Teaching the History of Human Rights? Explore Online Resources

I have recently gone back to school to become a high school history teacher. As a teacher candidate, I see the theories that I studied about history education as a grad student in a more practical light. So, I have decided to focus this post on an amazing resource collection that we as teachers can use to teach the history of human rights in our classrooms.

Two weeks ago I was given a real introduction to Facing History and Ourselves (FHAO) while attending a workshop led by Margaret Wells at OISE Educating for Peace and Justice Conference. The workshop focused on teaching about genocide in a way that encourages active citizenship, using the teaching strategies used by FHAO. Since I only had a very preliminary introduction to FHAO’s teaching strategies, I won’t try to explain them to you here, only recommend that if you are interested in teaching challenging topics with historical rigour and empathy, you should explore the offerings of this organization.

Instead, I will focus on the free teaching and learning resources FHAO offers on the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR). FHAO offers a resource collection on the UDHR which includes:

• An Introduction to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights;

• A publication in the Making History series called Fundamental Freedoms: Eleanor Roosevelt and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights which includes more than 20 primary source documents and the context surrounding them, and is available for free download;

• 10 Lesson Ideas on the UDHR;

• A Timeline of the UDHR starting with the Magna Carta;

• A collection of online videos;

• A selection of library and other resources; and

• A collection of related websites.

This is only one of the many resource collections that FHAO has made available to educators. Take a look, explore, and happy teaching!

What resources do you use to teach the history of human rights?

Photo credit:"EleanorRooseveltHumanRights" by Unknown - Franklin D Roosevelt Library website. Licensed under Public domain via Wikimedia Commons