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Human rights and specifically the right to education have enormous potential to disrupt marginalisation and enable humans to live a dignified and free life. There has, however, in recent decades, developed a mistrust in the political and normative premise of human rights. For many humans around the world, human dignity, respect and protection against discrimination and oppression remain only abstract and discursive ideals despite the standards and values set out in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR, 1948). In this chapter a critical, decolonial shift in how we think about, for and towards the right to education is proposed. Such a shift could be enabled through decolonial human rights literacies. Decolonial literacy, as a critical literacy, aim to interrupt and counter the colonial and Euro-Western lens through which human rights are read which enables ongoing marginalisation. The epistemological foundations of critical literacies rest on the power of social transformation and not so much on the functional purposes of literacy. Critical literacies are situated and develop in material reality in place-space–time. Geographical place anchors space, which refers to human interaction and movements in and through the flow of time (past, present and future). The (non)realisation of the right to education in South Africa is used to illustrate why the need for decolonial human rights literacies is urgent. The right to education stated in the UDHR (1948), the normative standards for education set out by the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (1999) and reflected in the Convention of the Rights of the Child (1989, hereafter CRC) and the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child (1990, hereafter ACRWC) are juxtaposed with the right to education in material reality in South Africa. As with the rights stipulated in the UDHR, the abstract and discursive ideals of the CRC (1989) and the ACRWC (1990) are in stark contrast to material reality in South African education. Some concluding thoughts and suggestions are provided.

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The Right to Education in South Africa: A Critical Decolonial Reading in Place-Space–time

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  • 发表日期：

    2025年

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  • Anne Becker

摘要

Human rights and specifically the right to education have enormous potential to disrupt marginalisation and enable humans to live a dignified and free life. There has, however, in recent decades, developed a mistrust in the political and normative premise of human rights. For many humans around the world, human dignity, respect and protection against discrimination and oppression remain only abstract and discursive ideals despite the standards and values set out in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR, 1948). In this chapter a critical, decolonial shift in how we think about, for and towards the right to education is proposed. Such a shift could be enabled through decolonial human rights literacies. Decolonial literacy, as a critical literacy, aim to interrupt and counter the colonial and Euro-Western lens through which human rights are read which enables ongoing marginalisation. The epistemological foundations of critical literacies rest on the power of social transformation and not so much on the functional purposes of literacy. Critical literacies are situated and develop in material reality in place-space–time. Geographical place anchors space, which refers to human interaction and movements in and through the flow of time (past, present and future). The (non)realisation of the right to education in South Africa is used to illustrate why the need for decolonial human rights literacies is urgent. The right to education stated in the UDHR (1948), the normative standards for education set out by the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (1999) and reflected in the Convention of the Rights of the Child (1989, hereafter CRC) and the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child (1990, hereafter ACRWC) are juxtaposed with the right to education in material reality in South Africa. As with the rights stipulated in the UDHR, the abstract and discursive ideals of the CRC (1989) and the ACRWC (1990) are in stark contrast to material reality in South African education. Some concluding thoughts and suggestions are provided.