Living and Learning Together: The Role and Responsibilities of Educators & their Unions - Education International
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Education International
Living and Learning Together:
The Role and Responsibilities of
Educators & their Unions
St. Paul’s Bay,
Malta
6 - 9 November 2002
Living and Learning Together: The Role and Responsibilities of Educators & their Unions
1Education International
Living and Learning Together: The Role and Responsibilities of Educators & their Unions
2Education International
Table of Contents
Introduction.................................................................................................. 5
Official Opening Speeches ............................................................................ 7
John Bencini......................................................................................................9
Dr. Mary Futrell ............................................................................................... 10
Dr. Louis Galea ................................................................................................ 17
Guest speakers............................................................................................ 21
Elena Ippoliti ................................................................................................... 23
Dr. Keith Forrester ........................................................................................... 25
Rosa Maria Guerreiro ....................................................................................... 33
Dr. Katarina Tomasevski .................................................................................. 36
PANEL: Student Perspectives ..................................................................... 43
PANEL: East, West, North and South .......................................................... 49
Dr. Mustapha Touaiti ....................................................................................... 51
Reny Jacob...................................................................................................... 52
Martin Sibiya ................................................................................................... 55
Lilly Eskelsen ................................................................................................... 60
Harvey Weiner................................................................................................. 62
PANEL: Union Leaders ................................................................................ 65
Hitoshi Takehira .............................................................................................. 67
Hussein Al Menshawy....................................................................................... 69
Eulalie Nibizi .................................................................................................... 70
Antonia Cortese ............................................................................................... 71
Programme ................................................................................................. 73
EVENING OPENING - Wednesday, 6 November 2002 ................................................. 73
DAY 1 - Thursday, 7 November 2002 ....................................................................... 74
DAY 2 - Friday, 8 November 2002 ............................................................................ 75
DAY 3 - Saturday, 9 November 2002 ........................................................................ 76
Workshops .................................................................................................. 77
List of Participants ...................................................................................... 79
Living and Learning Together: The Role and Responsibilities of Educators & their Unions
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Introduction
Sheena Hanley Deputy General Secretary EI
Background
In 1996, as a contribution to the work of Education International to raise awareness with
member organisations of our responsibility to combat racism, anti-semitism and xenophobia,
the National Education Association (NEA) of the USA made a contribution o f US$100,000 to
allow EI hold two major conferences on human rights.
A small planning group, consisting of Joanne Eide, NEA, Branimir Strukelj of ESWUS Slovenia,
Ada Adler of ITU Israel, Steve Sinnott of NUT, UK and Helen Toth of AFT, USA worked with
Sheena Hanley, Deputy General Secretary of EI and Rosslyn Noonan, EI Coordinator for
Human and Trade Union Rights, to develop the programmes for the conferences.
The two conferences entitled Democratic Societies: Living and Learning Together – The Role
and Responsibilities of Teachers and their Unions were planned to take place in Bled Slovenia
in 1997 with the second to be held in Jerusalem in 2000. The Bled Conference was
successfully completed and a full report was prepared for EI members. Sadly the conference
planned for Jerusalem was not able to take place because of the tragic developments in the
Middle East that remain unresolved until today.
The Malta Union of Teachers very willingly stepped in to host the second conference when a
decision was made to change the location. MUT were welcoming and gracious hosts to over
160 participants from all regions of the world.
The Conference keynote address was given by EI President Mary Futrell who reviewed the
work of EI in human rights and identified the challenges EI members’ face as they continue
to try to counter poverty, exclusion, ignorance, oppression and war. Plenary sessions with
keynote speakers, panels of EI members and of students and small group sessions allowing
for in-depth discussions among participants formed the basis for information sharing and
discussion. Plenary speakers challenged participants to look at our own ways of operating as
we try to find our way through the “global fog”, to enter into true dialogue among
civilisations, cultures and religions and to be face up to the dangers of rewarding learning
outcomes while ignoring the unequal opportunities that is the starting point for those who
have to attain the outcomes.
Member organisations and other experts held workshops on a variety of topics. These
workshops provided participants with examples of best practice of EI member unions while
also allowing them to deal with topics of interest in much more depth. The workshops
addressed the themes of;
• Respecting Cultures and Honouring Differences presented by the Elementary
Teachers’ Federation of Ontario, an affiliate of the Canadian Teachers’ Federation;
• Access to education – Asylum Seekers and Refugees; a joint presentation by the
Australian Education Union and the Independent Education Union;
• Work in the World – A guide to Work issues across the Planet: A Rresource Pack for
Teachers; by the National Union of Teachers of the United Kingdom;
• Human Rights Education: Working in Partnership with the United Nations presented
by the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights;
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• Confronting the Reality of Bosnia and Herzegovina – What can teachers do?
presented by Lidija Kolouh Westin of the University of Stockholm, Sweden;
• Human (Minority) Rights Education: When 51% is so important, how does democracy
protect minority rights? presented by the American Federation of Teachers USA.
The report provides information for the websites of the organisations that gave the
workshops so that those interested can follow-up on issues of particular interest to them.
A highlight of the conference was the participation of students from very varied backgrounds
who told the conference of their experience of human rights education.
