2026 HRER webinars series 1
We are delighted to announce that our webinar series is recommencing March- June 2026 with series 2 planned for later in the year.
Register for the webinar below. Registration for later webinars will open 4 weeks in advance of the event.
Wednesday 20 May 2026 17.30-18.30 (Berlin CET); 16.30 – 17.30 (London)
Carmel WARD Queen’s University, Belfast, UK
Recontextualising young children’s human rights education in Rwanda
Children’s human rights education (HRE) in early childhood should be constructed in contextualised ways that respect traditional values, yet Western-centred research often overlooks cultural synergies with rights, reigniting postcolonial critiques. Carmel Ward reports on a participatory study in Rwanda, framed by a postcolonial theory, that explored young children’s, their parents’, and teachers’ understandings of HRE. She discusses how sociocultural values were interwoven into participants’ plural perspectives, illuminating a third space where traditional values and rights intersect, and observes how fusions, resistances and negotiations coexist. She considers how these insights can contribute to recontextualising young children’s HRE in ways that reflect their sociocultural realities. Postcolonial theorisation contributes a counter-narrative, pointing to a contextually connected pedagogy for rights that not only respects but integrates and builds upon existing relational knowledges and values.
Carmel’ sfull article can be read here: https://doi.org/10.1080/25355406.2025.2598290
And her other recent HRER paper on emotions and early childhood education can be found here: https://doi.org/10.1080/25355406.2025.2452655
Wednesday 17 June 2026 17.30-18.30 (Berlin CET); 16.30 – 17.30 (London)
Kadidja KELALECH University of Leicester, UK
‘Education is my weapon’: media misrepresentations as a barrier to Algerian women’s rights in higher education
In 2013, Algerian channel, Ennahar TV, aired a report entitled ‘When Seekers of Knowledge Turn into Prostitutes’, portraying female university students leaving their accommodation after curfew to meet male partners. This behaviour, considered immoral in conservative Algerian society, spread negative stereotypes nationwide, gaining traction through Facebook and YouTube songs defaming women students. Despite the then Minister of Higher Education condemning the report, the stereotype persists in Algerian popular culture. Kadidja Kelalechexplores how media misrepresentations impact women’s right to access education in Algeria, based on interviews with 20 female university students. Findings reveal misrepresentations exacerbate challenges facing women in safely accessing education and public spaces, limiting their ability to claim their human right to education. This study underscores the need for targeted policies, including media regulation and public education, to foster an equitable environment where women can safely exercise their right to education.
Kadidja’s full article can be read here: https://doi.org/10.1080/25355406.2025.2509493
Wednesday 18 March 2026 17.30-18.30 (Berlin CET); 16.30 – 17.30 (London)
Anna LIDDLE Sheffield Hallam University, UK
The riskiness of Gaza in the classroom: the experiences of UK teachers during an unfolding human rights crisis
In October 2023, Israel invaded Gaza after an attack by Hamas, the repercussions of which reached classrooms across the world. This webinar reports on a study conducted in May-July 2024 with UK secondary school teachers, through a qualitative survey and interviews. Findings reveal that teachers often construct the discussion of Gaza as risky, and face barriers including expectations of neutrality; concerns surrounding knowledge; and varying institutional approaches, including explicit bans leading to ‘directive avoidance’. Anna Liddle argues that using a human rights framework and viewing the situation in Gaza as a human rights issue can shift what is perceived as individualised problems and risk-management to a shared, principled approach. Even modest engagement with human rights values, such as through cultural events or fundraising, can be viewed as radical in a context where any form of action may be seen as contentious.
Anna’s full article can be read here: https://doi.org/10.1080/25355406.2025.2605315
Tuesday 28 April 2026 17.30-18.30 (Berlin CET); 16.30 – 17.30 (London)
Carolyn OEI OISE, University of Toronto, Canada
Children’s right to play: steps towards human rights education in Singapore
Tak Takut Kids Club (TTKC) is a community space for children, which uses play to enhance children’s lives and improve their future life chances. Carolyn Oei frames TTKC’s activities within Singapore’s highly competitive schooling system and asks: How might Article 31 of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child on the right to play be effectively enabled in Singapore? She considers how TTKC’s practices might inform the State’s duty to guarantee Article 31. She explores how the right to play is an enabling right, helping to secure other rights, including child participation, freedom of expression, and safety. TTKC models a relational approach to human rights education by centring play, which is distinct from play-based education, as content and process. The changes necessary require a rethinking of adult-child relationships and interactions, recognising children, in Freire’s words, as ‘fully human’.
