The Fourth International Conference of the journal Scuola Democratica welcomes panel proposals that engage with our shared effort to rethink and reimagine the deep relationship between learning and democracy—in theory, in practice, and in everyday life.
This edition aims to foster an open, inclusive, and multidisciplinary environment for presenting theoretical, analytical, empirical, and methodological research across the diverse fields of education—spanning sociology, pedagogy, psychology, economics, anthropology, philosophy, and political science.
To find out more about our vision, please consult the full introduction to the conference.
How to submit your panel proposal
- Panel proposals consist of a title, an outline of 250 words in English describing the panel’s themes and purposes, and the thematic axis and topic(s) (max. 2) for which abstracts will be invited.
- Each proposal should include a short list of key bibliographic references (no more than 3). An interdisciplinary approach is strongly encouraged.
- All proposals must be submitted no later December 7, 2025, 12AM CET. Please mind that late submissions will not be accepted.
- Proposals can be sent via the conference platform only.
- Each panel must feature a minimum of 6 presentations. In case of a greater number of accepted presentations, they will be allocated across multiple panel sessions. In case of a smaller number, the panel will be removed from the conference program and the collected abstracts will be reallocated to other panels.
- Convenors of panels featured at the conference may also submit abstracts.
- All those attending the conference, including the convenors, will have to register and pay the required conference fee (to be announced).
Thematic Axes
1. Challenges for Contemporary Democracies
How can education sustain democracy in an era defined by voter apathy, populism, disinformation, and widening inequality? It is essential to move beyond the mere transmission of civic notions toward transformative practices that cultivate citizens capable of discerning facts from opinions and navigating media and digital platforms with critical awareness. Education must nurture active participation within inclusive democratic spaces and develop an ethical consciousness that links justice, freedom, and collective responsibility. Innovative proposals are encouraged that explore educational practices aimed at renewing democracy in critical, ethical, and participatory ways.
Democratic education faces the task of fostering awareness, collective resilience, and justice in a world characterized by global risks and systemic uncertainty. It must move beyond technocratic and individualistic responses to cultivate civic imagination and shared responsibility. Theoretical and empirical contributions are invited to explore how education can prepare active, solidaristic citizens capable of confronting and transforming the environmental, technological, economic, and health challenges of contemporary societies.
Post-democracy describes a condition in which democratic institutions persist but meaningful participation is hollowed out. In contexts of political disillusionment, elite dominance, and widespread misinformation, education becomes central to rebuilding citizenship through critical competence, awareness of power relations, and deliberative practice. Panels are invited to examine how education can resist the commodification of politics and respond to regimes where democracy is formally maintained but undermined through manipulation and repression.
The crisis of contemporary capitalism—marked by deepening inequality, precarious labor, social exclusion, and ecological breakdown—raises urgent questions about democracy’s future. Education must be reimagined as a critical space where economic power is analyzed and democratic citizenship reasserted. Panels may address social and economic justice, alternative models of development grounded in critical pedagogy and political ecology, and educational practices that promote democratic transformation and sustainability.
In the post-truth era, democratic citizenship depends on the capacity to navigate an environment saturated with manipulation and noise. Education must equip individuals with media literacy, critical thinking, and epistemic responsibility. Proposals may examine strategies for countering algorithmic bias, polarization, and the erosion of trust in knowledge, and analyze the role of schools and universities in cultivating a culture of dialogue and epistemic justice that sustains informed, plural, and resilient democracies.
In an interconnected world, democracy extends beyond national borders, relying on global cooperation and intercultural understanding. Panels may explore global citizenship, solidarity, and respect for diversity in relation to challenges such as post-democracy, climate change, migration, and inequality. Particular attention may be given to how international organizations—such as the UN, UNESCO, the EU, and NGOs—conceptualize and promote the nexus between democracy and education in their agendas and programs.
2. Poverty and Unemployment
Youth unemployment represents one of the most acute political and democratic challenges of our time. Education must support young people—especially in the Global South—in understanding the structural roots of precarity and in developing capacities for active participation. Proposals may explore educational practices that restore agency, voice, and hope, creating spaces of resilience and collective alternatives.
