Roles of human rights education in Norway: teachers’ purposes

This article discusses the different purposes of teachers concerning human rights education in Norway. Interviews of teachers in the subject Social studies in upper secondary school shows that the three main purposes of this topic are a) to raise awareness of the necessity of human rights as a bulwark against consumerism and authoritarian tendencies and b) the role of human rights as a moral compass and c) to develop democratic citizenship,in terms of teaching about and through democratic values. The author argues that these purposes are necessary, but not sufficient to develop active citizenship to uphold and protect human rights for all.