Korean Educational Development Institute(KEDI)

Study of the Status of Human Rights Education and Human Rights Consciousness in Primary and Secondary Schools

This study aimed to comprehensively analyze the current status of human rights education, human rights consciousness and human rights conditions based on unit schools.

In chapter I, the purpose of the study, research methods, and contents were presented. In chapter Ⅱ, the meaning and practice of human rights education and school human rights education were discussed. In chapter Ⅲ, detailed information regarding the subjects, methods and contents of the pilot test and main survey were provided and the process of validity for the ‘Measuring instruments for the status of human rights education and human rights consciousness’ was explained. In chapter Ⅳ, we analyzed how the school's human rights education is being conducted, what the status of students' human rights protection is in schools, what the human rights consciousness of teachers and students is, what the degree of teachers’ professionalism is, and what teachers and students request for the substantiality of human rights education. In Chapter V, we categorized schools by comprehensively considering diverse factors related to human rights in order to grasp in depth the actual status of human rights and their education at each school. In Chapter Ⅵ, we examined how the students’ participation in and their consciousness of human rights education as well as the diverse human rights education and related systems provided at the schools impacted the improvement of the human rights’ consciousness among the students. In Chapter Ⅶ, we applied the anchoring vignette method as a way to supplement the problem of differential items functioning that manifests during the investigation process. The results of the analysis showed that the answer tendencies to the consciousness questions differed depending on various characteristics like sex, students’ level of achievement and socio-economic  background, the schools’ location and establishment type, and whether a human rights ordinance had been enacted. In Chapter Ⅷ, we presented academic implications and policy suggestions based on the main results of this study.