Precarity, underpaid labor, and informal economies threaten both dignity and participation. Education plays a key role in cultivating awareness of structural inequality and empowering citizens to demand decent work and social justice. Panels may address these issues through critical theory, transformative pedagogy, intersectional analysis, and collective participation, highlighting how education can strengthen civic agency in building fairer, more inclusive, and resilient economies.
The intersection of education, democracy, and women’s work remains marked by inequality. Despite progress in access to education, women continue to face stereotypes, gender segregation, exclusion from STEM fields, and curricula that neglect feminist perspectives. Paid and unpaid care work remain undervalued in both educational systems and democratic discourse. Panels may explore how guidance systems reproduce inequalities, how reproductive labor is rendered invisible, and how institutions can evolve into spaces of feminist awareness and social justice. Studies that foreground women’s experiences and perspectives, particularly in interdisciplinary and international contexts, are encouraged to advance a democratic education that transforms power relations and affirms women’s subjectivities.
3. Global Challenges for Education and Democracy: Issues, Policies, and Transformations
The postcolonial lens critically interrogates the entanglement between education and democracy, exposing how colonial legacies continue to shape contemporary systems through hierarchical knowledge structures, linguistic domination, and epistemic exclusion. Can curricula truly be decolonized? Can indigenous epistemologies be recognized as legitimate sources of knowledge? Can education contribute to a critical remembrance of colonialism rather than its silent reproduction? Panels are invited to explore education as a practice of emancipation and self-determination in the Global South, foregrounding local knowledge, community participation, and the critical use of technology. Theoretical and empirical contributions should address how postcolonial dynamics reconfigure the relationship between democracy and education in global and local contexts.
Demographic transformations—marked by cultural pluralism, population ageing, migration, and deep social inequalities—are reshaping both education and democracy. Education must therefore become inclusive, intergenerational, and intercultural, ensuring equitable access and fostering a sense of shared citizenship. Panels are invited to examine how educational systems can respond to these shifts: valuing diversity, supporting lifelong learning, and strengthening civic engagement in globalized and digital societies. Proposals should reflect on pedagogical approaches capable of addressing demographic challenges and building democracies that are more representative, participatory, and just across generations and identities.
4. Education at a Crossroads: Policy, Risk, and Change
How are the principles of Learning for Democracy upheld or constrained across various levels of educational policy? Do international agencies genuinely foster democratic education, or do they impose standardized, technocratic models disconnected from local realities? While advocating for human rights, global citizenship, sustainability, and social justice, global education agendas often operate within neoliberal frameworks that prioritize economic competitiveness and uniformity. Panels are invited to critically examine these contradictions, focusing on processes of decolonization, the recognition of local epistemologies, and participatory policy models capable of reconciling universal rights with cultural pluralism.
The spread of neoliberal governance has accelerated the privatization of education, the deepening of inequalities, and the erosion of the public sphere. At the same time, new forms of authoritarianism—both state-driven and corporate—seek to instrumentalize education for political and economic control. Panels are invited to analyze these dynamics and explore how education can function as a site of resistance, fostering emancipatory practices and democratic resilience. Comparative, theoretical, and empirical contributions are welcome, especially those examining governance, privatization, inclusion, migration, ecological crises, and the right to education as interrelated dimensions of democratic renewal.
The historical evolution of educational systems reveals the shifting relationship between education and democracy—from premodern schooling designed for obedience, through Enlightenment reforms promoting critical reasoning and civic virtue, to the twentieth-century affirmation of education as a universal right. This trajectory, however, has been marked by constant tension between emancipation and conformity. Panels are invited to investigate how these historical developments have shaped democratic ideals and how they are now being challenged in the age of post-democracy, where the promises of inclusion and equality risk being undermined by new forms of control and exclusion.
5. Technoscientific and Ecosystemic Challenges in the Relationship Between Education and Democracy
In an age profoundly shaped by science and technology, education must prepare citizens capable of critically understanding and evaluating complex technoscientific systems. The relationship between democracy and education requires not only scientific literacy and digital competence but also an ethics of innovation rooted in collective responsibility. Panels are invited to offer critical reflections on how science, technology, and democracy intersect—fostering transformative and inclusive dialogues that challenge technocratic reductionism and promote civic empowerment through knowledge.