Moving Forward
The Conference called on EI to:
• continue our work to influence policies of intergovernmental organisations by placing
policy issues in a human rights context;
• develop a human rights network of EI member organisations to publicise human
rights issues and to promote human rights education as well as human rights in
education;
• use the EI website to link member organisation sites and to publicise research on
best practices on human rights issues;
• develop and publish a guide for Member organisation use in considering the range of
complex elements that define human rights related issues.
EI Executive Board Members Marguerite Cummins Williams and Vice President Charlie Lennon
closed the conference by calling for EI to continue providing opportunities for its members to
exchange their views on issues of human rights while renewing awareness of the challenges
we face.
The need for unions to strategically integrate policy and practice in working for the
implementation of our Congress resolutions, both nationally and internationally, was seen as
necessary for effective leadership in the promotion of justice, tolerance, understanding and
peace.
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Official Opening Speeches
Chairperson Sheena Hanley
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John Bencini
President Malta Union of Teachers
On behalf of the Malta Union of Teachers I welcome you and all the delegates for this very
important Conference "Living and Learning Together: The Role and Responsibilities of
Educators and their Unions ". The Malta Union of Teachers is proud to host E.I. and will
endeavour to do its utmost to make sure that your stay in Malta will be a memorable one.
The Malta Union of Teachers, the oldest and first registered trade union in Malta has always
been closely involved in promoting reforms of the Maltese educational system at all levels.
The recently launched National Minimum Curriculum has had the full support participation
and contribution of our Union. Ever since its beginning in 1919, the Malta Union of Teachers
has sought to raise the standard of education of the Maltese people. The Union's motto
declares that "Learning is the gateway to Success" and we have always insisted with our
members that the MUT have a dual role to play. While retaining our trade union role we urge
our members to adopt a second, more proactive and interactive role through participation in
decision-making at both the workplace and national levels. We strongly believe there should
be no conflict at all between these two roles. The best vote of confidence in its dual role
policy through the MUT's 83 years of history is the fact that its members represent more than
90% of the whole teaching profession in Malta from Kindergarten Assistants to University
academics.
At the moment in Malta there is a very heated national debate on whether Malta should join
the European Union or not. Year 2003 is to be a decisive year for the people of these islands.
In a few months time the Maltese will decide in a referendum whether or not Malta should
join the European Union. We now have our destiny in our hands. Now that the Irish have
opened the door of Europe to all the candidate countries including Malta, it is now up to the
Maltese to decide. The decision taken by the Irish people is, of course, good news for Malta
too, or at least for all those Maltese, hopefully the great majority, that want to see these
islands join the rest of the new- countries in their mission to join the E.U.
The MUT is on the forefront in promoting Malta's place within the European Union. Malta has
before it a door that leads to a clear direction, one that would be of benefit to the people now
and to generations to come.
I wish you all a pleasant stay in Malta and augur a successful Conference. Thank you
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Dr. Mary Futrell
President of Education International
“We must believe in values of humanity because otherwise we do not leave
any point of reference for children to put their faith in . . .” Rigoberta Menchu
Good evening and welcome to Education International’s conference on Living and Learning
Together, The Roles and Responsibilities of Educators and Their Unions and welcome to
Malta. On behalf of Education International (EI) and every one present, I would like to thank
the Malta Union of Teachers for hosting this conference and for their excellent support during
its organisation.
This is EI’s second conference on living and learning together. Some of you may recall that
the first conference was in 1997 in Bled, Slovenia with our Central and Eastern European
affiliates. Participants at that conference committed themselves to combat racism, anti-
Semitism, religious intolerance and xenophobia.
Further, in 1998, at EI’s Second World Congress, delegates voted overwhelmingly for EI to
continue its support of the UN universal declaration of human rights and the ILO conventions
concerning freedom of association and protection of the right to organise. We restated our
commitment then because much has happened since the end of the Cold War. For instance,
there has been an increase in regional, civil and inter-ethnic conflicts, an increase in acts of
barbarity and cruelty, and of crimes against humanity, and an increase in incidents of
violence in schools, especially those perpetuated by students against other students and
teachers. There has also been a decreasing respect for basic human rights and principles of
humanitarian assistance, unprecedented numbers of refugees in many different regions of
the world, and the growing pressures of population and demography changes.
The challenges facing us today, in the year 2002, are no less formidable or less demanding of
our civic responsibility as union leaders and as citizens in a global society. The reaffirmation
of our support for the declaration of human rights and the ILO conventions also reconfirmed
our belief that democracy and respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms are
interdependent and mutually reinforcing. Education for human rights and democracy is in
itself a human right and is a prerequisite to the full realisation of social justice, peace and
development.
The history of educators and their unions fighting all forms of discrimination, intolerance and
fear is a long one. I have personally experienced racism, sexism, and other forms of
discrimination in more ways that I care to remember. And yes, as a teenager and as a young
adult I searched for ways to fight against it. As a student during my days at Virginia State
College, I joined the civil rights movement. When my mother found out what I was doing
she called me on the phone and said that she had sent me to college to learn not to go to
jail. I remember responding to her that I was learning—learning more than I would ever
learn from my professors or textbooks. I was learning how to stand up for and respect
myself, to fight for the rights of all peoples, including the right to vote, and the right to fight
for education, jobs, the freedoms set forth in our Constitution. I also learned what it was like
to join with people from different religious, ethnic, and economic backgrounds—all struggling
for the same cause, the same rights, the same freedoms. That was the beginning.
