Call for Paper and Workshop Proposals

 

THE UNITED NATIONS, HUMAN RIGHTS AND MORAL EDUCATION

Theory and Practice

 

April 20-22, 2006

On the Campus of Indiana University-Purdue University Fort Wayne (IPFW)

Under the Sponsorship of the IPFW Institute for Human Rights

 

Keynote Speakers :

Katherine Covell, Professor of Psychology, Cape Breton University ( Canada), is co-author of The Challenge of Children’s Rights for Canada (2001), and is an active defender of the U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child.

Michael Farris, Professor of Constitutional Law and President of Patrick Henry College in Purcellville, Virginia, a constitutional attorney admitted to plead before the U.S. Supreme Court, is an opponent of the U.N Convention of the Rights of the Child.

 

The Institute for Human Rights together with the IPFW School of Education is issuing a call for papers on the roles played by the U.N. Universal Declaration of Human Rights and by the U.N. Declaration and Convention on the Rights of the Child in moral education. We also invite educators to propose demonstrations and critical discussion of human rights pedagogy in secondary and primary schools.

Potential contributors—from education, moral philosophy, European studies, and American studies—are invited to submit two-page proposals for conference research papers. Paper proposals will be competitively reviewed. The proceedings, including discussions of pedagogical demonstrations, will be published by the Institute with the support of Indiana University-Purdue University Fort Wayne. The deadline for all proposals is December 1, 2005.

The conference will explore the interplay between the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights, in its ethical dimension, and the diverse existing ethical practices and beliefs in the world, especially as they inform educational outcomes.

Suggested Paper and Workshop Topics:

  • U.N. Declarations and Conventions in relation to churches, political parties, constitutions, and public and private moral education
  • The balance between parental and children’s rights, and between the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the Rights of the Child
  • The treatment of children as dialogue partners with human rights vs. subordinating children’s rights to the development of adult human rights
  • Possible conflicts between U.N. documents and home schooling
  • The creation of space in school curricula for human rights education, and developing pedagogies for human rights education
  • Teaching Diversity through the Lens of Human Rights
  • Teaching for Moral Education, Character Building, and/or Citizenship
  • Proposals on other related topics and workshops are also welcome

 

Each proposal should include a 50-word abstract and a 500-word summary of the argument and evidence, or the workshop presentation, and a brief bibliography of work in the field. Proposals should be sent to Clark Butler, Director, Institute for Human Rights, IPFW, Fort Wayne, IN 46805.