The Rights Project: How Rights Education Transformed a Classroom

Current research has suggested many possible benefits of rights education, including increased empathy, tolerance and respect (Alderson, 1999; Allan & I’Anson, 2004; Covell, 2005; Decoene & De Cock, 1996). In this case study of a rights education project - the Rights Project - we demonstrate some ways rights discourse served to transform the understanding of a group of four year-olds in a preschool. Rather than contributing to the maintenance of a hierarchical, rules regulated classroom, rights education transformed the classroom into a new learning environment based on equity, inter-dependence and group accountability. This article focuses specifically on children’s discussions around, and practical use of, two articles stated in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child: Article 13, ‘the right to be listened to’ and Article 31, ‘the right to play’ (United Nations General Assembly, 1989). As children explored the meaning of each right, their understanding of social being transformed and their recognition of the relationship between rights and responsibilities seemed to shift their perspectives from ‘me’ to ‘we’.