1. The three dimensions of EDC/HRE

Education for democratic citizenship and human rights education (EDC/HRE) focuses on what students should be capable of doing rather than on what teachers should teach them. The three basic principles that govern this student- and outcome-centred approach may be best illustrated by an example.

• Freedom of opinion and expression is a basic condition of democratic participation and is a fundamental civil and political right. In EDC/HRE, students know, understand and appreciate the right to free opinion and expression and they know how it is protected by their national constitution. This is the cognitive dimension of learning (knowledge, concepts and understanding).
• Students learn how to use this fundamental human right. Precisely because the active use of this right is essential for participation in a democratic community, students are also encouraged to reflect on their point of view and to be able to express this through a variety of ways, including the ability to make a public argument (skills-based dimension of learning).
• To exercise their freedom of expression, students need courage to express their views even when they are in situations where they are facing a majority opposing them. And they listen to the opinions of others in a spirit of tolerance and personal respect. By confining disagreement and controversy to the issues and not to personalise differences of opinion, conflicts can be resolved by non-violent means (attitudes- and values-based dimension of understanding).

What this example shows may be generalised, not only to what students should be capable of in exercising any other human right, but also to learning and education in general. To be relevant and to add to a person’s competences, learning must unfold in these three dimensions that mutually support each other – knowledge, concepts and understanding; skills; and attitudes and values. For several decades, educators and teachers have agreed on this concept of learning.

If this is how students learn, what must EDC/HRE teachers do to provide adequate opportunities to learn? Briefly, the answer is as follows.

In EDC/HRE, the goal is to support students to be young citizens who:

• know their human rights and have understood the conditions they depend on (learning “about” democracy and human rights);
• have experienced school as a micro-society that respects the freedoms and equality of its students, and have been trained in exercising their human rights and respecting the rights of others (learn-ing “through” democracy and human rights);
• are therefore competent and confident to exercise their human rights, with a mature sense of responsibility towards others and their community (learning “for” democracy and human rights).