Artificial Intelligence is reshaping both education and democracy. How does AI influence democratic learning and civic participation? How can education respond to algorithmic bias, disinformation, surveillance, and new digital inequalities—including those embedded in gendered and racialized technological design? Panels are invited to explore both critical perspectives on AI and constructive approaches to its democratic integration. The aim is to understand how education can turn AI from a tool of control into a means of empowerment and participation, enabling more just, transparent, and resilient digital societies.
Media systems—especially digital ones—play a decisive role in shaping democratic culture. While they expand access to information and new forms of engagement, they also intensify disinformation, polarization, and algorithmic manipulation. Education must therefore cultivate critical media literacy, awareness of surveillance dynamics, and resistance to the commodification of knowledge. Panels are invited to examine how schools, universities, and informal learning contexts can develop critical competencies that sustain informed, dialogical, and pluralistic democracies.
Democracy and education can no longer be confined to the human realm. Panels are invited to expand the notion of Learning for Democracy by including interspecies and ecological dimensions—rethinking coexistence among humans, animals, and plants. Democratic education should promote care, empathy, and accountability toward non-human life, transcending anthropocentric paradigms. Proposals may draw on ecological thought, environmental humanities, and animal ethics to explore how education can contribute to a more just and sustainable coexistence and redefine the political community from an interspecies perspective.
We invite panel proposals that incorporate ecological dimensions. Democratic education should foster responsible and sustainable ecological citizenship. Contributions highlighting the importance of studies that promote care for the planet, respect for biodiversity, and recognition of nature’s rights are especially welcome. Climate change is a global challenge testing democracies’ ability to respond with long-term visions, intergenerational justice, and inclusive cooperation. Within the education-democracy nexus, climate change plays a strategic role in shaping critical, aware, and active citizens capable of addressing the social, environmental, and economic complexities of the climate crisis. We encourage interdisciplinary and participatory panel proposals to explore this multifaceted issue.
Data governance has become a central site of power and inequality. Panels are invited to analyze how democratic education can interrogate the supposed neutrality of data, resist invisible surveillance, and advance an “augmented” democracy based on transparency, accountability, and inclusion. Topics may include big data, algorithmic governance, statistical production, and the datification of social life, with attention to how digital literacy, political agency, and social justice can be fostered within technological transformations.
Posthuman perspectives challenge the boundaries between human, non-human, and technological agents. Panels are invited to rethink anthropocentrism and explore how education can cultivate coexistence, care, and sustainability in hybrid environments. Contributions may address how emerging technologies—such as AI, biotechnology, robotics, and brain–machine interfaces—are transforming democratic learning, ethical responsibility, and civic participation.
The material and spatial dimensions of education are deeply political. Schools and universities are shaped by architectures, infrastructures, and technologies that can reproduce hierarchies and exclusion—through rigid classrooms, inaccessible buildings, deteriorating facilities, and outdated tools. Everyday materiality silently enacts power. Panels are invited to examine how reimagining educational spaces—through openness, flexibility, and participatory design—can foster inclusive and democratic relations. Theoretical reflections, ethnographic studies, and design-based research are welcome, viewing spatiality as a crucial medium for democratic education.
6. Inclusion, Difference, Equality, Diversity, Citizenship, and Social and Cultural Justice in the Education–Democracy Nexus
Democracy cannot exist without inclusion. Panels are invited to examine, both theoretically and empirically, the barriers—social, cultural, and structural—that restrict the participation of disabled and neurodivergent individuals. Education must move beyond assistentialist approaches to affirm difference as a democratic value and a collective resource. Proposals should address inclusive pedagogies, accessibility, and representation as key elements in building participatory and equitable democracies.
Gender equality remains central to democratic renewal. Panels are invited to explore how education can dismantle gender hierarchies and promote feminist, queer, and intersectional approaches to learning and citizenship. Proposals may address curricula, pedagogies, and institutional cultures that reproduce or challenge gendered power. Particular attention is encouraged to masculinity studies—how gender norms are reproduced or contested in schools—and to feminist perspectives as frameworks for transforming power relations. Educational practices that foster critical thinking, inclusive leadership, and gender-just democracies are especially welcome.
