The State of Human Rights Education in Northeast Asian School Systems:
Obstacles, Challenges, Opportunities

Human Rights Education in Practice:
A Case Study of the Korean Experience
Ae Kyoung JeongＴ

he relatively low number of people inSouth Korea who are aware of childrights reflects the sociocultural setting of acountry influenced by traditional moral
principles and values in Asia. Children are
defined and treated in accordance with thetraditional values and historical experiencesof the society they belong to. Every person,
including the child, is a socio-cultural being.
Under the Confucian thinking, children are
immature and should be protected. This led
older generation Koreans to ignore any ideaof understanding children as independent
human beings who have rights to liberty,
make own decision, and participation. The
Confucian thinking, representing Asian
ethical principles, has no concept of humanrights or individual liberty. Conformity andresponsibility are superior to rights, whilemorality is superior to liberty. Under theConfucian thinking, human beings havedignity because of their morality andpossibility of becoming mature persons,while Western philosophy asserts thathuman beings have dignity because they areautonomous and rational. Therefore,sacrosanct and absolute rights or liberty, orrights that surpass the importance of humanmorality, should not exist in Korean
traditional norms. This socio-cultural setting
isolates the young people from everyday
social life as they confront inter-generationalsocial and cultural tension and ideologicalconfusion.

Korean Students' Social Status andHuman Rights
In the Korean society, young students areseen as “weak,” “immature,” “persons
needing education,” “those who follow
orders,” etc. These generally accepted
notions do not consider the students as“subjects” with rights but “objects” whowould grow up only if educated, protected
and given orders to follow by the elders.
Such notion weakens their rights anddistorts their life within and outside theschool. They are not allowed to freely thinkand be responsible for their actions. They
are subject to countless rules and regulations
as means to ensure their learning. To be able
to implement this notion, the schools adopt
a vertical structure and regulation-centeredsystem.
An authoritarian system governs the schools,
reflecting as much the national feudal
system, and degenerates the rights of thestudents. People still frequently say that the“school is a sacred place,” and “the power of
the teachers should be strengthened.” Inother words, the school is not considered a
student-centered place for education.
Korea’s tough education policy forces
student to ignore their rights, at least
temporarily. The teachers’ emotional or
subjective enforcement of such school
regulations worsens the situation. They
judge students without using any objective
or rational standard. As a consequence,
students become obedient to the teachers
and the school, living only within the limited
32

Human Rights Education in Northeast Asian School Systems

range of the school rules and the commands
or wishes of teachers. Moreover, challenging
school r ules and the authority of theteachers is considered a taboo in Koreansociety.

Problems of Human Rights Educationin Korea
Education is the only means to develop
human rights consciousness. Human rights
education is a global requirement towards
enhancing human dignity and developing ahuman rights culture based on people’s
human rights consciousness. Human rights
education is an obvious need in the context
of a globalized competition for power inmodern societies that require the capability
to properly adjust to the new plural order.

Discussions about right to education tend to
focus only on the rights of students. In caseso f s e r i o u s p r o b l e m s l i ke c o r p o r a lpunishment, the teachers are merely viewed
as rights violators. The rights of the teachers
are hardly respected. And yet, right toeducation refers to both the rights of thestudents and of the teachers. Thus, in orderto properly realize human rights in theschool setting, both the rights of students
and of the teachers should be secured.

The human rights education program being
implemented in the Korean school system is
not going well because of lack of experienceamong those mainly responsible for humanrights concerns and confusion among thepeople about the concept of human rights.
Also, the type of human rights education in
the countr y does not facilitate thedevelopment of appropriate educational
environment that can be institutionalized.
Human rights are taught in required courses
in lower and upper secondary schools only as
theories and not as realistic and pragmatic
ideas. While human rights education shouldaﬀect knowledge, attitudes and skills, theeducational content sug gests only theknowledge part resulting in an imbalanced
human right education.

The assumption that should be made before
we deal with rights of students is theprotection of the rights of the teachers.
Generally, there is a tendency to focus onrights of students when one refers to humanrights education in school. As earlier
mentioned, in the case of serious spanking
problem, which is shown as a prototype of
infringement of the rights of students, many
view teachers as oﬀenders. Yet, a right toeducation, which is one of the people’s basic
rights, includes both teaching rights andlearning rights; therefore, this right toeducation should protect both sides,
teachers and students. As such, excluding
habitual punishment by few teachers, weshould admit that the rights of the spanking
teachers are not protected enough in oursociety. Human rights in school can only bepromoted when both the rights of teachersand students are equally secured.

Previous human right education programs in
Korea had problems especially in terms ofform and content. They had vague goals due
to a number of reasons:a. Absence of history of human rights
education – Since Korea has no historyof human rights education, people havea loose sense of its goal. The humanrights consciousness that existed in the
countr y is being equated withhumanitarianism. In one sur vey,
seventy-five percent of the teachers
sur veyed in Ul-San primar y andsecondary (lower and upper) schools
had “never undertaken any humanrights education or related education

The educational policies, curriculums,
textbooks, school management, teaching
methods and skills under the Korean
education system are all subject to national
regulation. This results in over simplified
educational opportunities in each schoolthat limits interaction between students andteachers.

33

Human Rights Education in Practice: Korean Experience

activity.” Under this situation, there isdiﬃculty of institutionalizing humanrights education program in a stilldeveloping education system.

subject course. Although the 7th
Education Curriculum shows someflexibility by including human rights
education in some subject courses, still
there is diﬃculty in treating it as aformaleducationalcourse.
Nevertheless, human rights education
happens through the textbooks thatprovide artificial examples of what
happen in real life, or indirect examples
that objectively tell what happens in
the real world. Even though this systemnurtures decision-making skills, it does
notprovidethenecessar yconsciousness when applying them invarious situations of real life. When
students are asked to use teamwork to
discuss and solve real problems that
other countries face, values and attitude
are learned but application or practiceof skills is lacking. In addition, because
rights have been defined in politicalterms, human rights and political rights
have merged into one.

b. Political consciousness of teachers Teachers who tried to teach humanrights lived through a chaotic period in
Korean history, and their human rights
consciousness was not yet formed.
T h e s e te a c h e r s b e l o n g e d to t h egeneration of teachers who werepressured either by the colonial system
or by anti-communist dictatorship. The
democratization movement in the
1960s made people interpret humanrights consciousness as a tool ofpolitical resistance. Educators from thisgeneration cannot teach human rights
in the context of globalization. The
debate about human rights education
was first introduced during the late
1990s to the 2000s period. With thepolitical aspects of this debate slowly
being shed and the focus turning on
dignity that makes people human,
human rights education can beconsidered to have started. Although
the knowledge of human rights
e d u c a t i o n h a s a ccumulated, thisknowledge has not been organized into
curriculums, and finding a program that
deals with this subject is rare in the
education system. However, many
curriculums have one-time lessons on
this issue. As a result, teachers do nothave the opportunity to make lessonplans that they can use throughout theyear within their respective fields.

d. Lack of basic knowledge of humanrights - Not only is it highly diﬃcult tofigure out the best way to do humanrights education when people have noclear awareness of human rights, but
the promotion of the idea of humanrights education is equally difficult.
Traditional principles such as Hongik
Ingan (universal welfare of humankind)
Minbon Sasang (great devotion to thewelfare of the people), Innaechun Sasang(the people's mind is God's mind) thatare considered to be forms of humanrights awareness have hardly been put
into practice. These principles are
actually not practical ideas. Humanrights have in fact been isolated in
Korean society in view of the existenceof anti-human-rights practices inschools, families and social places.
These practices are caused by lack ofunderstanding of others, vertical
relationship between teachers andstudents, confusion of freedom withresponsibility, an education system thatc. Unsupported human rights education The so-called human rights education
has little use since it has no
institutional support and has been left
solel y to the families to decide.
Consequently, without the mechanism
to follow through, the goal of humanrights education cannot be defined.
Under the basic educational course,
human rights education is not a formal
34

