Integrating Human Rights into Learning Design

Diversity People Heads - Free image on Pixabay

Yesterday, I attended a very informative webinar by The Institute for Performance and Learning on "Integrating Human Rights into Learning Design". It was led by Sharon Thira at BC'sOffice of the Human Rights Commissioner @humanrights4bc

During her talk, Sharon outlined the scope of human rights and how they intersect with learning and curricula. She specifically spoke about decolonizing curriculum design and highlighted design approaches including: 

- Kirkness & Barnhardt 4Rs

- Respectful Design 

- Trauma-informed Design

She spoke about the elements of a Human Rights-Based Approach (HRBA) approach using the acronym: PANEL

P articipation
A ccountability
N on-discrimination and equality
E mpowerment and
L inkages to the legal human rights framework 

At the end of the webinar, I realized that no development work is power-neutral. It is the lack of power that leads to discrimination and exclusion. The session made me ponder about what I am doing to make sure that L&D programs are equally accessible to everyone across the board. I also thought about how I could apply the human rights-based approach to elevate the skills of people in a more equitable manner and make things more inclusive.

Related reading:

• What are human rights? - BC's Office of the Human Rights Commissioner (bchumanrights.ca)
• OptimizingThe Accessibility Of Your eLearning (dominknow.com)
• L&D has a racial inequity problem (chieflearningofficer.com)
• a11yresources- A growing list of accessibility tools and resources (webflow.io)
• Reducing Inequality and Bias in the Workplace - Training Industry
• What Works, and What Doesn’t, in Diversity Training: Research Library | TheLearning Guild
• Dr.Lesley-Ann Noel on Emancipatory Research and Design Thinking – University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Human Ecology
• IndigenizationProject – BCcampus
• Building Your UDL Toolkit – SET-BC