Childhood is the formative stage for democratic participation. Panels are invited to reflect critically on how early education can cultivate dialogue, empathy, respect, and collective responsibility. Proposals may examine participatory and inclusive pedagogies that engage children as active subjects in democratic life, laying the groundwork for more just, cohesive, and resilient societies.
Democratic education is lifelong. Panels are invited to explore how education for older adults can foster participation, learning, and intergenerational dialogue, countering isolation and ageism. Attention may be given to technological inclusion and to practices that recognize the experience and wisdom of older generations as vital contributions to democratic renewal.
Adult education is a cornerstone of Learning for Democracy. Panels may examine how continuous education strengthens civic competence, adaptability, and social cohesion in an era of rapid transformation, positioning adult learning as a central process in sustaining democratic life.
Gender-based violence undermines the foundations of democracy. Panels are invited to analyze how education can address its cultural and structural roots through critical awareness, nonviolent practice, and gender justice. Proposals integrating intersectional approaches and involving schools, universities, and communities are encouraged, with an emphasis on centering the voices of those directly affected.
Patriarchal norms continue to shape both education and democracy. Panels are invited to explore how pedagogical practices can confront stereotypes, hierarchies, and unequal power relations. Contributions may address how education can become a transformative space for plural identities and emancipatory learning, advancing inclusive and egalitarian democratic cultures.
Education and democracy are inseparable from social justice. Panels are invited to explore how education can serve as a lever for overcoming structural inequalities and combating educational poverty. Proposals may analyze how democratic education builds foundational, critical, and emancipatory competences that reduce inequality and foster participation. Contributions grounded in research, policy, or innovative practice are encouraged.
Religion and democracy coexist in tension and dialogue. Panels are invited to explore how education can promote pluralism, interfaith dialogue, and respect for diversity without abandoning secularism and universal rights. Proposals may examine both the potential of religions to nurture inclusive democratic culture and the challenges posed by dogmatic or exclusionary interpretations.
Democracy begins with the body. Panels are invited to examine how education can move from the abstraction of the disembodied individual to the recognition of the embodied, relational subject. The body—marked by gender, race, class, and ability—is both political and pedagogical. Proposals may address the right of bodies to inhabit educational spaces, analyze biopolitical control through surveillance and algorithmic monitoring, or explore how vulnerability and interdependence can become the foundation for democratic pedagogy. Contributions are also welcome that reimagine the body beyond individuality, as part of ecological and technological interconnections—asking what it means to educate for coexistence within living, more-than-human systems.
7. War, Peace, Borders, Frontiers, and Global Stakes
Contemporary wars and humanitarian crises expose the fragility of democracy and the urgency of rethinking education as a tool for peace. Education must move beyond moral abstraction to develop practical competencies in nonviolent conflict resolution, mediation, and global citizenship. Panels are invited to explore the intersections between education, peace, and social justice—examining the structural roots of violence and imagining pedagogical and cultural frameworks that foster inclusion, critical awareness, solidarity, and active commitment to peacebuilding and disarmament.
The African continent offers both crucial challenges and innovative perspectives for democratic education. Panels are invited to analyze the political, social, and cultural dynamics shaping education across diverse African contexts: youth participation, local pedagogical traditions, ethnic pluralism, the effects of conflict and violence, inclusive civic education, the fight against disinformation, digital transformation, and conflict management practices. Proposals should illuminate how education in Africa both confronts systemic obstacles and generates creative practices of democratic learning, resilience, and community-based innovation.
From the Middle East to East Asia, educational and democratic traditions coexist with deep cultural, religious, and linguistic pluralism. Panels are invited to analyze how universal democratic ideals interact with local specificities, often within societies marked by authoritarian legacies and restricted participation. Contributions may explore the evolving role of Arab cultures, the transformation of educational systems, and the emergence of pedagogies that promote active citizenship, critical reflection, and inclusive democratic practice across diverse Asian contexts.