Human Rights Education in Northeast Asian School Systems

focuses on university entrance
examinations and competition, and theundemocratic way of “making own
decision.” Human rights awarenessrefers to internalized knowledge andattitude: cultivated knowledge about
the rights of one’s self and those ofothers, and attitude set to respect
others' human rights. It is meaninglessto integrate human rights into
education without any research about
the history of human rights. Anythingthat does not start from human dignity
should be considered worthless. It is
not an exaggeration to call people's
human rights awareness nowadays in adying condition.

g. Lack of awareness about human rights
education as a right in itself – This is avery serious situation since teachers andstudents who do not have the basic
human rights awareness cannot carryout human rights education well.
Parents and education oﬃcials also do
not have such awareness. Moreover, thecurrent teacher-centered human rights
education does not provide an
opportunity for students to improvetheir awareness about human rights bythemselves.
h. University examination-centerededucation - An education system that
only focuses on passing university orcollege entrance examination is an
obstacle to practicing true human rights
education. Some people assert that an
education overly weighted towards
university/college admission causes themalfunctioning of education courses.
Moreover, the ranking of students
based on academic grades causes people
to be distinguished as superior based
only on their theoretical knowledge.
Human rights education in Korea has
been caught in this trap for a long time.

e. Negative view towards human rights
awareness – The assertion of one’s
human rights in the context ofcommunity-centeredness and low
human rights consciousness, is often
considered a general form of revolt
against the community. It is impossible
to talk about the meaning and value ofhuman rights in a situation where they
are simply considered as a theory of
behavior about mobs insisting on theirown opinions. Also, a lot of people
believe that human rights issues refer tocases of violence. Thus, many schools
tend to see human rights in a negative
a nd p e s sim istic light. Al l things
considered, some people argue thatincorporating human rights into
education courses is a protest againstt h e co n s e r v a t i v e a u t h o r i t y. T h i s
thinking remains until now anddiscourages the improvement of theeducation system.

There are also other problems that aﬀect
human rights education. The absence ofdiverse forms of human rights education thatcanimproveits
q u a l i t y,theinappropriateness of the contents of thecurriculum, and the lack of analysis oftraining materials based on the educationalcourses and textbooks are problems.
Human rights education should be practiced
not only in schools but also in the family andevery part of society. Human rights areconcerns about humanity, and thus everyone
must be involved in addressing human rights
problems.

f. Lack of eﬀective implementation ofhuman rights education – As discussed
earlier, without a systematic education
system in place, securing slot for humanrights education encounters many
problems, as experienced by someschools that have already tried it.

We are living in an era of confused notion ofhuman rights. And while there is atheoretical promotion of its importance,true human rights education does not occur
if the difficulties in its practice are not35

Human Rights Education in Practice: Korean Experience

overcome. The most important component
in human rights education is its "action"
component.

respondents did not know or complain about
making or changing school rules, while lessthan 35 percent of them were satisfied in
expressing opinions about the r ules.
Howe ver, 67 percent of the teacherrespondents answered that they knew therules and expressed their opinions on them.

Studies and Tasks toward Human
Rights Education
Under the current situation, it is necessary
to analyze the various areas of the school
system to know exactly how human rights
education has progressed so far, and whichareas have not progressed well. In otherwords, it is necessary to know the current
situation of human rights education, anddetermine the current consciousness ofstudents about human rights. It is also
necessary to know whether or not thesociety has been influenced by human rights
education in the school system and those
activities undertaken by the government.

More than half of the student- and parentrespondents did not know the school
policies well. More than 60 percent of them
did not know or were dissatisfied with theprocess of adoption and revision of school
policies, and less than 35 percent of themwere not satisfied with the process ofgathering and communicating of opinions
about the policies. More than 67 percent of
the teacher-respondents, however, answeredthat they knew about the process ofgathering and communicating of opinions
about the policies.

To do this, the results of the study involving
lower and upper secondar y schools
undertaken by the National Human Rights
Commission of Korea (NHRCK) and theGovernment Youth Commission (GYC) in2006 are compared to the results of anotherstudy in 2009. The two studies show thesevere problems of the youth regarding
human rights.

All members of the school community(students, parents, and teachers) did nothave much diﬀerence in their understandingof the most fundamental right, the rightagainst discrimination. However, theirrespective understanding of the other rights
diﬀered. The teachers’ notion of humanrights education was based on this diﬀerent
understanding of rights, while the students
accepted the reality of rights violations.

2006 Survey

S t u d e n t- r e s p o n d e n t s a n d t e a c h e rrespondents had contradicting views about
hairstyle, clothes, or rights over their body.
But they had similar views about
participatory decision-making, freedom todecide on their own on what they would liketo do, and freedom to engage in club
activities.

Professor Kuem ju Jo of Sang-myeong
University undertook the 2006 study
regarding human rights violations in schools.
The study covered school policy (including
process of adoption and revision, and degreeof faithful implementation), awareness ofhuman rights violations, existence or nonexistence of punishment for such violations,kinds of punishment, school responses tohuman rights violations, teaching methods,
school discipline, human rights awareness ofthe students (youth), measures forprevention of human rights violations, andneed for human rights education.

The student-respondents and teacherrespondents had diﬀerent views on right toeducation, along with the views on thecauses of violation of this right. About 70
percent of the teacher-respondents saw theexcessive number of students per class as amajor problem to resolve, while more thanhalf of the student-respondents and their

The 2006 survey shows that over 60 percent
o f s t u d e n t- r e s p o n d e n t s a n d p a r e n t36

Human Rights Education in Northeast Asian School Systems

parent-respondents saw the need to change
the whole education system. Thus, theywould like to improve the human rights
situation of the students and have smaller
number of students per class. They also
wanted to improve the whole school system,
and revise the established school rules.

Normal

42.4% (278)

Impeded23.8% (156)

Seriously impeded

22.4% (147)

No response

4.8% (31)On the question of teachers’ respect for thehuman rights of the students, up to 72.6
percent of the teacher-respondents answeredthat they were respectful of the basic rightsof the students. However, only 33.2 percentof the student-respondents answered that
their human rights have been respected.

Upper secondary students

More than 88.2 percent of the studentrespondents suppor ted human rights
education for students, while 96 percent of
the parent-respondents and 93.7 percent of
the teacher-respondents agreed on the needfor human rights education for parents andteachers. This result suggests that teachers
support the view that there is a very strong
need for human rights education for teachers.

a. Responses about the current situation of
the rights of students
Lower secondary students

4.9% (32)

3.5% (48)

Normal

33.4% (456)

Impeded32.4% (443)

Seriously impeded

27.3% (373)

No response

2.3% (31)Improved

4.3% (28)

Impeded28.0% (188)No change

28.7% (188)

Do not know

33.5% (220)

No response

5.6% (36)Upper secondary students

The “unchanged” answer is interpreted
negatively because this means that thecurrent situation in the schools has notprogressed in guaranteeing the rights ofstudents. It seemed to have become worse
since 2008.

Well guaranteed

Well guaranteed

Lower secondary students

The results of the 2009 survey show little
improvement in the answers of the students.
There is a high rate of “unchanged” and“strengthened” answers. But the high rate of“I don’t know” answers must consider thefact that first year student-respondents likely
did not know much the current situation.