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It was during my experiences within the union, especially the National Education Association,
the World Confederation of Organisations of the Teaching Profession, and Education
International, that I found a unified voice to stand and speak against discrimination, hatred
and fear in all of their myriad forms. It was through my work in the union that I learned
about or saw first hand others experiencing similar or worse atrocities than those experienced
by people in my country. It was through my involvement in teachers’ unions that I learned
about and joined with hundreds of thousands of educators and other citizens to oppose
apartheid, anti-Semitism, discrimination against women, denial of access to education for
some children because of their family’s economic status, religious beliefs, or political
differences, and discrimination against people with HIV/AIDS.
Allow me to digress for just a moment. One of the persons within our union with whom I
have worked closely for almost 20 years and from whom I have learned and continue to learn
about learning and living together is Sheena Hanley. Sheena has played an instrumental role
in defining the human and civil rights, trade union rights, and women’s right agenda within
this organisation and the larger community. Sometimes it has been a lonely struggle and
often times she did not have adequate resources to do the job, but she never gave up.
Today, EI is stronger because of her determination and perseverance. Sheena has decided
to retire from EI as its Deputy General Secretary after the next EI Executive Board meeting.
Before she leaves, I wanted to take the opportunity to thank her for all of her hard work on
behalf of Education International and its members for all she has done on behalf of teachers,
but mostly for the children of the world. Her mark on EI and on each of us is indelible!
Thank you, Sheena!
It has been and continues to be a long hard, ongoing struggle, but a struggle you and I must
never give up. By continuing the struggle, we have kept and will continue to keep alive the
realisation of hope, justice, equality and equity, and peace for millions of people, especially
children.
Some live with overt discrimination every day, for others it is subtler. Regardless, it is still
discrimination. Some live with fear on a daily basis—fear of losing a job, fear of being injured
or killed because one is of a different ethnic background or worships in a different way than
others, and fears of domination and recrimination. Some have lived with war for so long they
do not know what it means to live in peace. We have lived with war so long we often forget
the lasting impact it has on people, especially children. The Innocenti Research Centre
published some findings recently concerning children in conflict areas. The centre found that
girls become withdrawn and show more signs of depression while boys become more
aggressive. Teachers, too, are traumatised.
Some live in fear of exercising basic freedoms such as freedom of speech and worship,
freedom to assemble, and freedom to be politically active, much less to criticise their
government. Others are just beginning to learn to live with fear.
In the United States and other places in the world we are learning to live with the fear of
terrorist attacks—attacks which cause untold deaths but also attacks on our democratic
freedoms and way of life. The attacks that occurred September 11, 2001, in New York City,
in rural Pennsylvania, and in Northern Virginia created fear, but those attacks also caused us
to do something else: to come together as a people and as a nation.
Nowhere is this more evident than in our schools where teachers, counsellors and
administrators at all levels of the education systems are also the guardians in their
communities. In the U.S., as I’ve also seen in Sierra Leone, Ireland, Germany, Palestine,
Kosovo, Israel, and Afghanistan, educators are the ones who on a daily basis keep children
safe from harm, whether from a terrorist attack or attacks caused by their classmates, who—
filled with anger—strike out at their schools and communities.
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Educators were the ones who rescued and protected thousands of children in the schools
after the 9/11 attacks. Educators were the ones who did the same thing in the school in
Germany when one of the students went on a rampage and killed several of his teachers and
classmates. And, educators helped rescue many of the children from the school devastated
by the recent earthquake that shook Italy. It was those same educators and allied support
personnel who later counselled thousands of children and adults to help them overcome the
traumas they had experienced. I know that you also have seen, heard, or read about
teachers in your country or other countries such as Rwanda and Kosovo, risking their lives to
protect their students and colleagues.
The attacks of 9/11 reinforced our determination to protect our freedoms, including the
freedom to live without fear. But, while the attacks taught us how vulnerable we all are –
regardless as to where we live in the world—they also taught us the need to better
understand other cultures, religions, beliefs, and peoples. One thing that became
immediately obvious after 9/11 was that most of us know too little about the peoples cultures
attitudes, and history of the rest of the world.
As educators, we try to teach our students to understand their culture and to learn more
about other cultures, to appreciate others and their differences. This is indeed a challenge.
Exploring one’s national culture, for instance, is a challenge because most cultures today are
very complex. The question becomes how can we learn to live together in the “global village”
if we cannot manage to live together in the communities to which we naturally belong—the
nation, the region, the city, the village, or our neighbourhood? And, do we want to make a
contribution to civic life, to improving the quality of life in our communities, our nations, and
the world and can we do so?
I know of no nation where all of the people are of one political, religious, socio-economic, or
cultural persuasion. Even within families we are different, but we learn how to live together.