The Palestinian experience confronts the world with a profound test of the link between education and democracy. In a context marked by occupation, fragmentation, and systemic restriction of rights—what has been described as a form of educide—education becomes an act of resistance and reconstruction. Panels are invited to reflect critically on how learning for democracy can persist under conditions of asymmetry and conflict, addressing the intersections of education, justice, freedom, and citizenship, and imagining educational practices that sustain hope, dignity, and political agency amid oppression.
This panel offers a critical reflection on educational and training challenges in Middle Eastern countries, where democracy, cultural plurality, and coexistence are often tested by prolonged conflicts and mutual exclusion. The aim is to explore the role of education in promoting dialogue, mutual recognition, and active citizenship, with particular attention to the context of Israel, its right to security and coexistence, and its relations with Arab countries, including the complex situation in Palestine and the West Bank. Theoretical and empirical contributions are welcome, including those from a comparative and interdisciplinary perspective.
8. What Is at Stake for Schools and Universities: Actors, Conflicts, Pedagogical Practices, Generations, Territory, Migration, and the Future
The relationship between education and democracy today unfolds within a school landscape marked by crises, conflicts, and profound transformations. Families, teachers, students, school leaders and the heterogeneous body of professionals collaborating with schools find themselves entangled in complex dynamics that challenge the cohesion and democratic purpose of the educational institution. Conflicts between families and schools—rooted in moral, cultural, or social divisions—reflect broader societal fractures and raise urgent questions about the role of education as a public, inclusive, and dialogic space. Teaching, increasingly precarious and undervalued, requires renewed recognition, professional autonomy, and collective voice. School leadership must evolve from administrative management toward democratic stewardship that fosters plural and participatory communities. Panels are invited to examine these tensions as catalysts for change and as opportunities to reimagine all educational actors as agents of democratic transformation.
Innovative pedagogies—project-based learning, service learning, debate, cooperative learning, digital simulation—can transform classrooms into laboratories of democracy. Panels are invited to explore how these methodologies develop critical thinking, collaboration, and civic engagement, and how assessment practices can be reimagined as instruments of empowerment rather than control. Proposals may address the competences teachers and students need to sustain democratic participation and the systemic barriers that constrain innovation, positioning schools and universities as living spaces of democracy in action.
This panel invites critical reflections on the contemporary university and its evolving role in society. In an era marked by increasing bureaucratic control, neoliberal governance, and performance-driven procedures, the autonomy of higher education institutions appears both invoked and constrained. What does university autonomy mean today, and to what extent does it enable or inhibit academic freedom, democratic engagement, and social inclusion? As universities are pushed to align with market logics and global rankings, there is a growing risk of marginalizing alternative knowledges, critical thinking, and access for underrepresented groups. This panel seeks theoretical and empirical contributions that interrogate the current transformations in higher education, exploring their implications for equity, knowledge production, and public responsibility. We particularly welcome interdisciplinary perspectives and international case studies that address the fundamental question: what is the university for today?
We invite panel proposals focused on the critical issues surrounding the autonomy of school systems. How can institutional autonomy foster or hinder democratic participation, inclusion, and social justice? What tensions arise between autonomy and public accountability, between innovation and control? We welcome both theoretical and empirical contributions that examine the policies, practices, and implications of educational autonomy, analyzing its role in shaping critical and active citizens. Comparative international panels, case studies, and interdisciplinary reflections on this crucial topic are especially encouraged.
Adult and informal education, often sidelined, represents a crucial sphere of democratic renewal. Panels are invited to consider adult education as a political and cultural field that challenges the supposed neutrality of pedagogy. Contributions may analyze how informal, non-formal, and community-based learning—emerging in social movements, digital environments, and local networks—fosters civic empowerment and collective transformation, especially in contexts of inequality, migration, and social change.
Migration redefines the meaning of citizenship and democracy. Panels are invited to examine the contradictions between inclusive principles and exclusionary practices in migrants’ access to education. Although educational rights are formally recognized, linguistic, bureaucratic, and cultural barriers often perpetuate marginalization. Proposals may offer critical, interdisciplinary, and decolonial perspectives that value migrant knowledges, languages, and diasporic experiences as resources for rethinking democratic education and building genuinely plural societies.
