This is My Home: A Minnesota Human Rights Education Experience

The project centres around an online Tool Kit for HRE which provides model K-12 HRE curricular units, a resource guide, an interactive online community action and lesson planning tool, suggestions for implementation, and ways to share emerging practices. Printed materials such as posters (e.g., a colourful poster highlighting universal human rights standards) as well as information and communication technologies (e.g., various video resources, such as "This is My Home: Minnesota Students Share Their Stories," a 29-minute documentary about 11 Minnesota students and their families) are integrated into the Tool Kit. Beginning in Fall 2004, these tools were piloted by educators in various schools throughout the state - though educators elsewhere in the United States and worldwide are encouraged to draw on the resources in the Tool Kit.

Teachers can use this Tool Kit to:

• Teach about human rights within the Minnesota state academic standards.
• Promote social justice, democracy, and human rights education by linking to Minnesota, United States, and international human rights standards.
• Integrate HRE into any course topic through new skills and community actions, like service learning projects.
• Engage families by facilitating school and community performances or oral history projects on human rights.
• Address underlying principles of human rights, such as equality, human dignity, inalienability, indivisibility, interdependency, non-discrimination, responsibility, and universality.
• Bring current affairs and news into the classroom and teach critical thinking and resolution skills.

The model curriculum units provided are examples that educators may use, but are meant to allow educators to fit any human rights topic that is important in their community, school, or classroom into the curriculum in a meaningful way. To cite only one example, the second unit, "Human Migration", involves a specific human rights issue and captures the concepts of multiple stories and self-identity. This lesson aims at linking identities to different stories in the community and trying to make sure that all voices are heard and respected. (The word 'migration' was used rather than 'immigration', in order to ensure that indigenous perspectives were also recognised and respected.)

The core programme strategy is actively engaging students in a process of learning that involves use of higher-order thinking skills to address issues in their community while challenging assumptions - and then taking action. Each Unit in the This is My Home curriculum has a step in which students develop a "human rights action plan" - such as a letter writing campaign, public education initiative, service project, or crafting of a petition to be sent to government officials - and then carry it out. This experience is part of the process of trying to motivate all members of the school community - even very young children - to take responsibility in promoting and protecting human rights. This strategy is also reflected in the Human Rights Process Model (a student-centred learning circle) on which the initiative is based; it involves:

1. Observing and identifying the human rights issue
2. Describing and sharing stories
3. Generating human rights responses and making predictions about their impact on the community
4. Selecting a human rights response and taking action
5. Interviewing community members and collecting information about the impact of the human rights action
6. Reflecting on what has been learned about promoting and protecting human rights and drawing conclusions
7. Communicating and demonstrating human rights learning.

The Human Rights Process Model was built to provide students, teachers, and pre-service teachers throughout Minnesota with a learning tool for linking classroom lessons with community action. The goals of learning about human rights and responsibilities in local contexts are to have an impact not only on student learning, but also on the school climate, family involvement, and the larger community. The Process Model mirrors This is My Home’s K-12 Curriculum Units, which were designed for curriculum integration into all schools and classrooms throughout Minnesota in order to teach students the universal language, standards, and process of human rights education.

The Human Rights Process Model was recently modified to make this tool a more user- friendly resource. The updated tool allows educators to create their own account with a personal username and password. Once registered, they can create as many lesson plans as they like, as well as return to their work in progress to edit it later.

The interactive This is My Home website is a key means of engaging educators in contributing to learning and exchange on how various components of the This is My Home programme work in practice; for example, click here to access the Curriculum and Action Planning Tools based on the 7-step model detailed above. In an effort to help make the Tool Kit easy to use - with a common HRE language for teachers and students throughout the state - this interactive website also features a variety of resources and guidance beyond the This is My Home curriculum itself, such as a Taking Your Human Rights Temperature Questionnaire, a community action planning tool, a human rights glossary, various HRE activities and materials, tips for teaching human rights, and links to professional development information. In addition, the Human Rights Center hosts what organisers describe as the largest online human rights library of primary sources in eight languages. The library contains international and regional human rights documents, case-law, curricula, and other teachers' resources.

In 2006, teachers participated in a pilot set of This is My Home  workshops designed for educators from 6 communities in Minnesota. The goal was to expose them to relevant knowledge, skills, and attitudes that could foster a positive and dynamic classroom climate, as well as to help them implement the curriculum and create connections with students and the larger community. These face-to-face exchanges were also meant to be a forum for sharing effective practices by documenting and evaluating ways in which teachers are integrating cultural competency and HRE activities into the curriculum and school.


While working with pilot communities, the Human Rights Center was able to test various HRE teacher training and professional development models though collecting and applying participants’ feedback. As a result, the Center came up with a 4-day Human Rights Curriculum Writing Academy as one of the most successful HRE training models. The academy allows teachers to first learn about human rights and human rights language, and then apply their knowledge in developing human rights curriculum units for their classrooms. The Center is now promoting this model to other communities and partners.


This is My Home resources have also been on display with the online mobile Human Rights and Peace Store, which was present at over 100 national, state-wide and local educational and community conferences and events throughout Minnesota in 2006-2007. The store is a way to compliment This is My Home curriculum with other human rights and peace education books and resources. Click here to access the store.

Education, Rights.

This is My Home is part of the Minnesota Department of Human Rights campaign "Educate to Eliminate", which includes This is My Home as well as community forums and public service announcements (PSAs).