Connecting with democracy in secondary education: A practice companion for secondary education

This Practice Companion translates the AECED framework for Aesthetic and Embodied Learning for Democracy (AELD) into practical, field-tested activities for secondary education, offering educators concrete ways to enact democratic values and principles in everyday school life. Structured around a developmental trilogy — sensing, modelling, and nurturing democratic values (freedom, equality/equity, and responsiveness) — and extended through activities that operationalise democratic principles (power-sharing, transforming dialogue, holistic learning, and relational well-being), it provides adaptable micro-practices and multimodal methods such as rhythm work, tableau, collage, embodied mapping, reflective writing, and drama-based dialogue repair. Grounded in participatory action research across Latvia and the UK and developed collaboratively within the AECED consortium, the Companion supports teachers in cultivating democratic sensibility through lived, embodied experiences that move democracy from abstract concept to relational practice across classrooms, extracurricular spaces, and whole-school environments.