Scaling up Transformative Education for Democracy (EfD). Deliverable 6.1 - submitted

Across Europe, democratic institutions face sustained pressure arising from declining civic participation, the spread of mis- and disinformation, increasing political polarisation, and persistent inequalities in participation. In this context, education systems play a critical role in supporting learners to develop democratic competences, critical judgement, and the capacity for meaningful and inclusive participation. Education for Democracy (EfD) has therefore moved to the foreground of European and international policy debates, including those linked to the Council of Europe, the OECD, and the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.

The Horizon Europe project DEMOCRAT (2023–2026) contributes to this agenda through four interconnected elements:a European Curriculum for Education for Democracy, a Responsible Democratic Competence (RDC) framework, participatory Living Lab methodologies, and a practical EfD Toolbox. Across six EU Member States, 42 Local Pilot Projects implemented in primary, post-primary, higher education, teacher education, and community-linked settings demonstrate that EfD is most effective when it is experiential, dialogic, inclusive, and embedded within everyday educational practice rather than delivered as a stand-alone subject.

This policy brief understands scaling as a systemic and long-term process rather than a question of numerical expansion alone. Drawing on the OECD Implementation Framework for Effective Change in Schools and the ScaleDem Analytical Framework for scaling democratic innovations (Camatarri et al., 2025), it highlights the importance of sustained pedagogical change, institutional embedding, professional learning, and supportive policy conditions in enabling EfD to endure and expand.

Evidence from the DEMOCRAT Local Pilot Projects identifies key enabling factors, including teacher co-design and professional judgement, flexible and accessible assessment approaches, participatory pedagogies, and collaboration with community and civil society actors. At the same time, the findings reveal persistent constraints such as time pressures, curriculum overload, fragmented partnerships, and short-term funding, underlining the need for greater policy coherence and long-term support.

Taken together, these findings indicate that Education for Democracy achieves greatest impact and sustainability when approached as a system-level process rather than as a series of isolated initiatives. The policy implications of this evidence, set out in the final section of the brief, highlight how balanced attention to institutional embedding, cultural and pedagogical change, internal learning, and expansion across contexts can support the sustainable scaling of EfD within and across education systems.