Safe Spaces Human Rights Education in Diverse Contexts

A SOCIAL JUSTICE AND HUMAN RIGHTS EDUCATION PROJECT
Tamadiir & Sahar, 2005) are constantly condemned when unveiled in research
projects and/or biographical stories and books. In her biography Infidel: My Life
Ayaan Hirsi Ali (2007) explores her cultural and religious upbringing and the
practices during her life as a young girl in Africa. She describes to her readers her
inner conflict and outer experiences when she encountered other value systems
and ways, and discovering human dignity that differs so much from her own
religious and cultural traditions. The remarkable outcome of this life story is the
composition of her narrative, which represents an undertone of two dimensions.
First, the intense powerful narrative and writing style that forces the reader to
become part of her emotions, reactions and dreams as well as her cautious
approach to change. The second dimension in the narrative is the presence of an
enquiring mind, how she embraces change and how she portrays a process of selfdetermination.
Ayaan defines herself within her culture and religion, but also
explains her feelings and expectations to change these traditions that seem
unchangeable. Her self-empowerment is the foundation for change and reflection
on traditions and her narrative should encourage others (Hirsi Ali, 2010). The
question we ask is how can research on these issues provide safe spaces and
support this self-empowerment?
WHY SOCIAL JUSTICE RESEARCH?
In the literature (Almqvist, 2005; Litorp, Franck & Almroth, 2008; Ahmed, Wilag,
Navla. Tamadiir & Sahar, 2005), it seems that most research projects on social
justice use empirical research methodologies for data gathering and analyses. These
projects include human rights violations, race discrimination, ethnic identity, social
and economic instances, sexism, gender and educational inequalities, social
injustices of societies and communities towards each other, biased curricula and
prejudices in multicultural and multireligious schools (Roux, Smith, Ferguson, du
Preez, Small, & Jarvis, 2009). Social justice is mainly concerned with equality, in
all spheres of society, and the empowerment of the marginalized. Therefore
teaching-learning for social justice has a common goal, namely to prepare teachers
to recognize and address issues in education where injustices are taking place. In
order to do so, a relevant pedagogy and curriculum that combat inequality in schools
and society must be enhanced. By promoting social justice pedagogy, educators can
increase a socio-political awareness and consciousness, have a sense of agency, and
help students develop a positive social and cultural identity. There is a need to
understand social injustices (Freire, 1994), and include relevant issues in
understanding critical classroom theory and to work towards an informing
pedagogy. One should go beyond Freire’s theory and informing pedagogy for social
justice and reflect critically on what is meant by these notions. Reflection on social
injustices and the processes of self-empowerment should be part of deconstructing
the known social constructs, – their practices and traditions – and should reconstruct
the practical implications and implementation thereof (Roux, 2009a). The lived
experiences and our interactions with individuals should be the critical conscience
of researchers in this field of study.
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