Lesson study for Children’s rights: a teacher training through arts-based education approach

Purpose This study aims to propose the rights of the child as an integrating part in the training of future teachers through a combination of lesson study and an arts-based teaching approach. Research was conducted among degree in Early Childhood Education trainee teachers (n = 101), which focused on the introduction of human rights education (HRE). The article presents the process of implementation, the empirical research conducted and the results obtained through this innovative mixed methodology. Design/methodology/approach A research lesson was developed around a teacher training program based on the arts. This program included human rights training through the experience of artistic installations that visually integrated the participants knowledge of the rights of the child. Results stem primarily from quantitative analyses—pre- and post-test assessment—to measure the impact of the artistic program, but also qualitative data—field notes—and visual data obtained from the artistic methodology. Findings Findings show that arts-based training is an effective didactic method for children rights training. Significant improvement was recorded in indicators such as knowledge about the rights of children, self-perceived sufficiency regarding the ability to address them and the intention to implement them in the future. Originality/value This study contributes to the field by addressing the awareness and teaching of human rights as one of the great challenges of contemporary educative research; and through the innovative combination of methodologies which deploys the arts not only as a didactic strategy but also as a research method proper that yields relevant results in the field lesson study improvement.