Democracy Education

“Democracy and democratic action must be ‘re-learned and practiced’ by every generation,” according to the 16. Kinder- und Jugendbericht 2020. Democracy education therefore empowers children and youth to find their own voice and engage with others through dialogue, to advocate for their own interests and beliefs, and to participate in democratic structures. Furthermore, they learn to recognize and appreciate other perspectives and life experiences, to resolve conflicts constructively, and to work out compromises. In the places where children and young people come together—for example, in the community, at school, in youth clubs, in sports clubs, or in music or theater groups—they should therefore also be able to directly experience the fundamental values of human dignity, equality, and active participation in decision-making processes.

Youth (social) work and related fields, such as cultural education and sports clubs, therefore offer great potential for outreach-based democracy education. Based on many years of professional experience, particularly in rural areas of eastern Germany, we have summarized practical recommendations for this in the brochure This is What Matters! (2019).

At cultures interactive, we learned early on that we can only work seriously and effectively with young people to foster democratic attitudes if we meet them where they are in their everyday lives with appropriate (relational) approaches. To this end, we primarily use human rights-oriented youth cultural work and the format of narrative discussion groups. This makes it clear that young people from all social backgrounds are interested in social and political issues and are willing to get involved in democracy if their knowledge and experiences are taken seriously.

Bringing Democracy to Life: Outreach Approaches in the Everyday Lives of Young People

It’s usually much easier to reach young people through rap and TikTok than through traditional political education formats, which typically focus first on imparting knowledge and generally allow for exchange and discussion only afterward. Our outreach-based democracy education program with young people in schools or youth centers flips this principle on its head: the starting point is the young people’s own interests in youth culture and their everyday lives. They choose from a variety of youth culture workshops and contribute their own topics, experiences with (social) media, and political views in facilitated group discussions. The hands-on components of cultures interactive’s workshops also foster democracy: During these sessions, participants vote together to decide who will take on which role, what image should be created on the graffiti wall, how young people can support one another at the skate park, or how they would like to present themselves in a YouTube video. Shifting perspectives, shared reflection, and reaching compromises thus go beyond theory and become lived practice.

Young people in particular—those who feel left behind or who already hold anti-democratic views—are difficult to reach through traditional channels. This also applies to young people who struggle with reading or writing or who are not very confident in the German language. Engaging with them is one of our main priorities. Democracy education focused on youth culture provides a low-threshold entry point to spark young people’s interest in engaging with political issues and reflecting on topics such as manipulation and propaganda, social media, and the distortion of reality by artificial intelligence. This enables a shift in perspective and the development of tolerance for ambiguity. All of this is necessary to help shape one's own life and environment in a democratic way.

Strengthening the Ability to Engage in Dialogue

In narrative discussion groups, we reinforce the understanding that democracy also means being able to talk openly with one another about as many topics as possible, in our own words, while taking care not to hurt or belittle others. Experiencing this type of moderated discussion not only fosters the democratic skills mentioned above, but also serves as a form of “emotional political education” that takes the group participants’ personal and political experiences (including those of being disregarded) very seriously and works with them and other key figures from their community to develop solutions. After all, empathy—as an essential foundation of a democracy that aspires to be socially and humanely oriented—can only develop when it is experienced firsthand.