This research synthesis examines earlier studies within the field of children's human rights in education, with the specific aim of clarifying which rationalities of teaching and learning children's human rights are activated as significant for teachers’ thinking and work. Theoretically framed by a Foucauldian governmentality approach, the qualitative analysis identifies five different rationalities in the teaching and learning of children's human rights in previous research. The paper discusses how the identified rationalities support or contradict each other in a complex way and their connection to differing conceptions of rights for children. Further, the possible consequences for teachers, teacher educators and policymakers are considered.

Framed by a Foucauldian governmentality perspective, this article shows teachers' different rights-teaching mentalities active in human rights education for children. The article draws on observation and interview data from fieldwork in three Year 1 classes in Swedish primary schools. In the holistic approach adopted, rights-learning is understood as learning about human rights as well as developing rights-conscious values and behaviours for human rights. This is enacted through human rights. Six rights-teaching mentalities were identified: Competent children learn rights from each other; Equal value in focus; Participation is a right; Respect is essential; Adult voices and interpretations are superior; and Competence and maturity determine access to rights. The analysis shows how the different rights-teaching mentalities support different forms of rights-learning.

The overarching ambition of this paper is to explore how teachers’ actions shape children’s growth as rights-subjects. This is done by addressing the question: which rights-subjects are privileged for children by teachers’ different rights-teaching mentalities? The paper draws on observation and interview data from fieldwork in three Year classes in Swedish primary schools. Theoretically framed by a Foucauldian governmentality perspective, rights-learning situations were analysed through the lens of teachers’ rights-teaching mentalities and governing techniques. The findings show how teachers’ different actions privilege different rights-subjects for the children, and demonstrate how the teachers’ actions in everyday interaction in the classroom play a significant role in this process. It is argued that rights-learning, and growing as a rights-subject, does not primarily happen in designated children’s human rights events at school, but rather occurs continuously, day after day, in ordinary school practice.