1.8% (12)1.1% (15)b. Responses about the change of situationof students’ rights after 20082009 Survey Results

Guaranteed very well

Guaranteed very well

Improved

4.0% (54)Impeded32.5% (444)

No change

37.3% (510)

Do not know

23.9% (327)

No response

2.2% (30)c. Government's eﬀort to guarantee thestudents' rights
Student-respondents answered negatively
about the government’s eﬀort to protect the37

Human Rights Education in Practice: Korean Experiencerights of students. A majority of the answers(51.9 percent) of upper secondary school
student-respondents a greed that the
government was not protecting their rights
at all; while a significant number (38.4
percent) of lower secondary school studentrespondents answered the same. Although it
is its duty to guarantee the rights ofstudents, the government is not trying tofulfill this duty.

secondary school and upper secondary
school respectively.
The student-respondents cited various
factors that hindered student council
activities: guidance teachers who excessively
interfere in activities or exert too muchpressure on students, the requirement for
students to always obtain permission fromfaculty members or the principal toundertake activities, the requirement forcandidates running for student council
positions to have higher grades or moreexperience, the restriction of pledges, or thelack of school budget for activities andfunding for facilities. In addition, as much as
16.5 percent of lower secondary school
students and 11.4 percent of the upper
secondary school student-respondents said
that they were not aware of the student
council.

Lower secondary students
Trying hard

0.6% (4)Trying

9.3% (61)Average

20.9% (137)

Need more effort

24.4% (160)

No effort at all

38.4% (252)

No response

6.4% (42)Based on the survey results, there is groundfor saying that students' participation in thestudent council activities was not guaranteed
at all.

In addition, students were not active enoughin club activities, which constitute a crucialpart of a student-directed cultural lifestyle.
Overall, only 15.1 percent of lower secondary
school student-respondents and 18.4 percentof the upper secondary school studentrespondents answered that there were active
club activities, and that the amount offunding for these activities was suﬃcient.
Compared to the responses of the upper
secondary school student-respondents, many
more lower secondar y school studentrespondents answered that there were veryrare club activities. This situation canprobably be due to more upper secondary
schools closing clubs or restricting club
activities because they are considered to be
disturbing the studies.

The student-respondents who answered thatthey could play an active role in the student
council or in other organizations was only 7.8
percent and 6.2 percent respectively forlower secondary school and upper secondary
school respondents. The “Don’t know”
answer regarding school management and its
failure to accept student comments was 32.6
percent and 36.9 percent in the lower

When asked about student council or club
activities, most student-respondents
answered either no change or lack ofknowledge about them. 35.9 percent of lower
secondary school student-respondents and50 percent of the upper secondary schools t u d e n t- r e s p o n d e n t s c h o s e t h e n e w
university entrance examination system as
the primary reason for the decrease in theUpper secondary students
Trying hard

0.2% (3)Trying

3.7% (50)

Average

13.6% (186)

Need more effort

28.0% (382)

No effort at all

51.9% (709)

No response

2.6% (35)38Human Rights Education in Northeast Asian School Systems

number of student council or club activities.
Increasing stress about entrance to theuniversity, maintaining grades, and future
career discourage the students from getting
involved in the activities. Moreover, thesestresses also negatively aﬀect the activities ofthe student organizations. A school
environment consisting of focus onuniversity entrance examinations, weaksupport for student activities from theschool, and unwillingness of the members of
the faculty to provide support is also a cause
for the decreasing number of student
activities. This shows that in order toguarantee the students’ self-governing
activities, a systematic support scheme
should be established.

view that the protection of the rights ofstudents has improved greatly since 2008. A
m a j o r i t y o f t h e s t u d e n t- r e s p o n d e n t s
answered that there was either no change or
the violation of rights of students worsened.
A significant number of student-respondents
who were not sure about the situation in
their school were probably newly transferred
students. Since it is not entirely true that
schools fully protect the rights of students,
the answer of student-respondents that there
has been no change on the protection of therights of students projects a pessimistic view.
This relates to the reality that the rights ofstudents have been increasingly violated
since 2006, and even before that time theprotection of their rights had neither been
well nor improved.

6.7 percent of the lower secondary school
student-respondents, and 45.6 percent of theupper secondary school student-respondents,
answered that the rights of students were
well protected in general.

Generally, people have low awareness about
educational policies. The reality of students
not knowing the educational policies, when
they should be considered the first to benefit
from them, suggests that these educational
policies are being pushed undemocratically.
Although the United Nations Convention on
the Rights of the Child provides thatchildren have the right to freely express theirviews in all matters aﬀecting them, they are
not given the opportunities to express
themselves in the first place. Despite highawareness about many things including
Green Milea ge and The Ordinance
Prohibiting Cellphones due mainly to themedia highlight on these issues, the reality isthat government or schools almost do not
inform or explain educational policies tochildren. Even for students, who have higher
awareness, more than 30 percent of themknow little or nothing about educational
policies. Therefore, it cannot be said thatthey are aware of the educational policies
generally. There is one exception, however,regarding the students’ over whelming
approval of the ordinance about their rights.
This suggests that students feel the need for
an institutional strategy about their humanrights.

In response to the question on whether therights of students were violated or not, 46.2
percent of the lower secondary school
student-respondents and 59.7 percent of theupper secondary school student-respondents
answered in the aﬃrmative.
This clearly indicates that the extent ofprotection of rights of the students is too
limited to be felt by the students. There canbe doubts about the abnormally highpercentage of responses saying that thesituation of the rights of students ismoderate, unless the context of the students
is explained. These responses were made in
the context of violation of the rights of thestudents that had probably become part oftheir ordinary life. Also, majority of thestudent-respondents might have beensuggesting that the situation in their schools
was “moderate” compared to that in otherschools.
A minimal percenta ge of both lower
secondar y school and upper secondar yschool student-respondents supported the39

Human Rights Education in Practice: Korean Experience

The survey results show that the humanrights situation of the students hardly
changed since 2006, neither has humanrights education been improved to address
the situation. Human rights questions about
hair and dress codes, the confiscation of
student belongings, compulsive self-study or
supplementary lessons, competition overentrance examinations, corporalpunishment, and lack of right to participate
in school management still remainunanswered. The students view the situation
as getting worse, and see the failure of thegovernment to take effective action onprotecting the rights of the students. This
leads to a distrust of the government’s
educational policy. While education helps
students realize their human rights, theprocess of education should also respect
their rights. But since the educational
policies are not well-formed, education
worsens the problems as a result.

With student governments being allowed toexist, the students will have the opportunity
to participate in the education process thatallows them to grow as democratic citizens.
The students should be provided with
opportunities to learn about rights andresponsibilities as they manage their own
organizations.
Third, the communication between students
and teachers should be guaranteed. Lack ofknowledge of the school rules and theirrights in school will not improve the humanrights situation of the students. But withsuch knowledge, both the students andteachers can share and learn from each otherabout human rights and how to put theminto practice.
Fourth, human rights education for all
members of the school community (students,
teachers and parents) should be increased ass o o n a s p o s s i b l e . To a d d r e s s t h eapprehension of teachers about child rights,
they should be provided support that in turnwould have a good eﬀect on human rights
e d u c a t i o n . Ne e d e d i n f o r m a t i o n a n dmaterials should be provided for the humanrights education of the students, teachersand parents.

Policy Proposals Arising from theSurvey Results
In view of the results of the surveys, there
are bases for making proposals on policies
that would protect and develop the rights ofthe students.

Fifth, educational philosophies that mediate
the conflict between education and humanrights should be studied through regularmeetings between child rights groups,
teachers groups, human rights groups andeducation oﬃcials.

First, there is a need for a regulation onschool rules based on the Constitution. The
diﬀerent situations aﬀecting the rights ofstudents should be governed by legal
standards that harmonize the provisions of
the Constitution and the right of schools to
self-management.

The Need for Human Rights Education

Second, the adoption and revision of school
rules should have regulations that ensure theparticipationof
thestudents.
Representatives of students and teachers candiscuss how to improve their life in theschool through the adoption of the school
rules. At the same time, this system will
strengthen the personal security of thestudents.

