Education in Human Rights with a Critical Perspective and Ethical Attitudes: A case in legal pedagogy in Chile

What attitudes towards human rights with a critical perspective do students of the Law program develop throughout their university life? Human rights are more than just a part of the formal education of law students; they are also integral to the value-based education that any educational institution seeks to achieve. Concepts such as freedom, equality, and dignity are inherent in subjects like Constitutional Law or Human Rights. This is especially true when considering that legal norms create realities that can either resolve or perpetuate situations of oppression for certain groups in society. This article highlights the learning of these rights beyond their content, emphasizing the attitudes towards human rights with a critical perspective that law students develop throughout their university life, comparing first-year and fifth-year students. Through a qualitative study and descriptive statistics, the results show similarities in various areas but also differences. First-year students exhibit a neutral view, while fifth-year students have a critical-apprehensive profile, as they can perceive the power of the law in society to create situations of vulnerability and discrimination but do not feel prepared to address these issues in their professional lives.