Change Agents and Change of Norms : International Experiences on Training in UN Convention on the Rights of the Child in Schools <Special Issue : Right to Education>

Education is usually seen as an instrument for making changes in knowledge, values and norms. Norms are action instructions or imperatives and thus direct actions and changes, which is the essence of norms. If one knows more about norms - guiding actions - one understands more about changes. It is well-known in sociology of law that there is an important, complex interplay between social norms and legal norms. The aim of this article is to reflect upon empirically based results on international training on implementation of the UN Convention of the Rights of the Child (CRC) - the legal norms - in schools and educational organisations. The article is ended by concrete examples and applications of changes taken from schools and educational areas in the state of Kerala in southern India. The overarching idea is to study some change processes where the change of norms is taking place following the new legal norms stemming from the CRC. If legal and the social norms are congruent, one of the conclusions is that the implementation of new norms will be sustainable.