Abstract

William Tolley, a teaching fellow with the Choices Program, is the Learning and Innovation Coach and head of history at the International School of Curitiba, Brazil (IB). He writes in this article that he has found that the "Competing Visions of Human Rights" teaching unit, developed by Brown University's Choices Program, provides a superb tool both for innovating classroom instruction on key human rights issues and for reinvigorating the teaching of broader social studies courses like "crusty old history." Tolley describes the unit, saying that it is broken into 6 chapters, provides a brief history of human rights, examples of human rights in practice, specific case studies in human rights, options for U.S. policy which provide the positions for the final debate, and two full chapters of supplementary and activity resources. Also, the text is peppered with scholarly references and expert testimonials, backed by excellent secondary research, and includes relevant primary documents for analysis. Tolley uses this unit in 3 key capacities: (1) As a key introductory unit in an International Studies elective course (in conjunction with Choices's "United Nations: Challenges and Change"); (2) As a fulcrum for merging understanding of the key events of the Cold War, Decolonization and Democracy movements in the second half of the 20th Century as covered in the IB "World History of the 20th Century" course.; and (3) As an introductory resource for students choosing to write the required IB Extended Essay in Human Rights. The objective of the Choices's Program is to educate students in their participatory role as citizens through respectful deliberation in which students assume roles and positions that may not be their own.

Citation

Tolley, W.J. (2013). Using "Competing Visions of Human Rights" in an International IB World School. Social Education, 77(3), 143-147. Retrieved August 13, 2024 from https://www.learntechlib.org/p/156014/.

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Keywords

• Citizen Participation
• Civil Rights
• Cooperative learning
• educational resources
• Electronic Publishing
• Foreign Countries
• Foreign Policy
• Handheld Devices
• History Instruction
• International Organizations
• International Studies
• Political Attitudes
• Primary Sources
• Public Policy
• Secondary School Students
• social networks
• social studies
• Social Systems
• War
• Web Sites