Learning to live together is a deliberate process and takes a conscious effort on behalf of
every member of that family for it not only to function, but also to thrive. Living together
requires understanding and a willingness to accept the fact that others may not think or
believe as we do. It requires a willingness and ability to want to learn and understand more
about each other, to help each other to live together. Where do we start? We start with
ourselves and with the people with whom we live and work. For us, we start with the
students we teach, the children.
We need to help students understand the historical context of their communities, their nation,
and increasingly the world in which we live. That means teachers, counsellors, and
administrators must have the knowledge and pedagogical training to help students of all ages
prepare to assume their civic responsibilities in an increasingly smaller and more complex
global community. We need to help them learn about the cultural pluralism that defines
nations so they have a better understanding of others and also to enrich their own lives.
Students learn from what we teach, but they also learn from observing who we are and how
we treat others, how we get along with others
In America we have a saying, “Do not judge others until you have walked in their shoes”. We
may not be able to walk in everyone’s shoes, but all of us can do much more to try to
understand, respect and appreciate peoples from different parts of the world, different
cultures.
To achieve this goal our schools, colleges and universities must work together to prepare
current and future educators to be able to teach students from diverse backgrounds and to
teach them about their brothers and sisters who may live in different communities, different
places, or speak a different language. This will not be an easy task.
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All over the world, communities are changing as national borders have become increasingly
transparent and people move from one part of the world to another to live and work. With
this transparency comes an increasing need to help people learn to live together. For
instance, if we want our students to make sense of the world and other cultures, then they
need to understand the ideas and styles of learning that define those cultures.
Allow me to give you an example of what I mean. The president of my university, Steve
Trachtenberg, recently said, “The ideas and the effects ideas produce continue to be as
important at the beginning of the 21st century as they were at the beginning of the 13th.”
Today, perhaps, they are more so because the world as we know it is no longer Europe, the
United States and the Mediterranean shoreline, but every continent. Ideas have always
crossed borders. They don’t need passports, and their movements are mysterious and
unpredictable. Zero, for example, came from India and made its way to the Arab world and
then to Europe. The crank (the one you wind) came from China. The Silk Road, which we all
learned about in school, opened the door to international trade. But the Silk Road runs in two
directions. If an idea can travel east, then another can travel west and so they do as we all
wrestle with trying to understand the impact of global trade and the global economy on our
communities.
What we need to keep in mind is that if ideas have always crossed borders easily, they will
cross even faster and more readily today, thanks to the Internet, to cheap long distance
telephone rates, and to comparatively easy travels. The means are all around us. The will
and the desire to use the means to learn about the world in which all of us live—to see the
foreign as the not yet familiar rather than the unknowable—is what we need to instil in our
students. That will and those desires should be used to teach love and honour for our
country, a respect for human rights, the rule of law, and the disposition to defend those
values. Since no one is born with an innate understanding of these virtues, they must be
learned, and schools are our most visible institutions for learning.
In areas of conflict, education is too often used as a vehicle for building hate or for
maintaining the superiority of one group in society. We saw this occur in South Africa with its
apartheid system and to some degree in the United States with its segregated schools. Both
systems changed when people of all races, ethnicities, and religious groups joined together
and used their political, legal and economic resources to oppose them. But it would not have
happened if people had not struggled together to overcome these and other forms of
institutional discrimination. It has been and will be through education that we heal the
wounds and bring people together as one nation. It is through education that we will
develop a better appreciation for the complexity of the modern society that we live in and will
promote understanding and tolerance as well as celebrate our diversity. But the struggle is
ongoing.
At the same time we know that schools will be criticised for doing too much—or too little—
and that taking on this added responsibility will detract from teaching the basics of reading,
writing, and arithmetic. While as educators we must stress the three “R’s,” Jacques Delors
reminds us that we must also enable children to experience the three dimensions of
education: the scientific and technological, the economic and social, and the ethical and
cultural, for example, schools need to do more to help people understand one another across
religious differences. We must admit that teaching about religion is tough terrain for
teachers. But teaching about religion is something that a growing number of educators
believe is imperative to help young people understand not only the forces that drive human
history, but also the diversity in their own neighbourhoods and the world.
I know that by taking on this added responsibility many teachers will fear being accused of
showing personal biases by giving more time to one religion, for instance, than to another.
Even within our unions there is controversy about not only whether we should become
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involved with these issues but also how we should respond to issues such as discrimination,
racism, sexism, xenophobia, and so forth. Others will say that this is a societal issue and not
an educational issue and, thus, schools and educators should stay out of this arena.
I would respond that we, as responsible citizens, cannot be silent or yield to intimidation
whether political or otherwise, but must help develop a better understanding of the pluralism
that defines our communities, especially our schools. I would also respond by saying that
there is every reason for schools and teachers’ unions to place renewed emphasis on the
moral and cultural dimensions of education, enabling each person to grasp the individuality of
other people and to understand the world’s progression towards unity.
It means communities working with colleges and universities and teachers unions and vice
versa to help educators become better prepared to not only teach our increasingly diverse
student populations, but to prepare them for the increasingly multiethnic, multilingual,
intercultural world in which they live. In other words, there is a need for the dialogue
between society and teachers, and between public authorities and teachers’ unions, to be
both strengthened and seen in a new light.
