The rise and fall of human rights in English education policy: Inescapable national interests and PREVENT

The article interprets changes in human rights education in English school policy on values which have increasingly been framed by PREVENT and a move from international to national expressions of values. It reveals the extent of the impact and nature of this change on human rights education in school policy for the first time. It reports changes from minimal to maximal expectations compounded by an increased focus of school performance. It broadly illustrates the extent to which values are politically framed and significantly how recently ‘sudden’ political changes in the United Kingdom can be seen as part of a change trend which is almost 10 years old. It draws on Schwartz’s theoretical structure of values, Baxi’s conceptualisation of rights and Lohrenscheit’s notion of learning about and learning for human rights as these, respectively, reveal conceptual clarity in values, human rights and pedagogy.

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