The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) celebrated its 30th anniversary in 2019, but there is still a general lack of awareness about these rights and a lack of focus on children’s rights in teacher education. Furthermore, although the rights are for every child everywhere and give children a voice, there are still many around the world who do not have enough food, live without an education, and are forced to work.

Since 1989, several picturebooks have been published about children’s rights, providing teachers with an excellent resource for introducing children to their rights. The picturebooks appear in a variety of genres, using different formats and media, and include:

• Autobiography, for example, Malala’s Magic Pencil.
• Information books, such as Children Who Changed the World by Marcia Williams, published by Walker Books in 2020, which tells the true stories of child activists.
• Narrative, where one or more rights from the UNCRC are conveyed through the storyline, for example, You Can by Alexandra Strick, illustrated by Steve Antony and published by Otter-Barry Books in 2021, which reinforces the message of children’s right to live happy, positive and fulfilling lives.
• Verse, such as Freedom, We Sing and Every Child a Song: A Celebration of Children’s Rights by Nicola Davies, illustrated by Marc Martin and published by Wren & Rook in 2020, which uses the metaphor of song to introduce children to their rights.

There are picturebooks which are explicitly about children’s rights, and others which can provide a rich context in which to introduce them, as links can be made to one or more rights from the UNCRC that match the theme and narrative of the picturebook (see Books That Link to Children’s Rights). In addition, teaching approaches should be inspired by and reflect the spirit and philosophy of the UNCRC, as implementing children’s rights forms part of a teacher’s wider professional remit in the English language classroom. How a teacher conceives and values the child, and the beliefs and values they hold about children’s learning, will impact the extent to which they implement children’s rights and promote children’s agency in the classroom. It is helpful to reflect on the following questions:

1. Do you conceive the child as:
   • An active learner who is a social agent capable of reflection and decision-making, with rights and responsibilities?
   • Or as dependent on the teacher and as a passive recipient of knowledge?
2. Do you consider a teacher as:
   • An adult who has authority and where there is an unequal relationship between teacher and child, placing the child in a more subordinate and passive role?
   • Or an adult who works in partnership with the child, where learning is a shared process that respects the equal status of children as the subjects of rights?

Teachers’ responses to these questions will impact the power dynamics and relationships they establish with children in the classroom.

Picturebook-based ELT lessons can be embedded in a children’s rights perspective (Ellis, 2019; 2021) by adopting a children’s rights pedagogy. This is based on the three categories around which the Articles in the UNCRC are classified: Protection, Provision, and Participation, which are referred to as the ‘3Ps’. This threefold categorisation can be used to create a pedagogical framework to enable teachers to establish a relationship of shared control with their pupils and allow pupils to exercise their agency and participate fully in their own learning.

This framework, adapted from the Picturebook Lesson Series: Exploring Social Issues, can also be applied to other subjects and teaching contexts.

• Protection: Teachers set up a safe and secure space to create a positive, inclusive classroom climate where all learners are respected and learn with and from each other.
• Provision: Lessons provide a structured plan and clear guidelines for learners to engage with a picturebook, in which both the words and the pictures create meaning. Lessons provide activities which learners can select according to their age, language level and interests, helping them develop critical thinking as well as English language skills.
• Participation: Lessons facilitate learners’ agency and encourage active participation. Activities offer opportunities for learners to make choices and participate in decision-making, while respecting their right to an opinion.

Amnesty International suggests some helpful questions that you and your students can consider when selecting or discussing picturebooks to explore human rights themes. The questions are designed to promote critical thinking and are included in an origami snapdragon or fortune teller called a Story Explorer. It can be downloaded here:

The questions included are:

• Is there anything you are not being told?
• Whose voices aren’t being heard?
• What issues are being explored?
• Whose story is being told?
• Who is treated with respect and dignity?
• Who is telling the story?
• Who makes the decisions in the story?
• Which character’s behaviour surprises you?

Ellis, G. (2019). Children’s language learning rights. TEYLT Worldwide, Issue 1, 2019. The newsletter of the IATEFL Young Learners and Teenagers Special Interest Group.

Ellis, G. & Gruenbaum, T. (2023). Picturebook Lesson Series: Exploring Social Issues. British Council.

Ellis, G. (2021). Integrating a rights perspective: children’s language learning rights. IATEFL YLTSIG Emerald Anniversary Web Conference.

Ellis, G. & Ibrahim, N. (2021). ‘Teachers’ image of the child in an ELT context’. In Ethical and Methodological Issues in Researching Young Language Learners in School Contexts, edited by Annamaria Pinter and Kuchah Kuchah. Multilingual Matters.