The principle of participation running through the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child requires schools to re-assess their structures, organisation and management. The Convention expects children to interact in situations of cultural diversity on the basis of justice and equality. This has wide-ranging implications for classroom organisation, curriculum and pedagogy. The rights enacted in the Convention suggest a number of principles listed below which we apply to the processes of teaching and learning.

Dignity and security
The student's right to dignity implies a relationship between teacher and student which avoids abuse of power on the part of the teacher, including the avoidance of sarcasm. Teachers need to establish, with their students, a classroom atmosphere in which name calling and mockery are unacceptable. It is the teacher's responsibility to ensure that those who are most vulnerable, for example minorities, are protected from bullying and harassment and have the opportunity to learn in a secure environment.

Identity and inclusivity
The preservation and development of identity, including the recognition of the multiple identities which the individual may adopt is a key right within education, yet one which is perhaps the most easily violated. Teachers need to ensure that they meet certain basic requirements, such as correct use and pronunciation of the child's name. Respect for individual children, their cultures and families is critical. This requires us to value diversity in the classroom and to recognise that diversity and hybridity are essential characteristics of all human communities. It means seeing children's characteristics, whether cultural, emotional, or physical, as attributes to be built upon, rather than deficiencies. Education systems, schools, and classrooms which deny or marginalise diversity are likely to discriminate against those who do not match the presupposed norm. Children whose social and cultural backgrounds are different from those of their teachers, and those with learning difficulties or disabilities, are particularly disadvantaged in such systems.

Freedom
Pedagogy needs to permit maximum freedom of expression and conscience. The exercise of the rights of freedom of expression; freedom of conscience and religion; and freedom of association and peaceful assembly all require a range of skills which need to be developed in the classroom. Teaching and learning needs to be based on student-teacher dialogue. It assumes a model of learning and development in which the learner will often be the person best suited to identifying her or his own needs. The model assumes that the teacher is continually developing his or her own teaching skills and is also open to learn from the students and their cultures. Freedom of expression will have certain limitations, in order to protect the freedoms, security and dignity of others and ensure respect for all.

Access to information
The exercise of the right of freedom of expression is at least partially dependent on access to information and ideas, including information from the mass media and from a diversity of national and international sources. Teachers have a responsibility to ensure that not only does the child have skills of reading and writing to gain access to information but is able to critically interpret visual images, in newspapers, video and other media. Skills involved in the development of visual literacy include questioning, recognition of bias and discrimination and those skills associated with the design and production of visual materials, for example, a photo sequence or video. An appropriate pedagogy will permit students to identify issues about which they wish to learn more, analyse the mass media, encourage creativity, imagination, criticism and scepticism, and arrive at their own judgements.

Privacy
The right to privacy which is jealously guarded by so many adults is as often disregarded when we are dealing with children, in the context of the school, the staffroom and the classroom. Pedagogy should respect the child's right to privacy, with regard to family and home, and schools need safeguards, in the form of guidelines, to protect the child's reputation when sharing information about individuals. While recognising that we often ask personal questions of children in order to build upon their own experiences, cultures and identities, as teachers we need to remember that there exists a power relationship between teacher and student which may sometimes cause children to reveal more than they might wish to do. The teacher should consider the context, and avoid situations where children may be asked to reveal personal information in public, as for example, in a whole class discussion. If the principle of the child's best interests is consistently applied as a primary consideration, this should not prevent teachers seeking information designed to protect a child judged to be vulnerable in some way.
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An expanded version of this article can be found in Audrey Osler and Hugh Starkey : Teacher Education and Human Rights, London: David Fulton.