I.05. Life Skills and Innovative Didactics as Drivers of Democratic Agency in Higher Education

Contemporary higher education is increasingly called to offer an innovative learning experience, one capable not only of optimizing knowledge acquisition but also of ensuring the deep and lasting development of transversal and life skills, while engaging students as critical, reflective, and responsible citizens. Innovative teaching practices have the potential to transform universities into spaces where democratic participation is not only taught but genuinely practiced. Universities are promoting active and collaborative learning, flexible and creative approaches grounded in principles of equity and inclusiveness; investing in digitalization and in the reorganization of spaces and services; enhancing opportunities for participation and democratic dialogue; and strengthening laboratories, field experiences, and encounters with experts. Particular attention also concerns how assessment practices can function as tools of empowerment rather than control. Yet empirical evidence on how such strategies foster democratic agency − and on the conditions that enable or hinder their effectiveness − remains fragmented. Universities cannot be understood as a single, homogeneous entity, just as profiles of students and instructors are diverse and multifaceted.

Contributions are invited that investigate:
(a) how innovative didactic practices affect the acquisition and consolidation of students’ cognitive, relational, and socio-emotional competences;
(b) how life skills foster participation, collaboration, decision-making, and critical engagement with the complex issues shaping contemporary society;
(c) which institutional and contextual factors enable or constrain the exercise of democratic agency.

The panel aims to stimulate reflection on how universities can function as living ecosystems of democracy in action, transforming a normative aspiration into an observable educational outcome.