Rights at play: learning design for human rights education in higher education

Abstract

This study reports on the design and implementation of a low-tech, embodied learning toolkit that supports the situated practice of democratic competences among university students. Grounded in the Council of Europe’s Reference Framework of Competences for Democratic Culture (RFCDC), the toolkit combines tactile constraints, fictional but realistic scenarios, and structured dialogue anchored in human rights. Focus groups, facilitator field notes, researcher observations, and post-session reflections were analysed using reflexive thematic analysis to explore (i) which competences were enacted and (ii) which pedagogical mechanisms supported learning. Findings indicate that students engaged with rights dilemmas through unequal materials, structured disagreement, and facilitated reflection, with competences appearing through interactions with materials, scenarios, and peers. The study highlights the potential of embodied learning approaches for competence-oriented human rights education in higher education.