Course Catalogue

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Part of the Curriculum for Life programme, this course offers an interdisciplinary introduction to the human rights-based approach, drawing from philosophical, legal and socio-political paradigms. With a focus on working with civil society and co-producing evidence, the course builds towards frameworks for generating solutions and influencing policy.

As a 10-credit course, it will be taught across 5 weeks of semester 1or 2. The timetable includes 5 weekly 2 hour long workshops (for entire cohort in a space that allows students to discuss in small groups) and 5 weekly 1 hour long tutorials (for up to 15 students per tutorial group).

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There are two parts to the assignment, submitted at the same time, each carry 50% weight of the summative assessment.

1. A poster capturing an imagined funding bid for a civil society organisation. The poster should include imagery, and 200-500 words. Students will work in teams to co-produce a poster, though are able to submit a different poster to team-mates providing space for flexible engagement. This links to the first, second and fourth ILO (50%)

2. Reflexive essay of 500 words that links the poster to either,

■ their learning experience of building an interdisciplinary solution

■ team working more generally,

■ or their learning experience co-imagining how civil society can harness the human rights based approach for positive change. This links to the second and third ILO. (50%)

Did you know, that the United Nations has found the UK in breach of their obligations to deliver economic, social and cultural rights? For example, Scotland is failing to challenge poverty, provide adequate housing and deliver equal rights for disabled people.

As part of the C4L programme, the course aims to deliver a learning space that attracts students from different disciplines. All students are welcome, and no prior legal knowledge is needed. Drawing on evidence of rights challenges in Scotland, we will follow a civil rights organisation, reading materials they are exposed to, considering the ways they work to impact and help communities name and claim their rights. We aim for disruption, both in the learning of the rights gaps that exist in a fairly affluent nation like Scotland and in moving away from learning content, to investing time in problem solving. The course also will draw from our skills (linked to our disciplinary homes) while we surface others such as team work, critical thinking, evidence building and communicating with others. Guest speakers from civil society will share their perspective as they consider what academic researchers do, and how they help co-produce solutions in the real world. In turn, within the lectures and in working towards the assessment, students will be encouraged to work together with peers, bringing in their diverse knowledge and skills to produce new interdisciplinary ideas and potential solutions.

C4L is a programmatic response to Glasgow's sustainability agenda. This course provides space to consider a human rights based approach as a framework for transgressive education, giving students a solution-focused mindset that surfaces the 'change maker' and 'global citizen' characteristics.

Students will be linked to further information about the innovative C4L curriculum in all communications, and how their characteristics work for students' ownership of development can be found here: https://t4.gla.ac.uk/development/curriculumforlife/ 

By the end of this course students will be able to:

1. Interact with students from other disciplines to co-produce solutions to human rights challenges that reflect an interdisciplinary mindset.

2. Disrupt and evaluate their own and widely accepted views of Scotland's performance against human rights indicators.

3. Reflexively consider positionality informed by local (fellow students) and national communities (civil society partners).

4. Apply an evidence-based and solution-focused approach to real-world data to drive social change, demonstrating an understanding of the potential impact of a human rights-based approach.

Students must submit at least 75% by weight of the components (including examinations) of the course's summative assessment.