Second generations—often denied full citizenship—occupy a pivotal role in reimagining democracy. Their lived experiences challenge exclusionary national narratives and expand the meaning of belonging. Panels are invited to explore how second-generation youth construct critical, intersectional, and antiracist forms of participation, turning education into a space for plural citizenship and democratic renewal.
Youth cultures are vital laboratories for democratic imagination. In conditions of institutional distrust, precarity, and rapid social change, young people create alternative modes of engagement through art, activism, digital media, sport, and environmental or feminist movements. Panels are invited to examine these creative and political practices not as marginal phenomena but as key forms of civic learning, helping to reorient education toward the realities and aspirations of younger generations.
Social movements are living schools of democracy. From environmental activism to struggles for civil rights and social justice, collective movements embody participatory learning and civic agency. Panels are invited to explore how formal and informal education can recognize, study, and integrate these practices. What forms of democratic competence emerge from activism? What role do digital technologies play in these collective processes? Theoretical and practice-oriented contributions are welcome that frame movements as crucibles of democratic renewal.
Young people stand at the intersection of economic, political, environmental, and technological upheaval. Panels are invited to examine how global processes shape youth experiences and how education can equip them with critical and imaginative capacities to confront uncertainty, resist disempowerment, and envision alternative futures.
9. The Education–Democracy Nexus Across Epistemic Perspectives
We invite panels that critically engage with the relationship between education and democracy from a sociological standpoint, examining how social structures, institutions, and inequalities shape both. Proposals may address issues such as unequal access to education, the corporatization and marketization of schools, the challenges posed by the digital divide, decolonial and intersectional approaches to knowledge, and education in contexts of war and systemic crisis. The aim is to question dominant narratives and to promote understandings of education as a critical, political, and inclusive arena for building citizenship, equality, and social justice.
We welcome panels exploring the intersections between democratic education and the law in contemporary societies. How can legal education contribute to forming legally literate citizens, capable of exercising their rights, understanding institutions, and accessing justice? What legal tools are needed to address the social inequalities and governance challenges of digitalization and globalization? We encourage proposals that connect theory and practice, integrating legal, civic, and ethical dimensions to foster active, responsible, and critically engaged citizens—grounded in the rule of law and committed to human rights and democratic accountability.
We invite theoretical and empirical panels exploring how psychological processes—individual and collective—interact with democratic learning and participation. How do cognitive competences, emotions, motivation, and group dynamics influence civic engagement and democratic decision-making? Proposals should focus on developing self-efficacy, empathy, emotional awareness, and critical thinking as core capacities for inclusive and participatory citizenship. We especially value contributions showing how psychological knowledge can strengthen social cohesion, mutual respect, and active democratic agency.
We invite panels examining the interconnections between democratic education and the economy, acknowledging that economic structures profoundly shape civic life and democratic participation. Contributions may address topics such as economic literacy, social justice, democratic economy, sustainable and critical consumption, and the effects of the digital economy on participation and inequality. The goal is to rethink education as a space where economic awareness, ethical reflection, and collective responsibility become essential components of democratic learning.
We welcome panels exploring the intersections among democracy, education, and anthropology, focusing on the cultural diversity and social practices that define democratic participation. We invite proposals that approach democracy as a plural and situated cultural phenomenon—engaging with questions of power, identity, belonging, and collective meaning-making. Participatory and ethnographic approaches that view education as a process of shared knowledge, negotiation, and co-construction of values are particularly encouraged.
We invite panels reflecting on how scientific education can move beyond the transmission of technical expertise to cultivate critical thinking, social responsibility, and civic engagement. Democratic science education requires theoretical frameworks and empirical research capable of questioning hierarchical teaching models and advancing participatory, interdisciplinary approaches that acknowledge the plurality of knowledge systems. Conceived as a practice of emancipation, democratic scientific education can challenge epistemic exclusion and foster active citizenship equipped to face the moral, environmental, and technological challenges of the contemporary world.