Reimagining children's rights through the prism of sustainable development: Implications for educating children and young people

Concepts of social justice and children’s rights have been familiar companions to many education theorists, researchers and practitioners, particularly in early education, over long periods of time. Indeed, the majority of the literature often valorizes these concepts because of the important contributions of children’s rights research as a driving force for the upgrading of the status of children in society. The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) in particular, has been placed at the absolute centre of discussions often framing and/or motivating theory, research or practice. Rarely though is the UNCRC the actual object of analysis or discussion. Instead “it has been allowed to define rights for children”. Like some researchers, for example Veerman, I argue that the UNCRC is outdated; reflective of the image of the child and societies of the drafting period. Things have changed since then. We live in times of increasing insecurity and uncertainty where calls for the world’s peoples to live more socially, economically, and environmentally sustainable lives are becoming more urgent. The UNICEF report, Sustainable Development Starts and Ends with Safe, Healthy and Well-Educated Children, for example, states that it is increasingly recognised that a sustainable world requires a significant shift in awareness, values and practices in order to change our currently unsustainable patterns of consumption and production. This same report argues that children’s needs and rights are interdependent with sustainable development. Education holds the key to the necessary shifts in thinking, values and practice required for these transitions. However, the foundations of much of our current discourses about children, education, and social issues are outdated. My starting point in this chapter is that the UNCRC is an historical and political artifact, requiring interrogation and updating, and not a document that sets children’s rights “in stone”. Instead, this chapter argues for a multidimensional rights approach that recognizes collective, intergenerational and bio-centric rights and this reframing has implications for how we 'do' education for children and young people