Pedagogy of HRE: Ma’s Praxis

國

立 政 治 大 學

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N a

tio na

l C h engchi U ni ve rs it y

HRE is rooted in practice. If a teacher preaches one thing and practices another, students get a sense of it. They can judge the teacher’s behavior very well. For instance if I asked them not to come late and myself not punctual they would certainly see the discrepancy between what I said and what I practiced. If I say to my students that one should respect all human beings and my own conduct towards a school peon is disrespectful, how can I expect my students to take me seriously and sincerely?

For young children the teacher is someone who knows everything, who is always right, who is adorable and ideal to follow. It does not mean that they do not have the sense of what is right and wrong. They are very judicious in their approach. They can see the contradiction in the theory and praxis of a teacher and gradually the charisma of the teacher fades away. A teacher has to be very careful and sensitive about what s/he says and practices. HRE is not merely the transfer of information and knowledge to the students. It also brings changes in their affective domain that leads to the next stage of activism. In this way, the possibilities for social and political action as a means to advance the cause of HR can be introduced.

4.12.3 Pedagogy of HRE: Ma’s Praxis

Ma’s pedagogy of HRE developed in phases. She started with environmental education. While discussing the case of DDT mentioned above she became conscious of the concept of rights and HR for the first time. She started discussing HR in the classroom within the framework of environmental education. Gradually, she discovered

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the importance of HR in general and started looking at them independently of environmental education. In the second phase, HR concepts were brought into the classroom within the social studies’ context. Later, she realized that social studies’

classes are not enough to deal with HRE. To fill this gulf she integrated HRE into her whole curriculum. After the integration there was no specific time or subject when HRE was given. In her own words:

To make students able to understand and relate with HR concepts on a daily basis, I do not have a certain time for HRE. The time before starting the class in the morning or the gap between two classes, I use all these occasions for HRE.

During this time they identify issues, brush up the previous ones or bring new questions or ideas in front of the class. I also try to integrate HRE into other classes whenever there is a suitable context. The concept of HR is fabulous if one thinks imaginatively: one can integrate it even into the mathematics class. I always give them word problem underlying one or the other HR concept. Now, I have become so habitual that I see almost all educational, social, political, economic, cultural, and even religious issues, situations and problems from the window of HR. I expect my students to develop the same habit.

Ma’s description suggests that she is deeply involved in HRE. It seems that HR are running into her curriculum from bottom up and top down as blood in the veins. HRE has become a part and parcel of her curriculum, teaching and lifestyle. Everybody has her/his own ideology and Ma claims HR as her ideology. To see various problems rampant in the education system, society, polity, economy or culture from HR framework offers a different perspective to understand them. If this kind of perception can be

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立 政 治 大 學

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N a

tio na

l C h engchi U ni ve rs it y

developed among students where they put human beings in the center and then try to analyze the problem at hand and find solutions. This kind of attitude among the future generation will certainly help in making the society more humane.

In the pursuit of HRE Ma considers collaboration to be a very important pedagogical practice. She has formed a kind of community of teachers outside the school.

The members of this community belong to different schools. They share their experiences, discoveries, experiments, and problems related to teaching and other different issues with other members of the community. This community, Ma says, “brought in diversity to her pedagogy and made it more easy and enjoyable. There is always a desire to do something new and share it with the community. It is a constant source of motivation for my teaching and me. It had helped me a lot to grow as a person as well as a teacher.”

An important feature of Ma’s pedagogy of HRE is her theory of communication.

HR need to be communicated. It is very difficult to translate HR if a sound communication does not take place between teacher and students. The level of communication of students would determine the future of HR. It will help them to prepare a strong and effective case to convince and compel the authorities to ensure HR to all. Ma asserts that if one has grievances towards the teacher or anyone and the student cannot express her/his feelings to the teacher or the concerned person, it is a failure on the part of the teacher and the whole education system. The following example explains how inability to express one’s grievance creates huge emotional problem for the victim:

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Once, one of my students shared with me that such and such teacher always scolds her. She is never happy with any of her work. She always complains that she can never do things properly. I asked her what she thinks can be done about it?

She said, she could not speak to the teacher because she was scared of her. It would be impossible for her to utter a single word let alone the whole story. I gave her a suggestion. “Why don’t you write a letter to her?” She agreed to write a letter.

She wrote, “Dear Teacher, I know I have not written this letter very well but I wanted to tell you that the way you speak to me makes me feel very bad about myself. So, kindly do not talk to me in this manner. You can find a better way of telling me about my mistakes. Thank you.” After the letter was written she was scared to hand it over to the teacher. I encouraged her to go and give the letter to the teacher.

Somehow, she delivered it to the teacher. After the next class with the same teacher, she told me, the teacher was very good with her. The problem was easily solved with better communication.

Any kind of humiliation to anyone is against the spirit of HR. One can put forward one’s view or opinion without humiliating the other person. This is possible only with effective communication. The present education system does not teach young students how to communicate their state of mind without offending the teacher. Also it does not train the teachers on how to communicate with students without insulting or hurting them. Young minds get hurt on a daily basis intentionally or unintentionally.

Their hearts are burdened with a heavy feeling of dishonor, disgrace and embarrassment.

It is a traumatic experience. In such a scenario, how would one expect a wholesome