Human rights and cultural studies : innovation through higher education equity support projects and community engagement

  • Garbutt R
  • Offord B
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Abstract

This chapter examines how human rights can be activated through specific teaching strategies that expand the learning environment beyond the classroom or lecture theatre. These strategies involve the scholarship of community engagement through the innovative and successful development of Higher Education Equity Support Projects (HEESP) at Southern Cross University (SCU), a small regional university in northern New South Wales. Through the discipline of cultural studies, which is offered in the School of Arts and Social Sciences, these projects have been part of a decisive and sustained effort to make community engagement a key teaching and learning dimension that arise from a human rights framework. In this chapter, the authors explore how two HEESP projects provide examples of community engagement that have been inspired by human rights thinking and characterised by a concern for ethical understanding and engaged citizenship. First, the authors introduce the pedagogical framework from which these projects were initiated. This is encapsulated in Paulo Freire's remark that 'studying is above all thinking about experience, and thinking about experience is the best way to think accurately' (1985: 3). Second, they outline the purpose of Higher Education Equity Support Projects. These seeding projects have become increasingly important in ensuring the capacity of regional universities to actively address equity and access issues. Finally the chapter reports on two of these projects: Out of the Spotlight and Interrogating Whiteness. The authors argue that these two projects are examples of the scholarship of community engagement in action. They demonstrate how human rights thinking can form the basis of an innovative and tactile pedagogy, bringing about a transformative learning environment that contributes to the wellbeing of both the student and the community. (Author abstract, ed).

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APA

Garbutt, R., & Offord, B. (2008). Human rights and cultural studies : innovation through higher education equity support projects and community engagement. Retrieved from E-journal link(s): http://elinks.dialog.com/servlet/LinkManager.StarLinksDirector?&year=2008&lm=false&rel=v3&userid=AAAWGQ&publ=openURL8325265&aulast=Garbutt&pf_id=0&app=EDUCAT&snr=20110815_134035_45332_c&db=AUEI&title=In+%27Activating+human+rights+in+education+%3A+exploration&atitle=Human+rights+and+cultural+studies+%3A+innovation+through+higher+education+equity+support+projects+and+community+engagement. (Find it @ Sheffield Links to full text via Ex-Libris SFX OpenURL)

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