How can teachers promote democracy in everyday school work? And what responsibilities do teachers have in ensuring that the human rights of all pupils are observed? Many professionals in the field of education do not have an answer or are at a loss when having to take a stand on hate speech or identify a situation where inequality occurs among pupils.

A pilot course organised by the University of Helsinki in spring 2019 tested the inclusion of studies in democratic citizenship and human rights education in teacher training. Simultaneously, a material repository (in Finnish only) was compiled to support all teachers and others involved in education.

Democratic citizenship and human rights education has gained traction in national curricula, but teaching the topic to teachers has been lacking standardisation. In a report by the Human Rights Centre (summary in English) and another report by the Ministry of Education and Culture (in Finnish only), both published in 2014, democratic citizenship and human rights education in teacher training was found to rely on the activity of individual operators as well as to be unanchored to a legal basis and unsystematic. Furthermore, the lack of a social perspective in teacher training was highlighted.

Options for utilising the special pilot course are currently being surveyed. At the University of Helsinki, the aim is to also organise the course in the form of contact teaching and include it in the course offerings.