The virtues and values we need to live in a pluralistic society must also be acquired through
active participation in community affairs, including educators being active in community and
professional organisations. Nowhere are the efforts of union engagement in the promotion of
civic responsibility and in the efforts to overcome intolerance, discrimination, xenophobia and
hatred more vivid than in the work EI is doing.
EI is a leading force along with the World Health Organisation and UNESCO in the struggle to
help educate people about HIV/AIDS and to secure medical assistance for those already
infected.
EI is the leading advocate in the struggle to guarantee every child the most basic human
right of all, the right to an education. EI was instrumental in persuading UNESCO, the G-8,
UNICEF, OXFAM and others of the need to establish a high-level commission to address this
issue. EI is playing a critical role in the effort to eliminate bias against people based on their
gender or sexual orientation.
EI has been instrumental in working with the teachers organisations in Kosovo and Sierra
Leone to re-open the schools in these war torn countries. Today, we are working to do the
same thing in Afghanistan.
EI has worked closely with the ILO and other unions to stop the economic exploitation of
children.
EI has worked with our member organisations in Ethiopia, Columbia, and other countries to
help secure the release of educators who were imprisoned, many of whom were imprisoned
simply because they were the leader in their teachers’ union.
EI has worked to bring together people from different religious backgrounds to start a
dialogue, hopefully begin the healing process of people getting to know one another and,
thus, learning to live together. Last spring EI held a conference in Turkey where at least 40
representatives from Western and Middle East countries came together to begin the dialogue.
These are just a few of the things EI has done and continues to do in our efforts to bring
people together, to help us help each other learn to live together.
James Baldwin’s (the African American author) frequently quoted aphorism, “We made the
world we’re living in and we have to make it over,” is a simple, but powerful reminder that
the world is in the hands of whoever takes action, whether through acts of terror,
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domination, brutality, and horror, or through acts of peace, compromise, compassion and
justice.
We will not accomplish the latter until we break the cycle of hatred, discrimination,
intolerance and xenophobia bequeathed to each generation. We will not accomplish this goal
until we bequeath to the next generation hope not despair, the ability to forgive not hate,
compassion not indifference or intolerance, and peace not war. If we do not achieve these
goals for our sake, we must at least try to achieve them for the sake of our children and our
children’s children.
Today, more than ever before, educators and their unions have an opportunity and a
responsibility to help re-make the world to be one that is more inclusive, more peaceful and
more just. I strongly believe that we will not create a safer world with bombs and brigades
of soldiers. But, we can build a better world if, together, we help improve the quality of life
for all of the world’s citizens.
We need to do more to alleviate poverty throughout the world, to help ensure that people
have the economic means to afford decent housing, put food on the table, and provide
formal education for their children. And, yes, we need to do more to help countries find
cures for diseases such as HIV/AIDS, which has left more than 13.4 million children
orphaned, and that figure is expected to reach 25.3 million by 2010.
Just as we want rich nations to do more to help poor countries, unions from these same rich
countries must do more to help teachers as well as further and higher education faculty in
poor countries to provide quality educational opportunities for their children. Around the
world, 125 million children ages six to eleven years old are out of school, most because of a
lack of school buildings, textbooks and qualified teachers as well as the inability to pay school
fees, uniforms, and transportation. Girls, who make up two-thirds of the unschooled
children, are also held back by cultural pressures, parental fear for their security, and in some
countries, a lack of female teachers and bathroom facilities.
In Afghanistan, for instance, education was hard to get, even before the Taliban regime. In
1996, 90% of girls and two-thirds of boys were not going to school. In Pakistan, less than
2% of the nation’s gross domestic product is devoted to public education.
In 12 nations in Sub-Saharan Africa, fewer than half of eight-year-olds are enrolled in
schools. If the world really wants these and other countries to reinvent themselves as stable
functioning nations, it must help the Afghans, Pakistanis, Africans and others assure
education for their children. Wealthy nations should seize the moment and help enrol all of
the world’s children into schools. The goal of universal education is not solely a Western
aspiration; it must be a global aspiration, and not just an aspiration but a realisation!
And, let me be very clear, privatisation of education is not the answer! There must be free,
universal, quality, public education for all children, not simply a few private schools for those
who have the economic means to pay the necessary fees to educate their children. All
children must have access to public education.
We cannot count on education, however, to end the threat of terrorism, xenophobia, anti-
Semitism and discrimination throughout the world. Indeed many of the suicide hijackers of
September 11th were highly educated. However, a major global commitment to achieve
universal education would give millions of poor children more hope and greater opportunities
for choosing constructive futures. A major part of that education should help students—
children and adults—understand the pluralistic society in which they live. Our purpose is not
to condemn. It is too easy to condemn people. Rhetoric and strong condemnation of one
group or another may make us feel good, but it does not achieve anything and only makes it
more difficult to build bridges. Our purpose is to look for solutions to problems. Our purpose
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is to try to use this conference and other venues to gain insights into what we, as union
leaders, may be able to do in our work to help address the issues I have outlined and the
other issues before this conference.
Education International needs your help. We need you to help us identify the human rights
issues in the education sector that EI and its member organizations should address. How can
we develop strategies to influence governments to ensure policies that will address issues
related to discrimination, xenophobia, and hatred in our society, particularly in education?