There is an obvious need for a structured
human rights education in the school system.
There are generally four aspects in this issue.
First, there is a need to learn what basic
rights people have, and what they can do toensure those rights. There is a saying that
goes: “To be educated in human rights is a
privilege.” The purpose of human rights
education is to strengthen respect for andunderstanding of human rights in order to40

Human Rights Education in Northeast Asian School Systems

promote peace. International organizations,such as the United Nations, have asked
governments to support them in their quest
for human rights education and havebrought it forward as one of the world’s
most important issues. Ensuring basic
human rights knowledge and awareness isthe first step to fulfill before a structured
human rights education system can be put
into action. In addition, human rights
education can help stimulate development inother concerns of the countries. The worldmust plan together to put forward thesegoals and fulfill them. Second, human rights
education must not just teach rights but also
the protection and respect for the rights ofother people. This is a crucial necessity inteaching students, they must learn to moveaway from competition and selfishness. Thisis the responsibility of human rights
education. Students must learn to respect
diﬀerences in others. This will help develop
the sense of community in school andindirectly exemplify the positive
externalization of human rights education.

Lastly, acute awareness of the respect for our
fellow humans must be fostered at a young
age. Ideas and culture must be part ofeducation, and start at primary schools.
Human rights education is “ Human rights
about education, by education and througheducation.” Therefore, it is “not just theknowledge of the concepts but the active
participation in these ideas in a purposefuland planned academic manner.”
In order for human rights awareness to takeroot, human rights education is absolutely
crucial. The standard of rights present in asociety is closely intertwined with awarenessof such rights. If rights are not a privilege ofa single society but rather the rights of all,violations around the world should be
resolved. In addition, analysis of societiesthat allow human rights violations should beundertaken before taking action to attack
their root causes. Therefore, human rights
education must be for the entire nation andcarried out in multiple ways.
Education for human rights means
education that teaches human rights
practice. Specific methods should be madeavailable to make this education practical in
the sense that it provides detailed ways tomake human rights practice possible andenable people to learn how to make humanrights-friendly society themselves.

Third, clarification of the purpose of humanrights education is a basic need. The
direction of human rights education and theways to pursue it must be fully clarified andall channels of communication must be open
in order for it to succeed. It must be pursued
on the basis of people’s willingness to use
the knowledge. Increased awareness ofhuman rights heightens the sense of
responsibility. Programs must be developed
towards this goal.

Education through human rights is carriedout with a culture of respecting humanrights among individuals as a foundation andan appropriate educational environment.
Human rights relationships between peoples h o u l d b e h o r i z o n t a l . Hu m a n r i g h t s
education that is limited to knowledge andtheories is unnecessar y. Human rights
awareness that can lead to globalization has
individuals in a group respecting each other’shuman rights a s the ba sic principle.
Especially at school, interaction between
teachers and students to support humanrights awareness should arise naturally, while
the school structure and culture should be

It is diﬃcult to talk about human rights
issues without first knowing the cultural
background of the place or country. We must
explore what culture is, why it exists, what
examples of human rights violations occur
due to culture, and what are the root causesof human rights violations. The answer tothese questions would lead to the discoveryof responses needed to solve the humanrights issues. Human rights work andeducation must go together structurally forthem to work.
41

Human Rights Education in Practice: Korean Experience

more democratized. These should be part ofcontinuing eﬀorts to provide an adequate
environment for human rights education.
The subjects of this education or theteachers should be guaranteed their humanrights and freedom of expression. It can besaid that this is an active attempt to form acommunity that respects human rights in the
education field. If students take interest in
their human rights problems and humanrights issues in society, and have theautonomy to participate in raising humanrights awareness, education will become agood opportunity to foster human rights
i n t e r a c t i o n a n d s e n s i t i v i t y. S c h o o lcommunity-wide efforts will become afoundation for the feasible development of
the whole society.

viewed social phenomenons through the lensof human rights because we are not used tomaking decisions on situations and taking
action with this kind of awareness of humanrights.
These days, there are cases that lead us tothink about human rights ideologies inschool or work. In political or economic
situations, there are numerous cases ofinequality, and biased interpretation of thepower structure. But now there are many
discussions on the various aspects of humanrights.
Education facilitates respect, protection anddevelopment of human rights. Human rights
education defined as the provision of an
oppor tunity to acquire human rights
knowledge, values, and practice is justified.

Human rights and peace are ideologies basedon conscientious mind and ethics ofhumanity. Mahatma Gandhi’s statement, “Mywish is to dry all the tears that come out ofhumanity’s eyes,” is a reason why humanrights and peace exist as universal values.
Drying someone else’s tears is a right, but
being guaranteed not to have tears come outof one’s own eyes is also a right. Theinteraction between these rights can become
the power of peace.

Challenge to Realizing Human Rights
Education
To be able to impro ve human rights
education, there is a need to examine theproblems in schools, the diﬃculties in having
supportive educational policies or systemfrom the government, and the human rights
consciousness of people in the local
government and NGOs.

Human rights are inherent rights thatguarantee the dignity of human beings. The
value of human rights comes from this
dignity of the human being and these rights
are being recognized as universal rights. But
the relative character of this value can be
acknowledged when perceived correctly.
Human rights can be interpreted as astructure of interrelated values, based on thefact that morals and ethics keep the society
in order. Generally, the best way to sociallyinstitutionalize these kinds of ideologies,
values and rules and sustain suchinstitutionalization is to educate themembers of the community about them.

Human rights education needs a new humanright consciousness among people in theschools and the governments (national andlocal). Schools also suﬀer from limited spacefor human rights practice, while the limited
human rights content in the curriculum ishardly developed. Thus the diﬃcult and slow
progress as well as limited acceptance ofhuman rights education.
Research shows that the students andteachers have low human rights
consciousness. With low human rights
consciousness, teachers have problems
teaching human rights to students. Thus theneed to support the teachers.

However, our society is uncomfortable indiscussing human rights and realizing ahuman rights-friendly life. We have never

The view that it is important to control thequality of human rights education by42

Human Rights Education in Northeast Asian School Systems

monitoring and examining its process andmethodology is correct. To be able to do
this, there must be a basic manual on humanrights education.

and had conflicts with the NHRCK on
diﬀerent ways of doing things. Schools use
NGO textbooks in many cases or makestudents participate in the NGO humanrights camp for students. This latter activity,
however, is limited to only a few participants
and its content is limited to learning basic
human rights that the schools can take careof.

Another big problem is the lack ofappropriate textbook contents for humanrights education. It is also very diﬃcult toreform the curriculum for human rights
education. This can only be done if thewhole countr y has the strong will tosystematically undertake the curriculum
reform.

There are many obstacles to realizing humanrights in South Korea. They block therealization of the people's basic values andalso the development of healthy
consciousness on human rights. Theseobstacles are the following:

The relationship between the government
and the civil society should be amicable andharmonious to enhance the realization andexpansion of human rights education. This
good relationship helps raise human rights
consciousness while strengthening humanrights education at the same time. The
participation of representatives of NGOs,
schools, local governments and also
researchers and teachers in national policy
development should be guaranteed andstimulated to make their relationships active
and systematic. It is not proper to separate
the institution for policy supervision fromthat for policy implementation. There is aneed for a link between government andcivil society.

- loss of moral principles due tocapitalism, priority on the economy,
fetishism- denial of moral principles
competition

due to- denial of human dignity and continuing
culture of militarism- preservation of Confucianism and theranking of people- extreme divisions in society and neglectof human dignity.
The school is a microcosm of society. What
happens in schools shows the pain that thesociety goes through. Furthermore, due tothis pain, human rights consciousness atpresent is losing its value. Now is the time toaddress this diﬃculty.

The human rights programs of the civilsociety constitute one of the efforts inhuman rights education in the school
system. These programs are meant todevelop partnerships among organizations
through education, training, exchange ofhuman resources, and sharing of otherresources. Although they have limitations,they are being implemented in various
aspects of daily life. It would be desirable tohave an integrated human rights education
program that serves as momentum for thecreation of an education community
covering the school and its environs.

