Human Rights Education in Pre-Service Teacher Education – Pakistan

As per international obligations, Human Rights Education (HRE) should be imparted to all. In Pakistan, teacher training institutes and Bachelors in Education (BEd) programs provide a platform for promoting and ensuring the teaching of human rights to prospective teachers. Hence, the purpose of this study was to assess the extent of the transfer of knowledge about human rights to pre-service teachers during their BEd courses. A case study approach was used in qualitative paradigm to study the BEd programs of three education universities in Lahore, Pakistan. The study used document analysis and survey with pre-service teachers for the collection of data. Content analysis was used to analyze the scheme of studies given by the Higher Education Commission (HEC) of Pakistan and the subsequent curricula used by the universities under study. A survey was conducted with 150 pre-service teachers in order to determine their overall knowledge, attitudes and practices as prospective teachers towards the teaching of human rights. The results revealed that an overall positive attitude towards teaching and learning of HRE was found among the respondents of the study. However, no specific module, course or topics in a course focused on HRE in the curricula. The study reflects the need of integration of HRE in teacher training curriculum and recommends that HRE should be a mandatory part of teacher education curricula.