An area neglected in citizenship education: children’s rights education at home and at school

Children’s rights education is an important part of citizenship education. Home and school are among the places where children learn about and use their rights. For this reason, family members and teachers play an important role in children’s learning about their rights. This research was conducted to determine the perceptions of elementary school teachers and parents about children’s rights, the applications they carry out at home and at school for children’s rights education, and the problems they face. The study enrolled 24 teachers and 46 parents from three elementary schools in Eskişehir with students from different economic and cultural backgrounds. Research data were collected with semi-structured interviews and interpretive thematic analysis was used. The results revealed that parents and teachers did not have an adequate level of knowledge about children’s rights and that children could not adequately learn about and use their rights at home and at school. Finally, teachers and parents had problems in children’s rights education caused by economic, socio-cultural, political and educational system.

Children’s rights ,

citizenship education ,

elementary education ,

teacher ,

parent ,

students ,