Starting your AELD journey

Democracy is often conceived as distant. A system, a set of rules, or a body of knowledge.

Something that happens elsewhere, handled by institutions or experts. Yet democracy is also a way of relating to one another, experienced in the everyday moments in which people listen, negotiate, care, relate and respond to each other, and act together, whether in a classroom, a community group, a workplace, or wider society.

When these lived practices weaken, trust, participation, and social connection weaken too.

To flourish, democracy needs healthy roots in people’s engaged feelings, emotions and sensibilities as embodied beings. Too little attention is given to these in current discourses and frameworks for education for democracy. The aim of aesthetic and embodied learning for democracy, or AELD for short, is to bring aesthetic and embodied considerations and activity to the heart of education for democracy.

AELD is an approach to education for democracy. It works through aesthetic and embodied ways of learning to address an often-overlooked dimension of learning and supports learning environments where democracy is not only discussed, but experienced.

ALED builds on existing education for democracy by bringing attention to how people learn through their senses, feelings, movement, imagination, and relationships, not only through cognitive understanding. In doing so, AELD helps people develop a lived, shared feel for democracy and the values that sustain it.

What you can do here

The approaches and materials on this site aim to support a stronger, more lived connection to democracy. They are grounded in research carried out across six European countries through the Horizon Europe / UKRI-funded AECED project. The Pedagogical Framework and Guides for Practice have been developed and refined through 19 participatory action research cases across multiple educational contexts in 6 different countries.

Whether you are exploring ideas, looking for practical approaches, or thinking about change at an organisational or policy level, this website offers different ways to:

Suggested pathways by role

Here are some suggested starting points depending on your role. These are options, not prescriptions – you’re welcome to explore freely.

Regardless of your role, we invite you to:
explore the ideas within the Pedagogical Framework and explore the research behind the Pedagogical Framework and Guides for Practice.