2024 Theses Master's

Mitigating Social Inequality in Education: Human Rights Implementation in Brazilian and American Education Policies

Helfman, Claire

To explore this issue of (in)equitable access to education and gain further insight into how human rights constructs appear in education policies, this thesis will address the question: how have human rights standards regarding the right to education, particularly those dealing with the element of accessibility, been implemented in education policies aimed at reducing social inequality in Brazil and the United States?

Through document analysis, this thesis will construct an understanding of the international human rights standards regarding the right to education and analyze how these standards appear in Brazilian and American education policies, drawing comparisons between each state’s implementation of and respect for the right for the right to education.

This thesis will also identify persistent barriers to accessing education through analyzing narrative data from Brazilian and American students regarding their educational experiences. Findings suggest that the construction of the right to education in national policies in Brazil and the United States has been fragmented by the failure to consult the guidance and recommendations of human rights bodies and organizations holistically. This has resulted in the perpetuation of inequitable access to education for marginalized students.