There is a need for alternatives based on an
evaluation of the current system. Education
organizations and school officials should
cooperate in reforming the school
curriculum and developing teaching skills. At
the same time, the current school
environment emphasizes the reasons why
schools should change.
Human rights education requires eﬀective
leadership in schools. In this case, teachersand principals should have undergone

NGOs have already been doing humanrights education before the government
started its human rights education program,
43

Human Rights Education in Practice: Korean Experience

human rights training before teaching
human rights to students.

right to equal opportunity in education, rightto choose contexts of education and takepart in making decisions, and right not tosuffer corporal punishment. Awarenessamong students of the rights that theyshould learn and practice in school
contributes to the sound and harmonious
development of human rights awareness inthe school community.

And most of all, the education and schoolcommunities must have the will to pursue
human rights education.
B e g i n n i n g o f Hu m a n R i g h t s
Observance in the School Community
Human rights consciousness within the
education community is a barometer ofhuman rights education. Measuring thehuman rights consciousness of teachers,
analyzing their consciousness about humanrights as core principles of education, andunderstanding how they translate humanrights into action are proper steps toward
human rights education practice.

Finally, the rights of parents consist of rights
as citizens similar to that of the teachers.
They include the right to privacy, right tosecure their children's right to education,right to express opinion on how to improve
school environment, right to petition forcorrection of inappropriate systems inschool, right to equal treatment, and theright to care for their children. The exerciseof these rights would help human rights
education develop the school community
spirit.

The human rights consciousness of themembers of the school communities,
consisting of teachers, students and parents,
has to be monitored. If they know the scopeof their rights and try to practice them, they
will learn how to respect and understandeach other.

The human rights education policy of theschool should always be reviewed based onhuman rights principles. These principles
consist of the rights enjoyed by the membersof the school community. Adhering to theseprinciples means putting them into practiceand translating them into school rules andsystems. This should be the standard bywhich to judge the respect for the rights ofstudents.

The rights of teachers are divided into two
sets: rights as citizens, on one hand, and theright to educate on the other. Their rights as
citizens include the freedom of conscience,right to public service, right to labor, and theright to be protected according to law. The
right to educate includes the right to develop
school curriculum, right to choose
textbooks, right to develop textbooks, rightto determine pedagogies, right to determine
the results of education, right to guidestudents, right to express own opinion about
education, and so on. Violation of theserights leads to problems and negative eﬀects
on human rights education.

Challenges in Educational Activities
Education is a participatory experience, anexperience as a group, an eﬀort to establish
scientific theories, and a route to developing
awareness of democratic values throughsocial activities.
In relation to human rights education, thefollowing are important questions:

The rights of students are divided into theright to self-government, right to privacy,
and other rights that should be protected.
The right to education includes the right tonon-discrimination in education, right topropose improvement in school
environment, right to meaningful education,a. Do the teachers and students haveopportunities to learn about humanrights in school?
b. Is their right to protection respected?
c. Is their right to participation respected?
44

Human Rights Education in Northeast Asian School Systems

The most important thing in human rights
education is the formation of a human rights
culture in which people, not only learn thecontent, but also enjoy rights in a practicalsense. Currently in Korea, the NHRCK is at
the center of human rights education as it
analyzes the human rights content of
textbooks, researches various teaching
techniques, and educates teachers andstudents on human rights.

The scope of human rights education should
include citizen education, global community
education, multicultural education, andpeace education. Through the academic
process, we should create a rational andstructured manual on human rights
education. This process is a direct process ofpracticing human rights, as well as creating
human rights culture. This mechanism thatwill put human rights education into practicehas five stages:

The full enjoyment of human rights by thestudents, however, faces many obstacles. The
Confucian thinking prevailing in Koreansociety violate human rights in the form ofage discrimination, and this is anunchangeable phenomenon in our culture.
Age discrimination creates ranks, thereby
leading to human relationships according toranking.

a. First stage - comprehend one’s own
rights. This means understanding themeaning of human rights to firmly
establish the human rights knowledge
base.
b. Second stage – understand humanrights in context. This refers to fullunderstanding of the historicalconditions of human rights violations.

Human rights education in the school
system cannot be a genuine achievement
until teaching techniques change. In theprocess of teaching, the methods should
respect students’ opinions and let themenjoy their freedom of expression. It is
important to establish the basic foundationthat support the students’ club activities andstudent government, as well as guarantee
their suﬀrage.

c. Third stage - secure human rights bypresenting solutions to human rights
violation situations, and demanding
human rights protection.
d. Fourth stage - form an alliance with the
public to collectively protect humanrights. There is an assumption here thatthe public has human rights awareness.
e. Fifth sta ge - this alliance should
constantly protect human rights andcommunicate with its members in order
to construct a new society, and also
overcome the irregularity of thisactivity.

There should be two methods in humanrights education: one is the active way ofeducating through various materials,
information, and knowledge related tohuman rights. In this curriculum, teachers
explain and transfer knowledge on various
international treaties or declarations and thecentral concepts behind them to thestudents. This includes human rights history,
background, central principles, awareness,
etc. The second method is the passive way ofeducating mostly about cases of humanrights violations and their consequences. In
order to involve students in the human rights
problem in the classroom, the passive
method of education is more eﬃcient.

The current reality of human rights
education in the school system has too many
obstacles to overcome before establishing
this mechanism.
Human rights education and the task ofraising the students’ human rights awarenessshould start from training teachers on
human rights. Lack of communication
among educators and lack of awarenessabout human rights are the major problems
that inhibit human rights education.
Without solving these problems, there45

Human Rights Education in Practice: Korean Experiencecannot be a genuine promotion of thehuman rights of students in schools.

At the level of individual schools, there
should a system for assessing the humanrights situation and for ensuring that schools
undertake proper corrective actions if they
are found not guaranteeing the human rightsof students. The complaints of students
should be resolved as best as possible. A
section within the local education oﬃce canbe given the responsibility of addressing thehuman rights problems of students.

In order to strengthen the promotion ofhuman rights among students, there shouldbe educational activities that discuss issues
aﬀecting them such as corporal punishment,
freedom to decide on their hairstyle,freedom to decide on school uniform, andfreedom of religion inside the school. These
efforts also strengthen the schoolcommunity as they take in the perspective ofstudents.

T h e Ko r e a n p o l i c y o n h u m a n r i g h t s
education in the school system can consistof a basic plan, or a specific plan, interaction
between the central government and the
local governments, a policy evaluation, andan alternative analysis. In this case, theimpor tant role of the go ver nment isrecognized.

It is necessary to further heighten therationality and democracy in school
management. The reform of school rules
should be done through the schoolcommunity’s democratic consensus process
in order to practice human rights
appropriately. A human rights culture means
the school stakeholders including students
go through a democratic process andsuﬃcient discussion in setting the school
standards and then undertaking the
educational activities based on the standards.

The management of centers responsible forthe students’ human rights complaints canbe entrusted to the Ministry of Education,or even to a private organization as analternative.
It is important to have a law or to improve
the legal system for the protection andrealization of the human rights of students.
A sincere and eﬀective implementation of alaw on the students' human rights will be thebasis for a genuine human rights education.

Challenges Faced by the Government
and the Local Community
The government should try to improve theschool environment by providing suﬃcientfinancial support and keeping the principles
that respect the autonomy of the individual
schools rather than uniform regulation by
law. From a macro view, we have to focus on
the government's eﬀort to develop humanrights education so that it follows the
direction towards national development.
This includes examining the human rights
education plan of the government. The
government should be concerned about theinstitutionalization process from adoption of
the human rights education plan, securing
funds to support its implementation,
information campaign to the public about
the plan, mainstreaming of the plan into theeducation system, and monitoring andeﬀective assessment of the implementation
activities.

