), gender and politics (Barber and Torney-Purta 2009) and human rights (Torney-Purta et al 2008). …”