ALA 470 Project: Right to Education

This article fulfilled a requirement for ALA 470: Organizing for Global Social Justice. In ALA 470, second- and third-year members of GSP learn about transformative community organizing and complete a Community Organizing Group Project.

Our project sought to provide an informative overview of the challenges in accessing free, quality education faced by children and communities around the world by hosting a dialogue for GSP members. Our group included Robbie Hudzinski, Sara Hollingshead, Sebastian Oliva, and Olivia O’Connell. Each of us brought our own unique perspective and experience to this project: Robbie has worked on access to secondary education through his job here in Ann Arbor; Sara has a passion for the right to education; Sebastian has worked on supporting children’s educational opportunities in Guatemala through a student org on campus; and Olivia has worked on education policy issues, with a particular emphasis on access to education for children with disabilities. 

While this work is not intended to be fully comprehensive, it is meant to serve as an introduction to this incredibly important topic which is often overlooked in the U.S., where education can be taken for granted by many. In our dialogue, we addressed this complex critical global issue by presenting a few case studies as examples of how challenges to accessing education can impact different communities and identity groups in different places around the world. Drawing on the education sections of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and the United Nations Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women, we aimed to explain how the case studies referenced are in violation of the principles outlined in international human rights law. 

We hoped to bring this issue to the attention of students in GSP and to hear from their diverse, intercultural, and global experiences related to education in hopes of creating a collective, multifaceted understanding of global education systems and the inequities that exist within them.

We hosted a capacity-building teach-in and dialogue (here is the agenda that we created!). We decided this combination of pedagogical and dialogic methods would be most effective for the GSP community as we planned to bring in evidence from the UN Convention of the Rights of the Child to utilize a case-study approach from various regions in the world to broaden the scope of our topic. This involved examining how historical, cultural, and socio-economic factors influence access to education, as well as how systemic barriers such as economic inequality, underfunded schools, and discrimination affect educational opportunities. 

We partnered with UM-UNICEF whose mission is to advocate, fundraise, and educate the UM community on behalf of UNICEF-USA to reach zero preventable deaths. We hope this dialogue will inform the GSP community about the barriers to education access and inspire them to reflect on their own experiences and the realities in their home countries or cities. 

At the end of our dialogue, we provided the opportunity for members to participate in an optional petition-signing initiative advocating for improved access to education in underserved communities. The petition is through UNICEF-USA and calls upon the US Congress to pass the READ Reauthorization Act of 2023 which addresses the global learning crisis by extending U.S. efforts to improve equitable access to quality education, foundational literacy, and numeracy for children worldwide.

Takeaways:

Our capacity-building educational event highlighted two essential lessons for the GSP community and prospective members. First, dialogue is a powerful tool to bridge diverse perspectives and address global issues like educational inequity. By analyzing case studies through the lens of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, we emphasized how historical, cultural, and socio-economic factors intersect to shape educational access worldwide. This approach encouraged participants to reflect on systemic barriers—such as economic inequality, discrimination, and underfunded schools—and consider parallels in their own communities. Second, collaboration with organizations like UM-UNICEF and Friends of Guatemala demonstrated the impact of collective action in addressing global challenges.

Integrating educational advocacy with actionable initiatives, such as the petition for the READ Reauthorization Act of 2023, showed how grassroots efforts can influence policy and promote equitable access to education.

Hopes Moving Forward

Our hope is that this event inspires participants to pursue sustainable change in education systems, locally and globally. One key takeaway both participants and facilitators had was how education is intertwined with many social issues. We dissected the Detroit Public Schooling system and it was revealed that, while funding has increased each fiscal year, racial discrimination and disparities have continued to worsen, highlighting persistent inequities. We reflected further on the role that finances play in combating historical systemic inequities, and we believe that while money is really important, just supplying money is not enough. By fostering awareness and mobilizing the GSP community, we aim to empower members to advocate for policies that address systemic barriers, ensuring every child has the opportunity to learn, grow, and thrive. Through these efforts, we can contribute meaningfully to advancing global educational equity.

Meet the Authors