Human rights education implemented
through a network of human rights
education programs across the entire nation
will have much stronger eﬀect. Partnership,
aimed at spreading human rights culture, isthe fundamental framework for prospective
leaders to establish a system for cooperation.
To make this possible, those who can cause
social change should be able to cooperatewith each other. The movement to form acommunity for human rights education
should be facilitated activel y by theeducation community to spread the humanrights culture faster and more eﬀectively inthe entire society. Those engaged in humanrights education can be from any group ofpeople. The important thing is the46

Human Rights Education in Northeast Asian School Systems

networking between them. For example, thehuman rights network in the U.S.A. manages
the network actively in which various kindsof specialists like lawyers, educators,
students, scholars, and organizers
participate.

parents and students understand andpractice the human rights culture.
Primary Schools
This is an example of a program to improveawareness of human rights throughexperiential learning. This program was
implemented in Oak Gu Primary School in
Chonbuk led by a teacher (Lee, Kyoung-ah).

Provincial governments are good partners in
the human rights culture movement since
they are able to contribute positive andsubstantial suppor ting programs like
supporting the training of human rights
educators, providing students internshipopportunities, providing subsidies, andincreasing community support.

A. Developing an educational environment
as foundation for human rights education
Objectives and Activities
1) Prepare the basic environment for humanrights education

The policies of the provincial governments
should reflect the needs of human rights
e d u c a t i o n f o r i t s r e s i d e n t s . In t h eimplementation of the national plan of the
Ministr y of Education, the provincial
governments have the advantage ofmanaging the human rights educationp r o g r a m s t h r o u g h m o r e a p p r o p r i a teadaptation to the characteristics of theirrespective areas.

a. Provide related books and information
to address the teachers’ weakunderstanding of human rights andprepare them for their human rights
classesb. Prepare the environment to improvethe exercise of the rights of students
and to activate human rights education– designate places for children to rest,
establish a stand for free reading, allow
c h i l d r e n to e s t a b l i s h t h e i r s e l f governing community/organization,
post hand-written posters, create a
website about human rights.

Examples of Human Rights Educationin Schools
Pr im a r y an d seco n d ar y schools ha ve
diﬀerent human rights education programs.
In this article, the examples in primaryschools are based on village setting andfocused on the lack of sense of community.
Students do not have opportunities to learn
mutual understanding and consideration
because of neglect of families and busy
parents. This discussion aims to foster an
educational environment for developing a
sense of human rights among parents,
teachers and students based on family andsocial factors. To build the base for humanrights education and to practice it, this
discussion is divided into three parts parents, teachers and students. This
discussion also aims to build sucheducational environment that fits humanrights education and also community humanrights awareness-raising. The goal is to makec. Run one-year classes on human rights develop the culture of respect forhuman rights in the class; create a
program that give recognition toteachers who respect human rights(with teachers evaluating themselves
through evaluation sheets); create
appropriate class environment toimprove the human rights awareness ofteachers and to protect the rights ofstudents.
2) Implement a program on improving thehuman rights awareness of teachers,
students and parents

47

Human Rights Education in Practice: Korean Experiencea. Activities for teachers

their own capacity inside theclassroom.

Hold twice a month group training inthe school, workshops for humanrights, five seminars, three visits toschools that are famous for humanrights, thirty hours of individual
training, one guest lecture, one training
for human rights, and seven study
lessons on human rights.

d. Ma ke t h e s t u d e n t s d e v e l o p t h e
principles of democracy as part of their
extra-curricular activities and practicehuman rights through the following:(1) Allow all 4th to 6th grade students
to use their free time during
Fridays to attend and manage
student council activities.

b. Activities for students
Watch video clips about human rights
and express feelings about them during
Tuesday morning session; sing a song
about respect for human rights, mutual
understanding, non-discrimination,equality, environmental rights and selfesteem during one Saturday morning
session.

(2) Agenda and discussion: cooperatewith the teachers union andschool management.
(3) Provide for a room for student
activities where they can have free
discussion and sharing ofviewpoints, and other activities.

c. Activities for parents

e. Include humanity experience activitiesin school events

Disseminate once a month bytelecommunication
systems
information about human rights; run atwice a month section about humanrights in the school newspaper; holdone training about human rights; createa parents’ section in cyber human rights
community in the school website.

(1) D u r i n g t h e Pe o p l e w i t hDisabilities Day, show videos andpowerpoint presentations about
facilities for them, hold activities
that allow students to experience
the problems they face(2) Ho l d i n f o r m a t i o n e x c h a n g e
conference, experiencing theenvironment activity, rummages a l e t o h e l p No r t h Ko r e a n
students, pottery making, popquiz on human rights, visit tohumanitarian organizations, andspeech contest on human rights.

B. Humanities education program as subject
and optional activity
Objective:
To make good use of the textbook and time
for the humanities education subject andoptional activity
a. Prepare the humanity textbook foreach grade, restr ucture Guide to
Humanity Living, and then educate.

f. Humanity experience linked with thelocal community(1) Establish a partnership with social
welfare organizations, understandeducation for people withdisabilities, program for teachers,
parents and students to visit social
welfare institutions

b. Through various humanity experience
activities, implement an action plan.
During the extra-curricular activity
time, students promote humanitarian
sense through their own activities andlocal communication systems.

(2) Hold human rights educationa c t i v i t i e s t w i ce a m o n t h o nc. Make the student activities moreinvigorating, which will also develop
48

Human Rights Education in Northeast Asian School Systems

Saturdays such as readingmaterials on human rights withthe parents, students and parents
writing ideas about the materials.

c o o p e r a t i v e l y, c o m p e t i t i v e l y, a n d
individually-structured and with soundbalance of content. In a narrow definition,
education should be defined as a system
whose subject chooses its content, and forms
and organizes it harmoniously through aprocess. To maximize the eﬃciency of thissystem, there is a need to develop a strategic
and compound class structure program tomake the students select the content ofeducation by themselves and to plan thestrategy of instruction that can lead tolearning, and to bring up the good
methodology that can realize human rights
education through the curriculum.

Secondary Schools
This is an experience on human rights
education for secondary schools focusing ont h e a p p l i c a t i o n o f s t u d e n t- ce n te r e dcurriculum. To fully implement human rights
education, there should be a discussion fromvarious perspectives about the school
management, the participation of parents, orhuman rights education of teachers. The
reality, however, is that the opportunities forstudents to experience the intellectual,
emotional, and practical aspects of humanrights education are quite insufficient. I
introduce here an experience regarding ahuman rights education program made forstudents to naturally develop their awarenessof human rights through the curriculum andto have the opportunities to learn life withhuman rights through educational activities.
The program is related to the subjects in theexaminations that the students have to take.
The program induces natural internalizationof human rights through the process of
discovering human rights problems, thinking
by themselves using their own points of view,and developing proper practical action totake.

1. Background to planning the class
The planning for the program has thefollowing features:• Development and management of selfinitiated teaching method by students a guidance plan made by students ofeducational activities about humanrights.
• Training on leadership that can attract
criticism, creative evaluation,
exploration of materials andinterpretation of data from students.
• Selection of teaching-learning strategies
that allow students to understand every
aspect of human rights education andto apply what they learned, including
the training on developing thestrategies.

Study of plural teaching strategy for humanrights education
Study of subject-centered approach• Development, through discussion anddebate, of democratic class models andadoption of a communication process
through which students persuade eachother.

No-won High School (Professor Ae-kyung
Jeong)
Human rights education is an opportunity
for experiential learning on harmony,compromise, and coexistence. I believe thatthe use of cooperative learning is mostappropriate to reflect this purpose andfeature of education. To enable students toadjust to human rights problems and provide
rational judgment and alternative, it is very
important that the learning process be• Bolstering creativity and receptive
capacity to enable students to handle
human rights problems in diverse ways.
It is hard to carr y out human rights
education in the whole secondary school
system whose main goal is making students
pass the university entrance examinations.
49

Human Rights Education in Practice: Korean Experience

Therefore, the project is designed tointegrate human rights education into theregular curriculum, and make the students
independently and voluntarily create theappropriate learning process throughdiscussions and other activities. I think thisproject allows students to realize throughactivities the essence and usefulness ofhuman rights education. This is mostnecessary in the smooth mainstreaming
human rights education into the school
system.

to learn and apply these skills to real life,
students themselves should be the ones topromote a new study plan that emphasizes
group work. The adoption of the “Student
Self-organized Guide for Teachers” is theultimate direction and purpose of thisparticular activity.
2. Course Plan guide - Perspective exchange
drill
A. Topic: Establishing a universal humanrights culture in order to become a global
rights protector.

