The International Day for the Abolition of Slavery on Monday 2 December is an opportunity for school leaders, teachers and students to reflect on the appalling situation of 20.9 million men, women and children trapped in slavery across the world today and denied of their most basic human rights.
Many teachers use the themes of change and continuity to introduce contemporary slavery to their students. Citizenship, geography, religious education and English all present opportunities to teach contemporary slavery, and the role that students can play in its eradication.
Teaching students about contemporary slavery is even more timely with the recent discoveries of numerous cases of slavery involving British citizens.
Here we share the lessons we've learned in good practice to teaching modern-day slavery to students:
Clearly define slavery and avoid conflating related issues
Modern day slavery is a complex problem, ranging in its forms from bonded labour, forced labour, descent-based slavery, trafficking and the worst forms of child labour to forced marriage. Many elements often present at the same time.
But these nuances are often over simplified when teaching slavery. For example, not all child labour is slavery and some types of work might be even beneficial to children's development, helping them learn particular skills. Some child domestic workers are able to negotiate favourable contracts that entitle them to adequate payment and time off to attend school and play with friends.
Emphasising that those in slavery are forced to work and face punishment if they refuse is a good starting point. Students can then explore the root causes of slavery, which include poverty, discrimination – be it on the basis of race, caste or gender – and the lack of the rule of law by decision makers.
We have developed a range of resources that teachers can use to introduce modern day slavery to students and highlight the different manifestations, as well as the role they can play in calling for its eradication.
Embed slavery in the curriculum
As teaching time is limited, integrating slavery into lessons is a useful time-saving device. For example, when writing to inform or persuade in English lessons students can write to their local MP about slavery. In geography, when teaching about deserts or the Amazon, the enslavement of people in Niger or those harvesting Brazil nuts can be included. Themes of change and continuity can be explored in history, with students enquiring how slavery abolition and legislation in the UK has evolved from 19th century to today.
Illustrate the local and global context and impact of slavery
It's important that students understand that all countries in the world are affected by modern slavery.
Using interactive tools such as the Products of Slavery website and map is useful to illustrate this from a global perspective. Newspaper stories highlighting the occurrence of slavery in the UK – and you don't have to look far to find one with the recent London case of women held in domestic slavery for 30 years – show that slavery happens on our doorstep too.
It's important that students understand that slavery is not something solely linked to issues of poverty in developing countries. To increase empathy, when talking about slavery abroad, try to find a link to the daily experiences of the students. For example, much of the cotton from Uzbekistan is picked by children and adults forced to do so by their government. This ends up in our high street shops and it's probable that many children in the classroom wear it.
Avoid perpetuating the "poor victims" syndrome
When teaching about the transatlantic slave trade, it's easy to fall into the cliché of the blameless noble African victim enslaved by evil white men and slavery abolished by benevolent white men. This can also be easily played out when teaching about modern-day slavery too, with the poor "child slave" working in an Indian factory, or the poor young woman trafficked into prostitution – all portrayed as victims in need of rescuing.
While people in slavery are denied their most basic human rights, positing them only as "slaves" in need of being freed denies them of their humanity and any sense of agency they have. This can make students think that merely rescuing slaves would solve the problem and omits the need to take political action.
Avoid calling people affected by slavery "slaves" and use individual stories and case studies told in the first person to deepen students' empathy. Ask your students to discuss how the process of enslavement has occurred in each case and what actions decision makers and the general public can take to support those in slavery claim back their rights.
Empower students to be modern day abolitionists
Perhaps most importantly, students need to be aware of the actions that they can take as local and global citizens in ending slavery.
Highlight the actions of many ordinary British citizens standing with enslaved Africans who fought for their freedom at every turn to successfully pressure decision makers to end the transatlantic slave trade. Explain how sugar was boycotted and how people, such as Frederick Douglas and Olaudah Equiano, campaigned along abolitionists such as Thomas Clarkson and William Wilberforce to bring a 400-year-old practice to an end.
Talk about the more recent actions of child domestic workers who lobbied the International Labour Organisation to agree a convention giving them workers' rights and legal protection. The action of a small group of protesters persuading H&M to review buying cotton from Uzbekistan and the bravery of Hadijaitou Mani who took the Niger government to court for failing to protect her from slavery.
And finally, ask students to act. Write to the home secretary to ensure the protection of victims of modern slavery in the UK is at the heart of the new anti-slavery bill. Thanks to the actions of the public slavery in the 19th century has been abolished. But slavery merely changed its forms so we need to teach children to become a new generation of abolitionists to end slavery once and for all.
Michaela Alfred-Kamara is the education officer at Anti-Slavery International.