What are the human rights concerns our students have and how can we help them address
those concerns? How can we raise the awareness of human rights issues with our members
and how do we help them become better prepared to address these issues, especially in their
schools, unions and communities? These are questions for which we need answers and we
seek your help in answering them.
Education International has more than 24 million members in 159 countries. We are one of
the most powerful organisations in the world with a network of people in virtually every
community in those countries. We understand the power of education and we understand
the power of being able to reach out to virtually every community in the world.
EI and its member organisations must use that understanding and outreach capacity to help
improve the quality of life and the future of children wherever they might live. I believe that
through our efforts to combat racism, discrimination, religious intolerance and xenophobia we
can make the world a better place for all of us to live.
Finally, we are confronted with a highly mobile and interdependent world in which it is more
urgent than ever that we pursue understanding, empathy, and co-existence with others not
like ourselves. In confronting the many challenges that the future holds in store, we see
education as one of the principal means available to foster a deeper and more harmonious
form of human development as well as national development and, thereby, to reduce
poverty, exclusion, ignorance, oppression and war. We see in educators and their unions an
indispensable asset in society’s attempt to attain the ideals of peace, freedom and social
justice. We see in educators, in Education International and in its member organisations the
promise of a shared future that respects the diversity that defines us and an awareness of
the similarities between, and the interdependence of all people. That is our mission. That is
our goal.
Living and Learning Together: The Role and Responsibilities of Educators & their Unions
16Education International
Dr. Louis Galea
Minister of Education Malta
I have several special reasons for welcoming you, the participants in this Education
International conference, in addition to the recognition of the universal human calling to
reciprocal hospitality. The first is that among other things you will be discussing precisely the
modalities of hospitality with difficult guests, such as clandestine immigrants. There is at
present quite an influx of these in Malta and some members of my staff, in these very days,
have been exercising their ingenuity to provide the significant number of children among
them with some taste of good education through theatre. I will therefore be very interested
to hear about your thoughts on the matter. Guests can be good at problem solving as well as
at problem compounding.
Another special reason for welcoming you is that you propose to enact a paradox. On the one
hand, the invitation to the conference said that you would be 'celebrating diversity`, and we
Maltese are notorious for our love of celebration, preferably with band marches and
fireworks, on any pretext. On the other hand the conference is intended to focus on
'promoting fundamental human rights'. Of course, the first promoters of human rights, in the
18th century assumed that there was a universal human nature and would have probably
regarded the diversity which you have come here to celebrate as aberration. Today, some of
the pre-eminent thinkers of the age, so called post-modernists, have pushed the celebration
of cultural diversity to the point where it tends to sap the very foundations of the doctrine of
universal human rights which you say you are also gathered here to promote.
There is no doubt that Malta is a suitable place in which to come to terms with this paradox:
the claimed universality of fundamental human rights and its compatibility with the alleged
fundamental right to cultural diversity. On the one hand, Malta has always been a crossroads
of different cultures and its inhabitants have excelled since pre-history in the difficult craft of
trans-cultural brokerage. It has become easy for us to understand that different perspectives
on the meaning of respect for human life arise in different cultural contexts. We empathise
instinctively with the proverbial Ambassador from Papua who is said to have complained to
his British counterpart that the white men were killing more of his people than they could
possibly eat.
On the other hand, Malta has an exceptional record for its contributions to the development
of the system of human rights at the global level. Malta was responsible for the introduction
of the collective counterpart to individual human rights at the United Nations by promoting
the designation of certain resources as Common Heritage of Mankind or, in other words, as
resources which could not be turned into private property. Malta was also responsible for
promoting the Charter of Rights of Future Generations, which in a way is a corollary to the
doctrine of the Common Heritage. This recognition that mankind as a whole and not merely
individual men and women could be the subject of human rights is, however, paradoxical
though it might appear at first blush, probably the most important step so far taken to defend
the universalist claims of human rights against the objection raised-for instance by the
Muslim one-sixth of humanity-because of the atomistic concept of man underlying the
Enlightenment formulation of human rights as against the social animal concept.
I tend to believe that the theme of the conference: Living and Learning Together the Role
and Responsibilities of Educators and their Unions has become increasingly more important
as a result of the 11 September shock and traumatic experience of world-wide and prolonged
proportions. However, we must have been aware that world tensions were gradually and
Living and Learning Together: The Role and Responsibilities of Educators & their Unions
17Education International
steadily becoming explosive. It seems that we have not properly learnt all our lessons from
history.
1t is primarily within the family and the school that the children develop their values and their
skills to cope with the various situations they face during their early life. These skills arid
values continue to grow with them but they build on what they receive during their early life -
hence, the responsibility of the parents and the teachers very early in the children's life.
Thinking global and acting local means that if we want a better society and better world we
have to perform our duty well within the area and parameters for which we are responsible.
It is through our deeds rather than through our words that children learn least. We, as
educators, have to be role models and have to establish and nourish an environment that
ensures a healthy psychological, emotional, physical, personal and social development of the
child.
