Symposium will offer first insights into the empirical results of the HORIZON EUROPE project ‘Democracy meets arts: critical change labs for building democratic cultures through creative and narrative practices - CRITICAL CHANGELAB’ which is currently being conducted in 10 European countries.

Among others, project’s main goals relevant are to:

• examine the current state of democracy within education institutions
• identify  and compare perspectives on everyday democracy of  youth living in challenging contexts iacross Europe;
• design a scalable and tailorable model of democratic pedagogy in formal and non-formal learning environments.

Symposium consists of three papers from Croatia, Spain and Ireland. First paper focuses on a presentation of the development of an instrument for assessing the state of democracy in formal and non-formal education institutions in 10 European countries. The Democracy Health Questionnaire (DHQ) measured the state of democratic practices in educational programmes in more than 1500 educational institutions across Europe. The DHQ was designed in such a manner that its concepts provide a foundation for the development of the Democracy Health Index (DHI). Paper presents results of the quantitative analysis in which schools’ and organisations providing non-formal educational programs are compared. Psychometric analytical procedures allow for a discussion on the nature of indexes probing democratic health. In the future, this instrument will serve as a self-assessment tool for various learning environments – both formal and non-formal.

Using qualitative methodology, second paper deals with in depth perspective through the exploration of the youth perspectives on everyday democracy. Ten case studies on groups of young people that are growing up in challenging contexts for the development and practice of everyday democracy were conducted. Some of the groups that were covered in this phase of the project were immigrants, refugees and migrants, ethnic minorities (Roma youth…), LGBT youth, those living in remote areas, girls and young people living in less privileged socioeconomic environments. In each of ten countries an in-depth case study consisting of semi-structured interviews, focus groups and ethnographic accounts were conducted. Each case study will consist of focus groups with youth (n=7-9 participants per case study), series of semi-structured interviews with educators, pedagogical coordinators, civil society organisations living and working in the selected contexts (n=5 interviews per case study) and ethnographic accounts of the contexts that include secondary historic analyses. In the paper the Spanish case from Barcelona will be presented.

Finally third paper offers perspectives on development of a conceptual and methodological framework for developing critical literacies for democracy using creative and narrative practices. The framework articulates the Critical ChangeLab Model of Democratic Pedagogy. The development of the framework considered national curricula and pedagogical frameworks on citizenship education, as well as existing competence frameworks for democracy education, such as the Council of Europe’s competences for democratic culture development. Furthermore, creative and narrative practices for supporting cultural and critical literacies, with special consideration to those informed by critical pedagogy, critical historical learning, theatre of the oppressed, critical and speculative design, and futures thinking methodologies, were used as benchmarks in the development of the framework. Using interdisciplinary methodologies and approaches, these methods were linked with a variety of digital technologies, such as social media and gaming platforms, and prototypes that enable its deployment in various settings (face-to-face, hybrid, and virtual) using transmedia approaches. Third paper presents development of this model in Ireland.

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