The Education for Justice (E4J) initiative by United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) pursues preventing crime and advocating a lawfulness culture through education projects designed for primary, secondary, and tertiary levels. These activities help educators teach next generations to understand better and address what can undermine the rule of law, and encourage students to actively engage in their communities and future professions in this regard. A set of products and activities for the primary and secondary levels have been developed in partnership with UNESCO.
https://www.unodc.org/e4j/en/index.html
The Doha Declaration: Promoting A Culture Of Lawfulness
In the Fun Corner, we can find Educational tools and materials developed by E4J and other relevant stakeholders for children aged 6 to 12 years.
It is a space for kids to watch educational videos, create comic strips and play educational games in nine different languages.
https://fun-corner.unodc.org/e4j-fun-corner/index.html
I’m really interested in this initiative as it addresses the issue of crime and social disorder from a deterrence rather than a root causes perspective which would be more typical in education. Although the latter has to be our ultimate concern. I would support the claim that, in addition to providing a safe learning environment, it is an educator’s civic responsibility to nurture a culture of respect for the law. Having said this, however, we know there is compelling evidence that conventional law enforcement has sometimes been inadequate and that, in some communities, this has forced a reappraisal of the relationship between legal authority, power, and and the police.
From a pedagogic perspective, I’m interested in the red zone of disruption (on the chart) where the teacher can facilitate a revaluation of established understandings of this relationship. Gorski (2009) advocates the use of cognitive dissonance in the construction of learning contexts where learners are presented with information that challenges misconceptions. Citizens’ faith in the maxim “innocent until proven guilty” can be complicated by implicit bias, for example, an assumption is made about a person’s motivation or intent based on their membership in a certain group. Drawing learners’ attention to this can create dissonance in those emotionally committed to the maxim and, with teachers help, prompt a more nuanced understanding. Knowledge about the issues surrounding police engagement should form the foundation of trust for good community policing.
Surprisingly, there’s an app for that. Blake Chernisoff of the Vancouver Police Department is leading a team designing a community patrol app. The app allows citizen volunteers to collect and share information about activities in their neighbourhood. Users can log information about irregular, illegal or suspicious activity, for example, they can take a picture of graffiti and send it to 311 to have it removed.
https://www.blueline.ca/community_policing-_there-s_an_app_for_that-3279/
Reference
Gorski, Paul C. 2009. Cognitive Dissonance as a Strategy in Social Justice Teaching. Multicultural Education, v17 n1 p54-57
Hello Alexei!!!! This is a very intriguing post and good resource. Students, teachers, and community stakeholders can learn a lot from this type of approach. This is a very good platform for remote communities to build upon. In some, where I live, to receive a response or questions answered may take anywhere from 45 minutes to a few days. Majority of children in our community do not have a means to communicate or comprehension of basic law. I am very intrigued. Thank you for sharing. What
This is quite an educational resource for teachers Alexei. What I like as well is that some of the basic principles of justice can be used for the Canadian context, particularly those of gender and ethnicity. Good find!