Carolyn’s full article can be read here: https://doi.org/10.1080/25355406.2026.2616441
PAST WEBINARS
*All past webinars can be viewed on our Human Rights Education Review YouTube channel.
IAHRE/ Human Rights Education Review Webinar Series 2024
In October 2024 we resume our popular research-focused webinar series, (formerly known as HRER/ WERA International Research Network for Human Rights Education [(2019-2024). All are welcome. IAHRE members will normally have priority booking.
HRER/ IAHRE webinar 1
Wednesday 9 October 2024 17.30-18.30 (Berlin CET); 16.30 – 17.30 (London)
Facing the difficult past – Nordic involvement in European colonialism: implications for human rights education
Marta STACHURSKA-KOUNTA
The Nordic countries are widely seen as champions of democracy, human rights and peace building. This idealized image is often promoted alongside a parallel vision of the region as separate from the European colonial project and colonial power relations. A self-perception of being untouched by colonial legacy presents an obstacle in addressing human rights in education and society, including experiences of exclusion, discrimination and racism. In this webinar, Marta Stachurska-Kounta will draw on historical research and on a study of history textbooks to illustrate the fallacy of Nordic colonial innocence and the risks of glossing over the difficult past. She will discuss how history education might be strengthened to support education for human rights and racial justice. By revisiting and interrogating modes of colonial complicity and examining predominant worldviews, teachers and students may be empowered be more effective champions of democracy and human rights, sensitive to the power asymmetries that students of colour and other migrant learners encounter at school.
To read Marta’s full article go to https://tinyurl.com/3kxctpyb
Stachurska-Kounta, M. (2025). Nordic countries’ involvement in the European colonial project and implications for human rights education. In A. Osler & B. Goldschmidt-Gjerløw Nordic perspectives on human rights education: Research and practice for social justice. London; Routledge.
HRER/ IAHRE webinar 2
Wednesday 6 November 2024 13.00 (Mexico City) 16.00 (Buenos Aires) 19.00 (London) 20.00 (Madrid CET)
Nordic perspectives on human rights education: Theory and research for social justice
Beate GOLDSCHMIDT-GJERLØW & Audrey OSLER
This webinar is arranged in collaboration with the Latin American Network of Human Rights Education and will be mainly in Spanish. Convener: Victoria Kandel.
The book Nordic perspectives on human rights education: theory and research for social justice (ed. Osler & Goldschmidt-Gjerløw, 2025) guides readers through an analysis of educational inequalities and identifies how internationally agreed human rights standards can transform social justice practices in national educational systems. The editors will introduce the volume and look forward to discussion and debate on learning for human rights across countries and regions.
Divided into three distinct sections, the chapters invite readers to consider:
- The context behind human rights education
- Rights-based approaches to teaching and education
- International dialogue and how to learn from approaches in other countries
Drawing on research from all five nations in the Nordic region and discussing its implications elsewhere, this book is an essential resource for scholars developing theory and practice in human rights education, social studies, citizenship education, and international and comparative education.
Beate Goldschmidt-Gjerløw is a political scientist and educational researcher affiliated with the University of Agder in Norway.
Audrey Osler is Professor Emerita of Citizenship and Human Rights Education at the University of Leeds and Editor-in-Chief of Human Rights Education Review.
January 17, 2024 – Piers von Berg, Birmingham City University, Transformative HRE in Higher Education through citizenship education research View Recording
How might a university global citizenship programme enable students to draw on lived experiences of human rights and develop profound empathy and human solidarity?
In this webinar, Piers von Berg reports on his experiences of designing and researching a university-based global citizenship education programme, using participative theatre. Piers illustrates how he enabled students to engage in authentic reflection and how the pedagogical methods he employed stimulated new ‘becomings’ in students’ civic identities and sense of agency.
Piers reflects on ways in which the theories and practices he used can be understood as a form of transformative human rights education. He discusses how participatory theatre can be used to support students in recognising the human dignity of excluded others and their experiences of injustice, thereby extending their sense of community, solidarity and agency. He proposes this theatre-based learning as an alternative to market-driven university-based global citizenship education, allowing student participants to observe themselves in action.
Read Piers’s article here: http://doi.org/10.7577/hrer.5120
December 7, 2023 – HRE USA Human Rights Day Virtual Celebration View Recording
November 20, 2023 – André Keet and Felissa Tibbitts Book Launch Emancipatory Human Rights and the University View Recording
November 15, 2023 – Ricardo Roemhild (Muenster, DE), Human rights perspectives in language education for sustainable development View Recording
October 18, 2023 – Kjersti Draugedalen, Alison Struthers, and Ruth Brittle (USN, NO; Leicester and Warwick UK), Teachers and school safeguarding: how can human rights education help? View Recording