Abstract
In the Dutch educational context, human rights are implicitly at stake. The Dutch educational context is presented, and its characteristic of ‘freedom of education’ as laid down in Article 1 of the Dutch Constitution. In addition, an overall picture is given of teacher training at Inholland University of Applied Sciences—a merger of a variety of universities of applied sciences in the western part of the Netherlands, called Randstad. The research explores human rights literacy of students of Inholland UAS Teacher Training College. For these students, coined as Generation Z, the plural society is a given. The focus in our contribution is on the priority these students give to the consequences of the plural society and its plural moralities regarding children’s rights since that is where their motivation and action is. Infusion of data has taken place by way of a focus group discussion. In our conclusion we recommend the introduction of an interdisciplinary subject ‘Normative Citizenship Education’, taking into account the difference between the human right of education and human rights education, and the reflexion thereof in the global and local context of the Netherlands.
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Notes
- 1.
To refer to the Inholland University of Applied Sciences, in the following text Inholland UAS is used.
- 2.
See for an extensive description of theoretical framewerk, aims, and methodology of this research project chapter Roux and Becker in part II of this volume.
- 3.
What-ever-ism is the translation of the Dutch expression ‘ietsisme’, coined by Ronald Plasterk, the former Minister of Internal Affairs 2012–2017. With this expression Plasterk refers to persons who do not belief in a God, but do belief in ‘something beyond’, ‘whatever what’.
- 4.
In the heyday of the pillarization the predecessor of the Inholland UAS was named ‘Ichthus Hogeschool’; ichthus, a Greek concept, used in the Protestant tradition, referring to Jesus Christ, son of God, our Saviour.
- 5.
Meijer (2016) points to the tension between the right of the child and parents’ right. In a footnote she refers to Meira Levinson, who states that ‘From children’s perspective (…) parents have the potential to be at least as tyrannical as the state—and thus to pervert the course of their education and inhibit their development of autonomy’ (Levinson, 1999, p. 69).
- 6.
For an extensive description of the Dutch pillarized society, see Jackson, Miedema, Weisse, and Willaime (2007).
- 7.
Paradoxically, however, many parents still send their children to Christian schools in the pillarized system, although they do not themselves adhere to any religious tradition. The argument often heard from parents is: “It won’t harm my child to know about religious traditions and to listen to the core narratives of Christmas and Easter” (Ter Avest, Bertram-Troost, & Miedema, 2013).
- 8.
- 9.
Pedagogical strategy is understood as the overall reasoning around Inholland UAS’s teacher training (curriculum construction and content, objectives, assessment). Didactics is understood as ‘how to proceed in the classroom’ (methodology, teaching and learning methods) (Leganger-Krogstad, 2013, pp. 171–172).
- 10.
See footnote 9 regarding the distinction between pedagogical strategy and didactics.
- 11.
The Responsibility to Protect (R2P) is a global political commitment which was endorsed by all member states of the United Nations at the 2005 World Summit to prevent genocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity. R2P is based upon the underlying premise that sovereignty entails a responsibility to protect all populations from human rights violations, based on a respect for the underlying principles and norms of human rights.
- 12.
‘Black Peter’ is part of the Dutch tradition of Sinterklaas (Santa Claus). The birthday of Sinterklaas is celebrated each year on the 5th of December. Sinterklaas gives presents to each child, often accompanied by a funny and amusing poem. The presents are delivered by ‘Black Peter’, Sinterklaas’s servant who makes little jokes and makes you laugh. In the actual debate people argue that ‘Black Peter’, because of the black make-up of his face, should be replaced because Black Peter’s make up, his outfit and his servant/servile attigude is mortifying coloured people.
- 13.
Crystallization we understand as a process of member reflection on the analysis experience, and explore complexities in an attempt to identify and articulate patterns or themes noticed during the process of reading and interpreting the original data (cf. Becker, De Wet, & Parker, 2014).
- 14.
An interesting comment on respect is made by the political philosopher Avishai Margalit. In an interview in “Filosofie Magazine” (Journal of Philosophy), he states that it might be better to take ‘negative ethics’ as a starting point for ‘respect’, and to aim for the prevention of insults and humiliation (Margalit, 2017).
- 15.
See for further elaboration of the points of view of students in the S2015NL project and in particular the students participating in the FGD2017_NL focus group interview; see paragraph 5.
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ter Avest, I., Stedenburg, E. (2019). More Than Education: Reflections on Student Teachers’ Understanding of Human Rights. In: Roux, C., Becker, A. (eds) Human Rights Literacies. Interdisciplinary Studies in Human Rights, vol 2. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-99567-0_7
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