This study was initiated due to the need for students who will lead a future global society to cultivate human rights awareness. Students who will live in the global era should be able to empathize with the emotions and situations of others, think abo...
This study was initiated due to the need for students who will lead a future global society to cultivate human rights awareness. Students who will live in the global era should be able to empathize with the emotions and situations of others, think about whether problems in terms of human rights will arise, and practice them with a sense of responsibility. Therefore, this study aims to provide an opportunity to cultivate human rights awareness in students.
The climate crisis is an issue that can’t be separated from the lives of modern humans, and it is affecting the entire planet beyond national borders. In particular, the climate crisis is hindering human lives in terms of human rights. According to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, various sub-items of human rights are presented, and the climate crisis mainly violates the human right to life, the right to safety, and the freedom of movement among them. However, most climate crisis education conducted in schools to date focuses on emphasizing the seriousness of environmental issues by having an eco-friendly lifestyle and understanding the phenomenon of global warming. Such education not only makes it difficult to recognize that the climate crisis is violating human rights, but also has limitations in developing a sense of responsibility for the climate crisis and taking human rights actions.
Therefore, the purpose of this study is to develop and apply an educational program to view the climate crisis from a human rights perspective and recognize it as a human rights issue, thereby fostering human rights sensitivity in elementary school students. To this end, the following two research questions were set and the study was conducted.
First, how can we organize a climate crisis education program with human rights aspects suitable for elementary school students? In order to organize the program content, we analyzed previous studies on climate crisis education and human rights education. As a result, both previous studies could be organized into cognitive, affective, and behavioral domains, and the educational content elements were also presented based on the three major domains above. This study consisted of a total of three implementation studies, and was conducted as the first (cognitive domain-centered), second (affective domain-centered), and third (behavioral domain-centered) implementation studies. The first implementation study was organized and conducted to cognitively understand the concept of climate crisis, its causes, its impact, and responses. The second implementation study examined the Universal Declaration of Human Rights to understand the concept of human rights and simplified the types of human rights into three (right to life, right to safety, right to housing). Afterwards, we looked at picture books to help them empathize with the suffering caused by the climate crisis and feel responsible. We also directly investigated and shared cases of climate crisis damage, and through activities to connect violated human rights, we made them aware of the relationship between the climate crisis and human rights. In the final third implementation study, we planned and implemented a climate crisis response campaign after empathizing with the need to respond to the climate crisis. After the campaign, we reflected on the entire project process and shared our thoughts. By presenting these content elements throughout the third implementation study, we designed a total of 11 project classes to achieve the goals of cognitive, affective, and behavioral aspects.
Second, how does a climate crisis education program in terms of human rights affect the cultivation of human rights sensitivity in elementary school students? This study was conducted with 24 students in one third-grade class taught by the researcher. After each implementation study was completed, the content and results of the implementation study were analyzed and reflected on. The improvements discovered during the reflection process were applied to the next implementation study, and a human rights sensitivity test was conducted before and after the program to determine the extent of improvement in the students' 'situation perception ability', 'result perception ability', and 'responsibility perception ability'. This test consisted of 20 multiple-choice questions (based on a 5-point Likert scale) and 6 descriptive questions. After the program was completed, the students began to think about the climate crisis from a human rights perspective, and showed significant improvement in their situation perception ability to recognize specific problematic situations as human rights issues beyond the climate crisis. In addition, they recognized that their own lifestyles could cause climate problems, as well as infringe on someone's human rights, and formed a consensus on the need for a climate crisis response campaign.
The researcher sympathized with the need for climate crisis education and the need to foster human rights sensitivity in line with the demands of the times as a global society, and developed and implemented a class program, collecting and analyzing students' speeches, class journals, and in-depth interview data. The significance of this study lies in the fact that it suggests the need to foster human rights sensitivity as a global citizen capacity and develops and presents a climate crisis education program for this purpose.