Regarding the middle school system, what
type of study method should be chosen inorder to maintain a significant connection to
the preparation for the university anddevelop the students’ critical thinking skills
at the same time? This is a serious dilemmathat both teachers and students have toencounter in the field of education. This isalso the primary reason why education onhumanities has not been actively promotedin the past.

B. Objectives• Learn the concept of human rights• Know the importance of practicing
human rights by focusing on theexamples of human rights practicearound the world• Understand the relationship between
human rights and democracy, and thinkof ways to practice human rights.

Nonetheless, the future wil l require
individuals to experience various social andinternational situations. In addition, people
must learn how to cooperate with each otherproductively through interaction. In thisway, our contemporary society will be able toprogress towards a future of respect andgenerosity.

C. Course model: Perspective exchange drill
D. Course structure
Teacher’s role: Evaluate the overall activities
after class.
Student activities:• The students prepare for the classbased on the course materials that theteacher provides.

An individual student has a crucial identity
in that he or she is greatly influenced by theworld but also shapes the world in return.
Thus, it is vital that the student has both astrong sense of responsibility and the ability
to find eﬃcient solutions to problems. Yet,this is under the assumption that thestudent has the freedom to do so. The
promotion of the humanities aspect ofeducation through student-based, active, andcooperative activities make students
experience interdependence. As aconsequence, they will be able to gain asense of self-identity as well as develop ahumanistic tendency to share the knowledgeof living together as a community. In order• The teacher introduce to the studentst h e p r o ce d u r e s f o r “ Pe r s p e c t i v eexchange drill” and are informed of the-guide on how to discuss a topic ina group,-

instruction to state group opinions
for one common topic.

• The students evaluate the course freely
when concluding the course.

50

Human Rights Education in Northeast Asian School Systems

2-1. Lesson plan on developing the culture of human rights
Title

Our fight for beautiful human rights

Model for applicationand lesson plan making

Learning how to change perspective- one class

Activity topic

Spread the human rights culture to the world

Materials

Human rights movie

Objectives

1. To gain knowledge on human rights
2. To understand and acknowledge the two-fold difficulty in human rights
3. To learn how to interact in a team through cooperation and logical thinking.

Course of activities

Contents

a. Introductory activities▶ Suggestions on the fundamental informationneeded for human rights education▶ Explanation on the process of learning
Human rights movie
activities<The six viewpoints>▶ Viewing of the movie – organizing various
perspectives involved

b. Development ofactivities▶ Identifying the characters appearing in themovie in each group:- Identify the character for each theme in
the movie- Understand the social and economic
circumstances of the character and her/
• Discussion within the group
his standpoint.
- Discussthesocialstereotypes, • Role play in each group• expressing the viewpoints
institutional discrimination, and humancorresponding to therights violations
roles being played▶ Making a chart through group activity and• expressing own opinions
presentation- Mapping the viewpoints (role →opinion
assertion → persuasion)- Finding out controversial elements (facing
the dilemma)c. Organizing/concluding activities▶ Group the elements of the dilemma▶ For each group, the students freely suggest
measures regarding the human rights
dilemmaMaterials (references)51

Human Rights Education in Practice: Korean Experience

2-2. Lesson Plan - Studying guidance plan for forming human rights culture
Title

Our struggle for beautiful human rights

Model for applicationand lesson plan making

Learning how to change point of view
- two periods

Activity topic

Develop beautiful human rights culture in the global village through the realvalue of human rights

Materials

Articles on human rights problems – news magazines

Objectives

1. To recognize the value of human rights
2. To understand the need for democracy to support universal human rights
3. To realize the importance of human rights practice and consider human rights
activities that can be carried out in daily life.

Course of activities

Contents

Materials (references)a. Introductory activities▶ Presentation of a common subject:
examples of human rights violations in theguest workers problem▶ Make each group select different stances▶ Tell the groups to orally present theiropinions

Articles about violations of thehuman rights of guest
workers, picturesb. Development ofactivities▶ Each group makes own point of view(search for opinion and reasons) for• Group representing the government• Group representing guest workers• Group representing employers• Group representing domestic workers• Group representing human rights
organizations
Internet materials, articles,
human rights magazines on▶ Each group's stance – oral presentation
the labor issue• Teacher prepare for the presentations• Organize content by asking questions
regarding each stance during thepresentations▶ Search for methods to narrow the difference
between stances• Take suggestions from other groups• Search for conflicting problemsc. Organizing/
Concluding activities▶ Teacher presents the conflicting issues inthe subject and ask each group to findsolutions▶ Make students fill out assessment form on
the human rights problem.
52

Suggestion for assessment

Human Rights Education in Northeast Asian School Systems

The human rights education program for the
primar y schools centers on in-school
activities. Teachers, students and the parents
are involved to facilitate the lasting impactof the program. Human rights-based schoolsupport programs are implemented to help
students gain knowledge and raise
consciousness on human rights. The
activities make human rights a daily practicebased on newly-formed awareness.
Meanwhile, in the case of secondary schools,
the program seeks learning areas within theschool curriculum and structures them toraise human rights consciousness and allow
students to gradually form theirdetermination to practice human rights on
their own. This is a human rights education
program that focuses on specific subjects
through which students learn about humanrights problems and develop thecommitment to respect human rights, while
also developing the ability and responsibility
to apply them in everyday life. This kind of
program is expected to help revolutionize
the human rights consciousness of students.

consciousness is not high enough yet. Social
awareness of child rights and of thegovernment body is especially low in Korea.
Start of Human Rights Education in
School
Education is experienced throughparticipation. Participatory methodology
leads to active self-initiation. The true
purpose of this methodology is to raise each
person up and be enabled to develop a senseof community. This is the reason why
methodology is important in human rights
education.
There has been an increase in the number ofschools that allow their students to create
regulations through the student body. This
movement of change from teacher-based to
student-based control promises a better
discipline and satisfaction for the school
along with the rise in human rights
awareness. The active participation of
students in this change can ensure thefulfillment of the promise of human rights.

Integrated Attempt to Activate Human
Rights Education

Fostering Human Rights Awareness inHouseholds

Since the Universal Declaration of Human
Rights was adopted by the United Nations(UN) General Assembly on 10 December
1948, interest on child rights grew. In 1959
the United Nations adopted the Declarationof the Rights of the Child, and in 1989 theConvention on the Rights of the Child( C RC ) w a s o p e n e d f o r s i g n i n g a n dratification by the UN member-states. The
UN selected 1985 as the International Youth
Year, increasing participation of youth anddiscussion about their rights at the sametime. South Korea ratified the CRC in 1991
and declared a new Youth Charter of Korea
that declared the rights of youth and thegovernment body that should be responsible
for them. However, despite the national
support structure, social institutions for therealization of child rights are still flawed,
w h i l e t h e p e o p l e ’s h u m a n r i g h t sWith the adoption of the government policy
on human rights education, educators mustbe supported by a set of human rights values.
It is crucial for the schools to foster humanrights awareness and contribute to thecommunity. However, the expected outcome
would be diﬃcult to achieve through thesole eﬀort of the schools. Human rights
education assumes variety in human nature,and relates to sensibilities, cultures, manners
of behavior, and characters of people.
Therefore, the center of human rights
education should be one’s home. Home iswhere one first learns the balance between
own desire and social consideration andcooperation. If there is a conflict between
what one has learned in schools, the media
and in households, it would be hard for one
to learn the true value of human rights. The
perfect, ideal human rights education
53

Human Rights Education in Practice: Korean Experience

happens when one learns the true spirit ofhuman respect inside their households.
There also should be encouragement andacknowledgement among family members.
The fundamental condition to develop
human rights education is to encourage allfamily members to take part in this program.
In order to achieve this, there should be asystematic and consistent human rights
education program.

rights education without guaranteeing rights
in the school environment is not eﬀective.
Thus, guaranteeing human rights is aprecondition to successful human rights
education.
This process enables the practice of humanrights through incremental building up of
the basic elements of human rights
education. In the past, with the lack ofconcern from the Ministry of Education,
only the eﬀorts of teachers or parents led to
improvement in the school environment.
There were teachers who quietly taught
human rights to students and the parents byputting them into practice. However, theseeﬀorts were limited if the people had no
prior education on human rights. For thatreason we have to change our thinking abouthuman rights. Now, we need to recognizethat human rights education is also a humanright in itself, and the government, schools
and teachers should implement more
specific human rights education programs.

