EDUCATING IN HUMAN RIGHTS IN RURAL AREAS: A REFLECTION FROM CRITICAL PEDAGOGY

Abstract

Given the advance and expansion of social media, information and communication technologies, and rapid and free access to information, education must present itself as a necessary pause to help understand the unfolding world with its multitude of responses to the situations that schools demand. This essay analyzes the conditions and problems faced by human rights education curricula in rural Colombia. The central objective is to examine how teaching human rights can be a key tool for building a more just society for rural children and youth, starting from the reality of armed conflict and the historical exclusion of rural areas. The essay's methodology is based on a critical reflection on existing public policies and how these have been influenced by the interests of capital, stripping education of its dignifying function. It proposes an analysis from the perspective of critical pedagogy to question the traditional educational model that reproduces power dynamics and excludes ancestral knowledge and the cultural context of rural life. The analysis establishes that rural schools must be transformed into spaces for dialogue and resistance that link theoretical knowledge with social reality. In conclusion, it emphasizes that human rights education in rural areas must go beyond the memorization of laws. A contextualized curriculum is proposed that considers the specific characteristics of the environment (poverty, conflict, culture) and fosters critical thinking through classroom research. Finally, the fundamental role of the teacher as an agent of change, capable of motivating students to transform their social reality for the collective defense of their rights, is highlighted