The challenges of teaching for human rights in Nigeria: knowledge, pedagogy and activism

Obiagu, Adaobiagu; Nwaubani, Okechukwu O.

doi:10.7577/hrer.3804

Cited by 6 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 36 publications

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“…The final two articles in this issue move away from the institutionalisation of HRE in schools, professional and higher education, to the field of social activism for justice and peace. These contributions augment contributions exploring the relationship between social activism and human rights education addressed in previous articles in the journal (Hall, 2019;Obiagu & Nwaubani, 2020) and contribute to a rich multidisciplinary seam of literature analysing social activists' engagement with the international human rights framework as a means of mobilising and extending justice and rights through changes in law, policy and practice. Activists have frequently focussed on how human rights norms might be translated into their respective communities.…”

mentioning

confidence: 76%

How might we better educate for justice and peace?

Osler,

Egan,

Hanna

et al. 2023

HRER

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The preamble of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, proclaimed shortly after World War Two, asserted a noble purpose for human rights, namely that the rights of all human beings 'is the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world' (UDHR, 1948: preamble).Veteran New York-based peace educator, Betty Reardon, who sadly died this year, expressed it succinctly: 'Human rights education is as fundamental and constitutive to peace education as human rights are to peace' (Reardon, 1994, p. 82). She asserted that most global problems could be viewed as issues of human rights. We recall this key purpose of human rights, and therefore of human rights education-'the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world'-as we prepare this issue of HRER for publication in November 2023, for the world is again at war. The war in Ukraine, which began with Russia's invasion in February 2022, has continued for almost two whole years, and has seen a reshaping of the refugee population in Europe, with Human Rights Education Review-Volume 6(1) 2 many Ukrainian citizens joining those from Syria and elsewhere seeking safety in countries across the continent. Yet levels of global warfare and civilian deaths have escalated since October 2023, following an attack on Israeli citizens by Hamas fighters in which some 1,200 people died. Israel's subsequent and unprecedented deadly attack on occupied Gaza, killing more than 15,000 Palestinians in October and November 2023, is a human rights disaster.More than 6,000 Palestinian children have died in this same period, and the population of Gaza, which has been under a blockade since 2007, has experienced siege and aerial bombardment, which has denied them access to basic human rights, such as food, water, shelter, and health care, and for children, a halt to their schooling. The United Nations has warned that 'time is running out to prevent genocide and humanitarian catastrophe' (UN, 2 November 2023). Despite huge citizen protests around the world, calling for a ceasefire and for peace, at the time of writing there is no clear end in sight.Other wars, such as that in Sudan, which broke out in April 2023, have been eclipsed by these two conflicts. Individuals and communities, watching from afar, may feel a sense of helplessness and despair, since parallel to the physical warfare is an information or propaganda war. Journalists in the Occupied Palestinian Territories have not been protected.The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) says November 2023 has been the deadliest month

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mentioning

confidence: 76%

How might we better educate for justice and peace?

Osler,

Egan,

Hanna

et al. 2023

HRER

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“…The unwillingness to protest human rights violations and abuse of separation of powers found among participants could be disrupted through 'sharing motivating stories of people's lives being improved because of raised critical consciousness and civic engagement activities' (Ajaps & Obiagu, 2021, p. 81). The criteria for teaching human rights (see Obiagu & Nwaubani, 2020) should be applied in civics classes to promote activist spirits among learners. It will be useful to emphasise in civic classes real life instances of where human rights protests and campaigns produced effective results.…”

Section: Implications For Spatial Voting and Critical Democracy Educa...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Students' Attitude towards Political Participation and Democratic Values in Nigeria: Critical Democracy Education Implications

Obiagu¹,

Machie²,

Ndubuisi³

2023

CJFY

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This study investigated the attitudes of university students toward political participation, as well as four other selected democratic values – freedom and liberty, human rights/human rights protest, corruption resistance, and separation of powers in Nigeria. A descriptive survey design, with a tool entitled ‘Attitude towards Democratic Values Questionnaire (ADVQ)’, was used to collect data from randomly selected 250 undergraduate students (male = 120; female = 130) from a university in Nigeria. Six research questions were answered using descriptive statistics in guiding the study. The results showed that university students reported an unwillingness to protest human rights violations as well as the tendency to accept bribes and campaign for a wrong political candidate for financial gains, despite general findings that indicated positive attitudes towards all selected democratic values among university students. The result of the variance analysis conducted to ascertain the influence of gender on attitudes towards democratic values showed that female students scored significantly higher than their male counterparts in all measured democratic principles, excepting human rights and separation of powers. Implications of findings for a critical democratic education that emphasises critical consciousness, spatial voting, and socio-political resilience are discussed.

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“…Beyond the poor working conditions of teachers in many countries across the globe, especially in the global South (see Tikly et al, 2022), the motivation of these female preservice teachers seems to be another major reason for the gradual feminization of the teaching profession (Obiagu & Nwaubani, 2020;OECD, 2017). Linking teaching to being a non-demanding task, usually associated with women, as seen in this study, runs the risk of misconceiving a teaching career as a non-valued or non-technical task.…”

Section: Social Education Preservice Teachers' Motivation For Choosin...mentioning

confidence: 99%

"Not motivated but frustrated": Preservice Teachers’ Career Choice Motivations and Professional Identity in an African Context

Obiagu

2023

CIE

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This study examines preservice teachers’ career choice motivations and professional identity in an African context, Nigeria, using a narrative research method. It draws on the stories of 37 social education preservice teachers at a university in Nigeria about their teacher-becoming trajectory and teaching practice experience to realize its aims. Findings show that in Nigeria, the choice of teaching is highly motivated by fallback higher education programs, extrinsic, and socialization influence factors, while intrinsic, perceived abilities, and altruistic factors are the least motivators. The choice of teaching is influenced by gender in Nigeria, with women’s sociocultural status and traditional gender roles influencing their choice of teaching and intention to remain in the teaching profession. The majority of the preservice teachers (83.78%) have poor and negative teaching professional identities. Also, intrinsic and altruistic motivation factors are associated with positive teacher professional identity in Nigeria. Pre-service teachers’ professional identity develops from social influences, intrinsic perspectives, and their teacher education experiences and institutional factors such as teacher welfare and development policies. The findings provide insights into social education teacher pedagogic and ethics training needs that could, drawing on teacher agency to navigate the structural challenges confronting the education profession in Nigeria, foster preservice teachers’ strong interest in teaching and possibly reduce teacher attrition in developing contexts.

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The challenges of teaching for human rights in Nigeria: knowledge, pedagogy and activism

Cited by 6 publications

References 36 publications

How might we better educate for justice and peace?

How might we better educate for justice and peace?

Students' Attitude towards Political Participation and Democratic Values in Nigeria: Critical Democracy Education Implications

"Not motivated but frustrated": Preservice Teachers’ Career Choice Motivations and Professional Identity in an African Context

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