Emotional Terrain of Human Rights Education

This paper examines emotional aspects of human rights education (HRE) and explore theories and practices of HRE through learnings of struggles for rights. Drawing on Arendt’s conceptions of compassion and solidarity, it argues about what roles do emotions play and how they are connected to social justice. According to Osler and Starkey (2010), it is necessary for HRE to investigate human rights in the context of politics and everyday realities that might be different from the ideals of human rights, and to explore human rights as a tool for change and transformation. Whilst “caring about” distant others may provide the foundations for a sense of justice (Noddings, 2002), Arendt (1964/2016) stresses that compassion arose from human sufferings cannot be extended to the whole mankind and therefore it is considered as anti-political. Nevertheless, Saito (2000) questions her distinction between compassion and politics, and instead he emphasizes the importance to explore how compassions can be connected to a common interest which brings about a sense of solidarity to the whole mankind. In addition to the theoretical debates about emotions and politics of human rights, this paper also reports a case study of HRE in Japan which focuses on learning about human sufferings and encourages emotional commitment to challenge injustice. Drawing from the empirical study and theoretical examinations, it proposes a framework for HRE which connects emotional and political dimensions of human rights and promotes learners’ commitment to social justice. References Arendt, H. (1963/2016) On Revolution. London: Faber & Faber. Noddings, N. (2002) Starting at home: Caring and social policy. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press. Osler, A. and Starkey, H. (2010) Teachers and Human Rights Education, Stoke on Trent: Trentham Books Ltd. Saito, J. (2000) Kokyosei [Public nature], Tokyo: Iwanami shoten.