Teaching Human Rights. Bringing Alternative Conceptions into Play .......... 325

This paper makes the case that investigating students’ prior knowledge on the topic of human rights has the potential to significantly improve instructional practice. It dis-cusses the role of students’ alternative conceptions in the broader context of human rights education discourse. The paper also looks at the lack of agreement on what an “accurate” conception of human rights is, and its implication for human rights education. In light of current evidence that prior knowledge is a major factor influencing learning, it is striking that there is almost no research on how young people perceive key concepts and processes related to the notion of human rights. This paper briefly reports on an ongoing German research project that seeks to address that gap by investigating grade nine students’ under-standing of human rights. It represents a shift from past research, which has focused solely on attitudes towards or knowledge of human rights without investigating the views that informs an individual’s mind-set.