The National Youth Policy Instituteprovides sug gestions on human rights
education program for the youth. They are
the following: First, establish and operate ayouth human rights committee as a central
institution. Second, establish youth humanrights centers to do professional researchand collection of education resources on thesubject. Third, organize a non-governmental
committee for the human rights of youth tofacilitate communication among NGOs, andjoint initiatives between the government andinternational organizations. Although thesesuggestions are meant only for education onrights of the youth, they are worthy
suggestions for genuine, integrated humanright education system for schools that will
have the support of a national organization
on human right education and with NGO
participation.

We ha ve to focus on four aspects inpromoting human rights education. First,
what is the key point in seeking reform ofeducation? Second, who will be students incase the new type education is realized?
Third, what do you think of experimental
education? Finally, does the foundation ofreformed education exist? New model of
education should begin by considering the
problems of education, and considering thedifferent viewpoints of teachers,
administrators, and parents as well as
students.

United Efforts for Human Rights
Education
It is important for teachers, principals,
parents, and students to participate andcooperate in the development of humanr i g h t s e d u c a t i o n . Im p r o v e m e n t s i n
education cannot be successful only throughcurriculum reform because human rights
problems can only be solved when theenvironment for human rights change into
harmony. In order to reinforce human rights
education, ever yone is required toparticipate in a program where they teachthe responsibilities and human rights.
Through this process, a more efficientheightening of human rights culture will
guarantee human rights. Providing human

Civil society organizations should be
encouraged to suggest government policies
in support of human rights education and insystematizing and strengthening thepartnership between civil society
organizations, teachers, researchers andrelevant government oﬃces.
The UN has recommended the need toestablish close ties between the government
and the civil society as a means to emphasize
54

Human Rights Education in Northeast Asian School Systems

the close link between government
policymakers and the institutions that
implement them.

government or strategy for diffusing
educational policy through localorganizations or schools should be
developed with creativity. When schools,
government, and local organization agreeu p o n u l t i m a te g o a l o f h u m a n r i g h t s
education and educate the value of humanrights as an actual curriculum withconsistency, social network for human rights
education will finally outshine its positive
influence. Foreign government and schools
are already pushing the educational
programs and youth organizations with thehelp of Amnesty International Korea and are
getting subsidies for educating and training
the policy makers within schools such asteachers and principals. There are many
countries that proved the eﬀectiveness ofcooperating with these organizations forhuman rights education. For Korea, however,network within government or schools are
not very active. Partnership between local
government and organizations still lacks thesmooth link for human rights education
activities.

The current environment for human rights
education that the Korean government isdeveloping is related to the work of a
network of related government agencies. It
also includes the monitoring, exchange of
information on human rights, and discussionof fundamental government policies
between the NHRCK and the government
agencies. Also, the NKHRK works withlocal communities and develops various
policies and specification plans that aresuitable and essential to the different
communities. These activities clearly showthat the NHRCK serves as the bridge
between government policies and the civilsociety through research of current work on
human rights education in schools,
proposing policy change, and developing
various programs and implementing them.
Within the civil society, many human rights
NGOs keep making improvements on thepartnership between diﬀerent organizations
or schools, providing education and training
programs, and exchanging human resources.
Howe ver, because onl y fe w students
participate in these short-term school
programs, often times NGOs failed toachieve the ultimate goal of human rights
education. Thus it is necessary for theschools and the NGOs to reorganize theschool programs, or develop new ones. To doso, schools and NGOs should closelycooperate in more practical aspects. The
network for human rights education of theAmnesty International Korea paved the way
for the strengthening of the partnership on
human rights education within the civilsociety. Students also started to use theAmnesty International Korea program
within their school clubs or after-school
programs.

The local governments are partners that can
provide positive and practical support forhuman rights education programs such as
financial subsidies, educators, internships forstudents, free use of facilities, andpromotion of communal spirit. The local
governments should actively promote a
policy about the necessity of providing
human rights education to local residents. In
implementing the national plan, the local
governments can develop human rights
education programs that are more suitable
to the communities’ special character. Local
governments can undertake human rights
education with the schools or manage theprogram with the local colleges or NGOs.
Human rights education in the school
system would be most eﬃcient if there is anationwide network supporting it.
Partnership for human rights should be thefundamental framework of the network.
There is a need for active partnership withthe human rights community. There is also a

Combination of different human rights
educations is a popular tendency nowadays.
Interdependence between national and local
55

Human Rights Education in Practice: Korean Experienceneed to gather information on experiencesfrom the diﬀerent parts of the country, atask that the network can engage in.

References
Osler, A. & Starkey, H. 2005. Changing
citizenship: democracy and inclusion in
education. Maidenhead: Open University
Press.

To promote human rights activities, there isa need for realistic education programs withappropriate financial support, internshipprograms, information dissemination, andlocal community involvement.

_____________________ 1996. Teacher
Education and Human Rights. London:
Fulton.

The need for human rights education
program for local communities should bereflected in government policies. And tom a ke t h e p r o g r a m c o n c r e t e a n dadvantageous to the local communities, they
(local communities) should make the eﬀorts
to develop and implement them.

Verhellen, E. 2000. “Children’s Rights andE d u c a t i o n , ” i n A . O s l e r. E d i to r.
Citizenship and Democracy in Schools:
Diversity, Identity, Equality. Stoke-onTrent, Trentham.
Kang, Sun Won. 2007. The Need for Both
Universality and Diﬀerentiation in Human
Rights Education. Seoul: Hanshin
University.

Conclusion

Jo, Guem Joo. 2006. Survey on Human Rights
Situation in Middle and High SchoolStudents. Seoul: SangMyoung University.

Various efforts are needed to further
promote the culture of human rights andguarantee human rights. First of all, it isnecessary to understand the problems facedby the schools to be able to institutionalize
human rights education. An accurate analysis
of problems in the present day academic
situation, the emergence of diverse society,and “exclusion” of some sections in society
are needed to be able to choose the rightpath to human rights education.

Lee, Yong Gyo. 2003. Making Human Rights
Culture in School. Seoul: Kwangju
University.
Lee, Kyoung-ah. 2007. Sample program for
improving the sense of human rights throughe x p e r i e n c e . C h o n b u k : O a k Gu
Elementary school.
Jeong Ae-kyoung. 2006. Study of plural
educational strategies for human rights
education. Seoul: Kyung Hee University.

In addition, the fact that the CRC puts
much importance to human rights education
should not be forgotten. The CRC provides
for wide understanding of its provisions suchas guarantees of respect/safety, learning toshare responsibilities on problems related toschool education, establishing self-identity,and enjoying and protecting one’s rights.

_________________. 2005. Integrated Practiceof Human Rights Education based on the
Understanding of the Diﬀerent Cultures.
Seoul: Kyung Hee University.
Kim, Jung sub. 2006. Spreading Human Rights
Culture and Strengthening the System toProtect Human Rights. Seoul: Kyoungsang
University.

Human rights education thrives, therefore,
in a environment that fulfills human rights.

Sim, Sung-bo. 2008. Making Schools More
Democratic and Participatory to Promote
Student`s Rights. Seoul: Busan Education
University.

56

Human Rights Education in Northeast Asian School Systems

57