Using a Rights-Based Approach When Planning Learning Experiences for Young Children and Their Families

Abstract

The World Health Organisation argue an enabling environment is necessary to ensure children not only survive but thrive in order to transform society and meet human potential. In order to achieve this, modern theories of learning position knowledge as context specific rather than absolute, and the role of the teacher is to interact with students in ways that build on each student's prior understandings and experiences. In this sense, teaching is about building on strengths; a funds of knowledge approach that recognises what students bring into the classroom and builds upon what is already known. Even more recently, post-humanist researchers have suggested that in co-constructing knowledge with students it is essential to recognise how our anthropocentric understanding of learning places humans at the centre of our thinking and does not recognise environmental inter-connections. In this approach, the co-construction of knowledge includes not just humans but the environment itself as an equal partner. Constructivist and post-humanist approaches to teaching and learning both involve the ideas of human rights and the necessity of recognising and valuing existing knowledge as a foundation upon which new understandings can be jointly built. Unfortunately, despite these theoretical understandings, praxis more often reflects earlier theorisations of teaching and learning. This is partly because our neoliberal understanding of the world positions education as the most important tool used by society to create desirable citizens of the future, thus neoliberalism reinforces the importance of a praxis that focuses on transferring approved knowledge. In doing so, teachers map lesson plans and learning experiences onto approved curriculum, and assignments and learning activities are mapped onto approved learning outcomes. I argue that an alternative praxis, one that honours constructivist and post humanist theoretical approaches to teaching and learning, is a rights-based praxis. This approach takes as its foundational assumption the contention that programmes and services have a responsibility to ensure the rights of children and their families are met. Rights can be met in very different ways in different contexts: what works best depends in individual, familial, environmental, community and cultural capitals and contexts. In this article I will discuss a rights-based approach to praxis using a case study example to illustrate the process. This approach recognises children in the context of their family, community, context, culture and environment along with the importance of their 'being' rather than their 'becoming.'