In the formulation of the new National Curriculum for primary and secondary education, we
recognised a number of challenges for education in our country which is being forced "to
move forward with an identity in a global scenario where the concepts of nation and national
identity are constantly called into question through the process of globalisation and the
emergence of multiethnic, multicultural and pluralist societies. We must add to all the need to
provide satisfactory political responses to the tension arising from the confluence of two
contemporary cultural trends: the trend to inclusion and the erosion of social barriers; and
the strong emphasis on the affirmation of identity and difference."
In the new National Curriculum human rights feature together with the correlative values of
tolerance and openness to others that you will be concerned with in this conference. The
University of Malta is also at present running a highly successful Master's Degree on Human
Rights and Democracy with the active participation in it of students from many countries
including both Israel and Palestine, two nations caught in a spiral of tensions, armed conflict
and violence.
Even our own relatively small and, until a few decades ago, protected nation has become
fully exposed to external pressures, tensions and values. The annual influx of hundreds of
thousands of tourists and the substantial increase in foreign residents and the increasing
number of marriages with foreign nationals, have contributed towards gradual but radical
changes in our way of life, our way of thinking, our values that often challenge personal,
family and social values that decades ago were considered solid and unassailable. It is for this
very different and continually changing world that we as educators have to prepare our
children. We are not simply preserving the past but we are also building the future.
It is essential that teachers understand the world of children and young people and
appreciate and realise at the same time that a constantly changing world is a greater
challenge to children and young people today than the relatively stable world of our own
childhood and, for those of us who are not so young, our youth. I think this is a fundamental
consideration. The children we work with live with and learn with, are the product and the
result of the world we have developed for them. To a certain extent they themselves are
victims of the world of grown ups, bearing in mind that there is no such world as a children's
paradise even when they are still innocent enough to deserve one.
I fully agree that teachers are learners, eternal learners, learning and discovering with their
children and young people, hopefully finding solutions in the educational process in order to
facilitate the growth of children and young people with problems. The role of the educators in
this area is crucial and unique. Nobody can take their place although their role is
complementary to the role of parents. However, very often much more is expected of
educators than what is humanly deliverable. After all, educators are very human themselves,
with their own responsibilities, pressures and tensions.
Living and Learning Together: The Role and Responsibilities of Educators & their Unions
18Education International
Since my appointment as Minister of Education, I have striven to develop instruments and
vehicles to cater for the needs of students at risk, any risk. We have programmes specifically
to provide, in a structured, systematic and professional way, the additional services required
to ensure that possibly no child is left behind, no child feels marginalised, no child remains
without the holistic education that is his right from birth, especially if he has been unlucky
with his birthplace. Drop-outs, the marginalised and persons with low self esteem are often
the result of students who for one reason or another or for any reason have failed at school -
we have probably failed to provide the education that they required according to their specific
needs, aspirations and potential.
I congratulate Education International for organising this conference in Malta on such a
sensitive theme. I thank the Malta Union of Teachers for hosting this conference. I have no
doubt about the indispensable role that has to be played by both international and national
teachers' organisations in promoting basic values, tolerance, mutual support, appreciation
and celebration of difference, respect towards the opinions and beliefs of others. The
dissemination of these values by national and international teachers' organisations is as
important as the protection of the rights of teachers as workers. After all, the cultivation of
positive values in school facilitates the teachers' daily life with students within the school
community.
Not so long ago I learnt that a leading member of a non-governmental organisation
concerned with Human Rights was going round the world telling what she described as `five
times five' horror stories. She alleged that a large part of UN funds intended for the
promotion of Human Rights were being spent on five-day courses in five-star hotels for
teachers. I am sure that nobody can level that accusation at us. It is only commitment to a
just and important cause that brought you here at some sacrifice. That however should not
prevent your stay here from being not only intellectually and spiritually profitable but also
pleasurable and full of the joys of friendship and laughter.
Living and Learning Together: The Role and Responsibilities of Educators & their Unions
19Education International
Living and Learning Together: The Role and Responsibilities of Educators & their Unions
20Education International
Guest speakers
Chairperson Maguerite Cummins-Williams
Living and Learning Together: The Role and Responsibilities of Educators & their Unions
21Education International
Living and Learning Together: The Role and Responsibilities of Educators & their Unions
22Education International
Elena Ippoliti
HUMAN RIGHTS EDUCATION: OUR SHARED RESPONSIBILITY
Message from the United Nations Commissioner for Human Rights, Sergio Vieira de
Mello
Personal Note: Ms. Elena Ippoliti is currently the Team Coordinator of the Human Rights
Education Team (Activities and Programmes Branch) of the Office of the United Nations High
Commissioner for Human Rights, Geneva. Since 1995, she has been working at the Office on
several human rights education and training programmes as well as on technical cooperation
projects with various countries. Since 1996, she has been responsible at the Office for activities
related to the UN Decade for Human Rights Education (1995-2004).
Previously, Ms. Ippoliti worked as Assistant Lecturer at the Human Rights Chair of the
International Free University of Social Studies (LUISS) of Rome, and as a consultant to the
Department of Sociology of the University of Rome “La Sapienza”. She has also collaborated
with the Italian National Commission on Human Rights (established by the Presidency of the
Council of Ministers) and the Italian National Academy of Scientists. As a consultant to this
Academy, in 1994 Ms. Ippoliti researched, authored several chapters and edited a publication
on human rights education in Italy, which was published in 1996 by the Italian Government
and widely disseminated throughout the country.
