scholarly journals More than a Mural: The Intersection of Public Art, Immigrant Youth, and Human Rights

2016 ◽  
Vol 104 ◽  
pp. 55-61 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marissa A. Gutiérrez-Vicario
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Human Rights ◽  
Young People ◽  
Public Art ◽  
Immigrant Youth ◽  
Human Rights Education ◽  
Youth Empowerment ◽  
Global Competency ◽  
Community Art ◽  
The Arts

“….What makes somebody an American is not just blood or birth, but allegiance to our founding principles and the faith in the idea that anyone from anywhere can write the next great chapter of our story.”-U.S. President Barack Obama, January 2013 I am most interested in exploring the idea of the construction of global citizenship and engagement around human rights education of young immigrant youth through the arts, particularly public art in the form of muralism. I will use some of the work of Art and Resistance Through Education (ARTE), an organization that engages young people around human rights through the arts, as a case study. Some questions that may be explored include:How can educators break down unfamiliar human rights jargon and demonstrate the relevance of human rights on both a local and global level to young immigrant youth?  How can young people be galvanized into exploring the human rights of their home countries and the countries they have immigrated to, utilizing the arts?How can art be used to cultivate global understanding and human rights education among young people, most specifically through public art?In efforts for communities to construct more democratic public spaces, one often finds that these spaces manifest themselves as murals or similar forms of public art. What are more creative ways of building a more democratic form of community art? What are more creative ways for young immigrant youth to develop a sense of belonging through the arts?  Overall, this proposal seeks to explore the intersection between public art, human rights education/global competency, and immigrant youth empowerment. The proposal will discuss the involvement of immigrant youth, predominately from Latin America, in various art projects, as they explore their own sense of identity and belonging in New York City. 

Building tolerance through human rights education: The missing link

2020 ◽  
pp. 174619792097729
Author(s):  
Marlana Salmon-Letelier ◽  
S. Garnett Russell
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
New York City ◽  
Human Rights ◽  
Longitudinal Study ◽  
York City ◽  
Human Rights Education ◽  
Classroom Observations ◽  
Public High Schools ◽  
Group Interviews ◽  
Rights Issues

Human rights education (HRE) is an emerging practice across formal and informal educational sectors worldwide. However, most literature and theory on HRE emphasize the importance of imparting knowledge about human rights. In this paper, we argue that increasing tolerance among students is a vital but understudied aspect of HRE. This paper is based on the results of a mixed methods longitudinal study conducted in three classrooms across two New York City public high schools. Our methods include a pre-/post- survey, classroom observations, and semi-structured individual and group interviews. The findings indicate that merely teaching about human rights issues is necessary but not sufficient to shift deeply embedded attitudes that contribute to the transformative nature of the human rights framework. We present tolerance as a necessary precursor to positive social change and sustainable human rights implementation.

scholarly journals SPEAKING RIGHTS: YOUTH EMPOWERMENT THROUGH A PARTICIPATORY APPROACH

2013 ◽  
Vol 4 (3.1) ◽  
pp. 489 ◽  
Author(s):  
Amy Cooper ◽  
Vincenza Nazzari ◽  
Julie Kon Kam King ◽  
Annie Pettigrew
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Social Change ◽  
Best Practice ◽  
Participatory Approach ◽  
Human Rights Education ◽  
Youth Empowerment ◽  
Youth Workers ◽  
Motivation To Participate

Using Equitas’ Speaking Rights Program as a best practice example, this article outlines the essential practices and conditions of a participatory approach to human rights education for youth, and explores how this approach effectively supports youth empowerment. The authors maintain that programs that use a participatory approach to human rights education are more likely to engage youth in actions for social change within their communities. They suggest that youth workers who are trained and well equipped to address issues that are on the minds of youth are critical in helping youth develop the skills and motivation to participate.

scholarly journals Art and Urban Regeneration in New York City. Doris C. Freedman’s Public Project

2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 97
Author(s):  
María F. Carrascal Pérez
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
New York City ◽  
York City ◽  
Public Art ◽  
Low Cost ◽  
Urban Life ◽  
Public Project ◽  
The Public ◽  
Creative City ◽  
The Arts

