On the 20th and 21st of November, I was part of the Parents International team that participated in the Final Conference of Project DEMOCRAT, hosted by the University of Barcelona at its Faculty of Economics building.
In conjunction with its sister projects AECED and Critical ChangeLab, it covered multiple European countries and aimed at addressing one of the most relevant topics of our time: Education for Democracy.
I arrived in Barcelona a little earlier and managed to visit some of the city’s famous landmarks, like Park Güell, the Batlló House and, of course, the Sagrada Familia. It wasn’t quite what I expected, but it did teach me something important about Education for Democracy.

DEMOCRAT Final Conference – Day 1

On Thursday the 20th, we reached the Faculty of Economics’ Aula Magna after walking through long corridors lined with large posters describing the many local pilot projects developed under the umbrella of the sister projects’ activities.

After an initial welcome speech by Bibiana Crespo Martín, the Rector’s delegate for international mobility and global engagement, we listened to a keynote speech by Ivan Grdešić, professor of Political Science at the Libertas International University. The speech stirred thoughts and discussions, which is what should happen in healthy democratic discourse: ideas and concepts can be questioned and debated; they don’t need to be accepted as absolute truths.
Our director Eszter Salamon chaired a section in which the three sister projects were introduced: AECED, Critical ChangeLab, and DEMOCRAT itself.

Before going into the sessions in detail, it is worth briefly outlining the three sister projects as they were presented at the conference:

AECED

AECED is a three-year Horizon Europe and UKRI-funded research project that re-imagines Education for Democracy through aesthetic and embodied learning. It has examined how feelings, values and ethical concerns shape democratic participation and has co-developed an innovative pedagogical framework and practical toolkits for different educational phases and national contexts, using participatory action research. By engaging learners’ hearts as well as minds, AECED nurtures democratic attitudes, capabilities and relationships, strengthens the capacity for active citizenship, and supports “trailblazer” educators in adopting responsive, participatory pedagogies that help young people experience democracy as a lived, evolving practice in depth, not just as an abstract curriculum topic. Its findings continue to inform policy debates and school development across Europe.

Critical ChangeLab

Critical ChangeLab is a Horizon Europe project that strengthens European democracy by reconnecting young people with democratic life. It has developed a flexible Model of Democratic Pedagogy, implemented through “Critical ChangeLabs” in schools and non-formal settings across 19 countries. In these experimental labs, 11–18-year-olds collaborate with professional educators, civil society organisations and local actors to investigate real problems, imagine alternative futures and design civic interventions rooted in their own contexts. Drawing on creative and narrative practices – from storytelling to speculative design – the project nurtures youth agency, everyday democracy and justice-oriented participation, while generating rich evidence now informing democratic curricula and policy debates. Its collaborative methods have also strengthened links between schools, communities and local institutions.

DEMOCRAT

DEMOCRAT is a three-year Horizon Europe project on Education for Democracy (EfD), coordinated by the University of Barcelona. It has developed a European framework of “responsible democratic competences” and translated it into concrete curricula, teaching practices and learning environments. Through Living Labs and local pilot projects across several countries, DEMOCRAT has co-designed and tested innovative EfD approaches with teachers, students, parents and communities. The project has produced a robust evidence base, curriculum guidelines and a practical toolbox that help schools and teacher-education institutions embed democracy more deeply, strengthen democratic resilience, and support equal, meaningful participation for all learners in their everyday educational practice and in wider community learning initiatives.

The last segment of the day was devoted to a panel discussion on the future of Education for Democracy, which included ESHA’s director Petra van Haren, Yourope’s Luca Morini, Pedro Ferreiras from the University of Porto, and Olivier Schulbaum from Platoniq. Our director also joined the panel, highlighting the crucial role of parents and families and the need to engage them if any meaningful results are to be obtained in Education for Democracy practices.

DEMOCRAT Final Conference – Day 2

The second and final day of the conference started with a keynote speech by Anja Neundorf from the University of Glasgow on “How Education Can Save Democracy”, moderated by our team member Judit Horgas.
We then split into several smaller rooms to participate in one of the 5 parallel sessions. The one I chaired featured primary school projects from Estonia, Finland, Poland, and Spain. Children from a local primary school were there to offer their own point of view and proved to be surprisingly vocal and articulate when they were asked follow-up questions.

In the next section of the conference, we were given an early look at the upcoming DEMOCRAT Toolbox, an open-access platform designed to help professional educators, students, policy-makers and civil-society actors apply research-based approaches to Education for Democracy. Based on input from DEMOCRAT’s Living Labs, it aims at bridging knowledge and practice and supporting curriculum redesign aligned with the Responsible Democratic Citizenship (RDC) framework.

The last part of the day was dedicated to two interesting activities: a variation of the World Café format dedicated to discussing how to translate Education for Democracy into practice, and a round table on the future of Education for Democracy.

I was lucky enough to be a table host for much of the World Café, and while my interactions with the high school students put my Spanish to the test, I was very happy to see that many were capable of discussing the topic at a pretty high level of complexity, and were able to voice their opinions respectfully, albeit sometimes quite strongly.

The conference came to an end with the closing remarks of DEMOCRAT’s Advisory Board member Mike Osborne from the University of Glasgow, and a closing speech by former Finnish President Tarja Halonen.

Conclusion: uneasy, multi-faceted, for all

On my way to the airport, I was trying to make sense of all that I had learned during the conference, and I noticed that my thoughts kept going back to the Sagrada Familia. I had mixed feelings towards the building. While its vision is undeniable, it doesn’t move me as much as other architectural styles do. I then realised that that was the point. It’s a space of multiplicity, and this multiplicity cannot be arbitrarily reduced beyond a certain point without erasing it, just like democracy. It may not satisfy everybody entirely, but it is a space where differences can learn to coexist and enrich each other, much like democracy.

Emanuele Bertolani