News and Updates – Page 115

SPLC’s Whose Heritage? Report: A Teaching Opportunity

by hreusaJune 25, 2018July 1, 2020Leave a comment

Schools, monuments and statues across the country pay homage to the Confederacy. Educators can use a new report from the Southern Poverty Law Center to help teach the history behind these public fixtures—and how they spread throughout the South and beyond. The report, entitled “Whose Heritage?”offers data and context that should inform and supplement any lessons on the Civil War, its legacy and the through-line of white supremacist ideology in the United States. A timeline, for example, illustrates the spike in Confederate-dedicated monuments that occurs in tandem with civil rights advancements for black people, or during moments of intense racial strife throughout recent U.S. history. An interactive map points to the geographic locations of these public homages, with monuments and schools in Union states like New York, Pennsylvania and California begging the titular question: Whose heritage is this, really? And what purpose were these symbols of the Confederacy meant to serve?

The data and brief history lessons in this report help answer these questions and counter Lost Cause myths—myths commonly held by, and passed down to, students. As calls to remove or rename symbols of the Confederacy continue to stir controversy, educators can resist the urge to avoid this topic and, instead, teach the hard history and motivation behind these monuments and public symbols. This report supplies a foundation for learning and fodder for lessons.

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Females Improve Human Rights

by hreusaMay 28, 2018May 8, 2018Leave a comment

This article in the current issue of the Journal of Human Rights concludes that female chief executives of a country improve human rights practices to a greater degree than their male counterparts.

Written by Courtney Burns and Amanda Murdie, the article is titled Female Chief Executives and State Human Rights Practices: Self-fulfilling the Political Double bind.

ABSTRACT

What role does gender of a country’s chief executive play in human rights practices of that country? Do female leaders treat the citizens of their country better or worse than their male counterparts? We explore whether gender makes a difference in human rights practices in an effort to examine whether leader characteristics can affect human rights. Previous research has found that countries with higher levels of gender equality, measured by the percentage of women in parliament, have fewer physical integrity rights violations. However, previous research has not found an association between female chief executives and better human rights practices overall, despite clear theoretical arguments for a relationship (Melander 2005). Using updated data on female chief executives for the years 1984 to 2011, together with a robust treatment effects estimator, we find that female chief executives do improve human rights when compared to their male counterparts.

Dilemmas and Hopes for Human Rights Education

by hreusaMay 24, 2018June 11, 2018Leave a comment

A special issue entitled “Dilemmas and Hopes for Human Rights Education” has been published by Prospects: Comparative Review of Comparative Education – UNESCO’s journal of educational policies and practices. The issue presents examples from the Global South and Global North, reviewing recent theories, challenges and solutions for enabling a transformative approach to HRE through and against the lens of state power. Drawing on examples from Chile, China, Greece, Pakistan, India, the Netherlands, South Africa, Switzerland, and the US. The articles explore the gap between the emancipatory roots of HRE and the lived educational policies and practices of states and schools.

>> Read online

Global Citizenship Education Through the Power of Film

by hreusaMay 23, 2018May 8, 2018Leave a comment

With over 140 short documentaries and VR experiences there are so many imaginative ways that educators are using SIMA Classroom with their students.

To help you choose the right films for your class, SIMA has created curated film Playlists on some of the most important global education themes. Each one brings together a curated list of award-winning films and our project-based lesson plans to help you reimagine education. Dive into their latest film selections on the Sustainable Development Goals; Gender Equality; VR for Change; and more.

>> Access Playlist

Diverse Democracy Grants

by hreusaMay 16, 2018May 8, 2018Leave a comment

Teaching Tolerance (TT) is funding projects that will help students become empowered voting advocates in their communities through their Diverse Democracy Grants. TT will be offering awards of $500 to $10,000 to fund projects for educators helping their students to become lifelong voters and empowered voting advocates in their communities.

Available through August 31

>> Learn more

Women’s Rights Coming to a City Near You!

by hreusaMay 11, 2018May 8, 2018Leave a comment

By Kate Kelly & JoAnn Kamuf Ward, Columbia Law School Human Rights Institute

A number of recent and exciting developments in the local implementation of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) have occurred over the past year. There are now 9 ordinances in place, and 28 city, county and state governments have adopted CEDAW resolutions. There is also growing momentum of women’s rights movements around the country, including the #MeToo and #TimesUp movements, as well as the ongoing work evidenced by women’s marches and other groups demanding accountability.

