ISSN 2304-2885-p, 2617-7315-e Vol. 10 No. 2

Exploring Human Rights Education in Pre-service Teachers’ Training Programs in Rwanda: Opportunities and Challenges

Philothere Ntawiha, Mary A Otieno, Yves Byishimo, Alphonse Benegusenga, Sylvain Nawiyanga, Beth Nasiforo, Emmanuel Ahimana

Abstract


The purpose of this paper was to explore opportunities and challenges of human rights education in pre-service teachers’ training programs in Rwanda. This is very important because pre-service teachers are supposed to disseminate and promote human rights education in schools after their graduation. The paper therefore, presents empirical findings collected from 415 pre-service teachers and tutors/lecturers selected in pre-service teachers training institutions in Rwanda. Both quantitative and qualitative approaches were used whereby explanatory research design was used by first collecting quantitative data and then qualitative data. Questionnaires made of open and close ended questionnaires were used to collect quantitative data and semi-structured interview and focus group discuss were used to collected qualitative data. Descriptive statistics and thematic analysis were used to analyze quantitative and qualitative data respectively. The findings were presented in graph and verbatim. The study findings revealed that initiatives to promote human rights education in pre-service teachers training programs were taken but issues such as lack of expertise and specialized teaching resources, routines and cultural practices still affect the teaching of human rights education in Rwandan teacher training institutions. Therefore, the study recommends to building the capacity of the teaching staff, to provide specialized resources and to create a powerful learning environment to enhance the teaching of human rights education in Rwandan pre-service teachers’ training institutions. 

Key words:  Human rights education, opportunities, challenges, pre-service teachers, Rwanda

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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License