Policy Implications

Even in systems shaped by standardisation or limited resources, educators can find small but powerful ways to bring AELD to life through trust, shared exploration and creative action.

What this can look like:

• Build on what you already do. Experiment with new connections between aesthetic experience and democratic participation.
• Start small. Introduce short creative or embodied activities – movement, drawing, story-making, shared reflection – that invite learners to explore ideas together.

Pause and reflect prompt: Where in your teaching might there be room for learning that engages senses, movement or shared creative reflection?

AELD depends not only on individual educators, but on the conditions created by organisations and leadership.

Curriculum expectations, time pressures, accountability structures and decision-making processes can either support or constrain aesthetic, embodied and participatory learning. 

What educational organisations and leaders can do:

• AELD as part of your culture. .
• Remove barriers. Value creative, aesthetic and embodied approaches as legitimate forms of professional and pedagogical practice.
• Model democratic leadership. Encourage listening, participation and shared responsibility across your organisation.

Time featured prominently in the UK case (UK:18). There was always pressure to keep moving on, with the facilitator frequently repeating the refrain, ‘I’m conscious of time.’ This reflects the busy, time-pressured context of many contemporary workplaces. Participants, however, welcomed the opportunity to practise ABE methods and engage in collaborative reflection.

Talking about an experience of trialling their ABE method, which only lasted twenty-minutes, one participant noted: ‘I found that I wasn’t being that distracted from it at all’ and then went on to say: ‘I wasn’t thinking about emails or any of that, I was only focused on the task at hand. Which rarely happens in life, actually.

While it may appear that engagement in AELD is time-consuming, this example shows that even short periods of time can be valuable.

AECED case 18: UK – Professional Learning in Higher Education

Pause and reflect prompt: What organisational habits and restrictions shape how people participate or feel able to experiment?

Policy frameworks shape what is possible in education. Curriculum design, assessment priorities and governance structures influence whether democratic, creative and relational learning can flourish.

Across Europe, democratic education initiatives emphasise participation, inclusion, learner agency and the development of democratic culture. This is reflected in the Council of Europe’s Reference Framework of Competences for Democratic Culture, as well as EU citizenship education priorities focused on strengthening democratic resilience and civic engagement.

AELD aligns closely with these commitments. Where European frameworks clarify what matters, AELD contributes to how it can be sustained in everyday educational environments, not only through explanation and debate, but through lived, relational and embodied experience.

How AELD strengthens existing frameworks

European Democratic Education Priorities	How AELD Contributes
Democratic values and human dignity	Creates learning environments where equality, mutual recognition and shared responsibility are practised in everyday interaction.
Participation and learner agency	Uses power-sharing, collaborative processes and creative engagement to make participation holistic, tangible and meaningful.
Inclusion and cultural diversity	Encourages attentiveness to lived experience, relational dynamics and intersectional awareness through embodied and dialogic practice.
Democratic competences (skills, attitudes, critical understanding)	Integrates cognitive, emotional and sensory dimensions of learning to deepen empathy, reflexivity, cooperation and ethical sensibility.
Democratic resilience and engagement	Cultivates democratic sensibility — a lived feel for participation, responsibility and shared agency — strengthening societal engagement and connection across difference.

What policy actors can do:

• Recognise the importance of aesthetic and embodied learning. Embed it within curricula, policy frameworks and funding priorities.
• Enable rather than constrain. Design policies for AELD that trust educators’ creativity and professional judgement.
• Promote democracy and policies for education for democracy through participation. Develop educational policies through dialogue with those who teach and learn.

Pause and reflect prompt: How do current policies in your system enable – or restrict – relational, creative and participatory learning aligned with European democratic commitments?For a deeper understanding, explore our policy and project outputs.

What researchers and artists can do:

• Deepen and document understanding of AELD. Explore how aesthetic and embodied pedagogical methods reveal new democratic insights.
• Collaborate with educators and communities. Build partnerships that bring all perspectives – artistic, pedagogical, civic and learners’ – into dialogue.
• Document impact and generate evidence for policy contexts.

Pause and reflect prompt: How do current policies in your context enable – or restrict – relational, creative, and participatory learning?

For a deeper understanding of our research, explore our project outputs and position papers.