Human Rights Group Intervention in Primary School

Abstract

Human rights education at school has a positive social and educational impact on children. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the effectiveness of a 12-week pilot human rights education programme. Participants were Greek primary school students (n = 152) divided into intervention (n = 91) and control (n = 61) groups. One week before the implementation of the programme and one week after its termination all study participants completed a written questionnaire regarding their knowledge of rights, school engagement, perceptions of the school environment characteristics, interpersonal relationships, empathy, school liking, school avoidance and loneliness. Members of the intervention group repeated the completion process two months later. The results showed that the intervention significantly improved the participants’ knowledge of rights, attentiveness, sense of school belonging, perceptions of student-centered learning process, emotional support, and school liking, while school avoidance and loneliness were significantly reduced. The study’s implications are discussed.