Teaching children’s rights and their role in the development of moral judgement among adolescent students at Garoua University

Abstract

At the university of Garoua, most students are at a key stage in the consolidattion of their identity and values. The taeching of children’s rights, often perceived as knowledge intented for the youngest, seems to be poorly integrated into Camerounian university curricula, even though it conveys fundamental principes of justice, empathy and human dignity. There is a gap between the educational potential of human rights and their effective appropriation by young adults in the university context. It is unclear to what extent a structured knoweldge of these rights can interact with and influence the development of mature moral judgement capable of reasoning about complex ethical dilemmas. What is the specific role of teaching children’s rights in the development of moral judgement among adolescent students at the University of Garoua ? We postulate that formal and systematic teaching of children’s rights at university contributes significantly to enriching and refining students’ moral judgement, promoting the transition to more advanced stages of reasoning charaterised by fairness, the principle of universality and consideration for others. The main objective of our research is to analyse the influence of academic knowledge of children’s rights on the stages of moral reasoning processes among a student population transitioning to adulthood. Our study conducted using a quantitative survey of a sample of 100 adolescent students at the University of Garoua. A structured questionnaire was used to measure both the level of knowledge of legal instruments relating to children’s rights and the stage of moral judgement according to Kohlberg’s scale. Statistical, analyses, including correlation and regression tests, were applied to examine the relationships between the variables. The results show a strong correlation between the level of knowledge of children’s rights and the stage of post-conventional moral judgement. In particular, they reveal that students who have taken a specific module on children’s rights score significantly higher in ethical reasoning based on universal principles.

Keywords

• children’s rights
• moral judgement
• adolescent students
• higher education
• ethical development