To build upon this energy, and continue the momentum, the Columbia Law School Human Rights Institute and the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights convened a CEDAW strategy session on the margins of the 2018 UN Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) in New York. This meeting was a unique chance for advocates from around the country to collaborate, share lessons learned, and support each other in efforts to operationalize CEDAW at the local level. Representatives from CEDAW advocacy groups, local government, and academia, representing over 20 cities and counties were present, from Portland to Pittsburgh and Denver to Durham, and many places in between.

To ensure that advocates across the country can continue to raise awareness of what CEDAW entails and how it can be useful in the local context, the meeting conveners developed user-friendly materials that include a two-pager that distills the basic provisions of CEDAW, as well as a plain language guide to all of the General Recommendations from the CEDAW Committee, reflecting interpretations of the treaty. These materials are available on the Cities for CEDAW website, along with more in-depth guidance for implementing CEDAW locally.

>> Learn more
>> Join the Cities for CEDAW Coalition

May is Asian American and Pacific Islander Month

by hreusaMay 9, 2018May 8, 2018Leave a comment

May is Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, and Teaching Tolerance has assembled the following articles and video to help educators celebrate the heritage of this diverse group of Americans with their students—this month and throughout the year.

I AM ASIAN AMERICAN
Uncover the true diversity beneath the Asian American label.
TEACHERS, CHECK YOUR TEXTS
LGBTQ Asian identities need to be amplified in the school curriculum—and not just during a heritage month.
HAWAIIANS LIVE IN ALOHA
This video excerpt is from A Place in the Middle: The True Meaning of Aloha, a 2014 short documentary film. The film can be viewed in its entirety here.

Refugee Crisis Curriculum

by hreusaMay 8, 2018May 8, 2018Leave a comment

Generation Human Rights has had the incredible opportunity to work with RFKennedy Human Rights and CARE to create two curricula for middle school and high school classrooms on the current world refugee crisis

Last year, as the worldwide refugee crisis continued to escalate, RFKennedy Human Rights, Generation Human Rights and photographer and documentarian Ron Haviv came together to create a comprehensive high school multimedia curriculum on the global refugee crisis. The curriculum fills an urgent real time need as educators and youth locally and abroad struggle to fully understand how the crisis originated, how it impacts communities and how students globally can step into the role as human rights defenders in response to the situation.

For middle schoolers, Generation Human Rights and CARE created another interactive multimedia curriculum about the refugee crisis called Letters Of Hope Classroom. The lesson plans enable students to develop a tangible understanding of the crisis and supports them to make connections with young refugees around the world. The program encourages the development of empathy and inquiry as students create a foundation on which to better understand human rights and the global refugee crisis that finds more 65 million people forcibly displaced from their homes and countries.

>> Download High School Curriculum
>> Download Middle School Curriculum

Muslim American Educators Driving Change in the Classroom

by hreusaApril 26, 2018April 13, 2018Leave a comment

Nagla Bedir and Luma Hasan (pictured above), both social studies teachers in New Jersey, co-founded Teaching While Muslim to help address some of the challenges and frustrations they experienced as students growing up as Muslim Americans.

Trying to articulate a complex identity when faced with peers and educators who have a limited understanding of what it means to be Muslim often left Nagla and Luma on the defensive, responding to micro-aggressive questions and bigoted accusations that would not be necessary if school curricula were fully inclusive.

Now as educators, they are driving the change to address this lack of inclusion.The Teaching While Muslim site is a space intended to deepen understanding of the complicated identities of Muslims in the United States, including the diverse experiences of Muslim educators. It is also a platform for resources and tools.

Bedir and Hasan took a few minutes to talk about their efforts and where they see their work headed.

Teaching Empathy

by hreusaApril 5, 2018March 15, 2018Leave a comment

Check out these two new lessons created by the grand finalists of the Facing History and Ourselves 2017 Margot Stern Strom Innovation Grants. Today’s world calls for more empathy and these two winners have worked hard to develop approaches that help your students understand empathy and how to consider other points of view that may differ from their own. Explore them today and see how you can create a more compassionate world with your students.

>> Download Lessons