<p>Given its positive economic, social and urban impact, even with low-cost or low-tech materialization, the urban creativity encouraged by the arts is of great interest today. This narrative reviews one of the most prolific careers in this regard addressing the pioneering work by Doris C. Freedman. The late 1960s and the 1970s, in the context of two financial crises, saw a groundbreaking effort to formalize innovative artistic programs that recycled the obsolete city and integrated local communities in the processes. Doris C. Freedman was the first director of NYC Department of Cultural Affairs, the Public Arts Council, and leader of the organization City Walls. These institutions promoted an unprecedented improvement of the public urban life through the cultural action. Such experiences led Freedman to the conception of her last project, the relevant and, still, ongoing Public Art Fund of New York City. This article focuses on her early professional years, when she began and consolidated herself in the task of legitimizing art as an urban instrument for shaping the city. This research provides a contextualized critical analysis on Freedman’s less-known experimental projects before the foundation of the Public Art Fund, enabling an extraordinary source of inspiration for a current creative city-making.</p>

scholarly journals Protecting invisible children in England: how human rights education could improve school safeguarding

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alison E.C Struthers
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Young People ◽  
Formal Education ◽  
Human Rights Education ◽  
Passive System ◽  
Invisible Children ◽  
Speak Up

This article brings together two distinct but interrelated fields: human rights education (HRE) and safeguarding. It endeavours to show that the former can be beneficial for the efficacy of the latter. By extending an argument put forward recently that for HRE to be effective it must enable children to recognise and respond to lived human rights injustices, the article places this important issue within the existing framework and processes associated with safeguarding young people in formal education. It attempts to both elucidate and consolidate the connection between HRE and safeguarding, arguing that if HRE were to become an integral part of safeguarding training and delivery, children may be better equipped to recognise and speak up about violations of their human rights, rather than relying on a passive system of adult observation.

Between the Global and the Local: Human Rights Discourse and Engagement in Two New York City High Schools

2018 ◽  
Vol 88 (4) ◽  
pp. 565-592 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. GARNETT RUSSELL
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Human Rights ◽  
High Schools ◽  
The United States ◽  
Human Rights Education ◽  
Local Context ◽  
Rights Discourse ◽  
Human Rights Discourse ◽  
Academic Year ◽  
Rights Issues

While there has been a rise in human rights education at the global level, little attention has been paid to how it is integrated into schools in the United States. Drawing on qualitative and quantitative data collected in two diverse high schools across an academic year, S. Garnett Russell investigates the extent to which human rights education influences students' knowledge and attitudes about human rights and how students engage with and translate global human rights into the local context. Although the majority of students in the study showed a superficial understanding or sense of distance around global human rights issues, Russell finds that students were better able to “vernacularize” universal notions of rights into their own local context, particularly around issues linked to police brutality and racial discrimination. Findings from the study point to the importance of human rights education, particularly for marginalized students.

scholarly journals By addressing life trajectories and political violence, human rights education can overcome radicalizing narratives

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Frank Ubachs
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Young People ◽  
Political Violence ◽  
Lived Experiences ◽  
Human Rights Education ◽  
Transfer Of Knowledge ◽  
Life Trajectories ◽  
Fundamental Freedoms ◽  
Major Target

As the needs and interests of young people are shifting under the influence of demographics and other social developments, 'new stories' have started to attract many that undermine the human rights narrative and nurture radical attitudes. This has consequences for human rights education (HRE). As competing narratives have gained a foothold in major target audiences of HRE, the latter has to realize it is facing an uphill battle. The evidence suggests that HRE can no longer rely on the mere transfer of knowledge and that the 'story of human rights' needs to be told in completely new ways. If HRE aims to change attitudes to be more inclusive and respectful, and to promote a struggle for justice, it has to make its story heard and win people over. Here HRE faces a central dilemma: how to promote fundamental freedoms while including the freedom not to subscribe to these same values? Instead of conceptual persuasion, emphasis should be put more on the affect, and relate to people's lived experiences. Crucially, HRE has to be prepared to make room for the discussion of the paradoxes of political violence. By making clear that it has vital relevance for its audience and can better answer the question of what someone should meaningfully do in life, HRE can change the narrative.

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