In addition, she has been working with several human rights non-governmental organizations,
including Amnesty International-Italy, Amnesty International-USA, Human Rights Watch (USA),
and the Italian Refugee Council. She has published several articles on human rights issues and
organizations.
Ms. Ippoliti received her University Degree in Sociology cum laude from the University of Rome
“La Sapienza” (Italy), her Master of Laws (LL.M.) in International Human Rights Law from the
University of Essex (United Kingdom) and an Advanced Diploma in International Affairs from
the Italian Society for International Organization (Italy).
It is a pleasure for me to send greetings to all of you gathered for this conference in Malta. I
would also like to express my appreciation to Education International for organising this event
and for inviting my office to participate.
I would like to focus my remarks on one of the most critical contributions to “living and
learning together” : human rights education. What do we mean by it and what is its
relevance for formal education systems?
Human rights education is education about human rights. In the classrooms, human rights
principles, such as those embodied in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and in the
Convention of the Rights of the Child, should be made meaningful to children through
teaching methodologies which take into account, children's developmental stages, as well as
their social and cultural contexts. Teachers, administrators, outside resource persons and
parents should be involved in this process as well as the students themselves.
Human rights education is also education for human rights. It is an action-oriented learning
and participatory process, whose fundamental role is to empower individuals to assume their
shared responsibility to make human rights a reality in their own lives and in their
communities. In short, if people are aware of their rights, they will be better prepared to
promote and protect them. This process must take place in a “human rights climate”- that is,
in a classroom where there is reciprocal respect and where a culture of human rights is
fostered.
Living and Learning Together: The Role and Responsibilities of Educators & their Unions
23Education International
I should also highlight that just as human rights education is about making individuals aware
of their rights; it is also about helping them to develop a deeper appreciation of their
responsibilities. Each aspect - two sides of the same coin - is vital if we are to ensure that the
children of today become the architects of a future that is founded on a belief in human
rights, on mutual respect and on tolerance for all.
There are many practical opportunities for promoting human rights education within the
school system: the infusion of human rights issues into curricula and textbooks; pre-service
and in-service training for teachers on human rights and human rights education
methodologies; the organization of human rights-related extracurricular activities, both at the
school level and reaching out to the family and the community; the establishment of support
networks of teachers and other professionals from human rights groups, teachers' unions,
non-governmental organizations and parents' associations; and so on.
As you may know, we are well into the United Nations Decade for Human Rights Education
(1995-2004), during which Governments, international organizations, non-governmental
organizations, professional associations - such as yours - and all other sectors of civil society
are especially encouraged to establish partnerships and to concentrate efforts for human
rights education. An evaluation by my office in the year 2000 of progress made in the first
five years of the Decade showed that much greater effort is needed at all levels if we want to
leave a strong foundation of achievement for human rights education beyond the Decade.
I would like to urge you all to get involved in this global effort. The realisation of human
rights is our shared responsibility, the success of which depends entirely on the contribution
that each and every one of us is willing to make. My office stands ready to assist you.
Please accept my best wishes for a productive conference.
Living and Learning Together: The Role and Responsibilities of Educators & their Unions
24Education International
Dr. Keith Forrester
Confronting Reality: The implications for education in the prevention
of intolerance and discrimination
Personal Note: Dr Keith Forrester works in the School of Continuing Education at the
University of England in England and is responsible for the work developed with trade unions.
The School has enjoyed educational and research links with trade unions in Britain since the
early 1950s. Today, our trade union programmes are an important part of the School’s work
and are situated within a learning framework entitled ‘Learning and Acting in a Changing
World’.
He has worked with trade unions from other countries through external funded projects and,
for four years, with the Council of Europe on their ‘Education for Democratic Citizenship. He
has written extensively on issues to do with trade union education issues and is currently
involved in researching practices of citizenship in four European countries and in Britain, on
experiences and understandings of union workplace learning representations.
k.p.forrester@leeds.ac.uk
Introduction
These short notes summarise the points made in my presentation and should be read
alongside the attached four transparency slides. Given that the presentation was at the
beginning of the Conference, the argument developed was designed to feed into the
workshop discussions over the duration of the conference.
In summary, the presentation argued that changes in the wider socio-economic environment
(‘globalisation’) obliged us to
rethink what we understand as ‘education’, ‘training’, and ‘learning’ and the issues
(‘curriculum’) which are emerging as part of this rethinking and
secondly, recognise the responsibilities of trade unions to their members in educationally
preparing them for coping, understanding and engaging with these new circumstances.
Overall, it was suggested that ‘living and learning together’ was of increasing importance in
the ‘new times’. Instead of the narrow preoccupation of ‘economic competitiveness’, there
was an urgency that requires us to focus on, for example, human rights, inter culturalism,
democratic citizenship and the prevention of intolerance and discrimination.
The presentation was structured around four topics:
the contextural situation;
changes in formulations of education and learning;
issues that engage with the changes;
implications for trade union learning
This first section of the presentation began with two quotes; one from the historian Eric
Hobsbaum and the second quote from Emilio Gabaglio, the General Secretary of the
European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC).
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