Insights from Students on Human Rights Education in India, South Africa, Sweden and the United States

This chapter presents the results of a cross-national study on secondary school students’ views about human rights and how they learned about human rights in school. The human rights education literature has recognised the importance of “vernacularization”, or localisation, in the learning of universal human rights themes and values (Merry, Law Soc Rev 35: 39–88, 2001; Merry, Am Anthropol 108(1): 38–51, 2006; Coysh, Human rights education and the politics of knowledge. Routledge, New York, 2016). This study involved classrooms in India, South Africa, Sweden and the United States, and demonstrates that vernacularization in human rights education practice has complex applications. The specific context influences not only relevant local human rights concerns, but also classroom teaching methodology and views towards taking action. Results suggest that further research into the vernacularization of human rights education needs to take into account multiple dimensions of the political and educational contexts in which learning is taking place.