Democracy-as-becoming in early years and primary education

Aesthetic, embodied, and digital pedagogical ecologies

Bibliographic Data

ID22162184
AuthorsCláudia Neves (0000-0002-8175-4749, Universidade Aberta), Monika Pažur (0000-0003-0936-0048, University of Zagreb), Juliana Gazzinelli (0000-0001-8151-3948, Universidade Aberta), Juliana Oliveira (0000-0002-7947-9725, Universidade Aberta), Pedro Abrantes (0000-0001-9572-9563, Universidade Aberta), Marta Abelha (0000-0001-7105-3722, Universidade Aberta), Ana Patrícia Almeida (0000-0001-5242-8285, Universidade Aberta), Katarina Aladrović Slovaček (0000-0002-0706-9436, University of Zagreb)
Year2026
Volume11
Publication date2026-04-24
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueFrontiers in Education (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 2504-284X • E-ISSN: 2504-284X
PublisherFrontiers Media SA (PUBLISHER • CH)
DOI10.3389/feduc.2026.1799195
OpenAlexW7155523703
LanguageEN
References cited12

In a context of growing democratic fragility, education is increasingly called upon to cultivate democratic participation, relational responsibility, and civic engagement. However, dominant approaches to education for democracy continue to privilege cognitive knowledge and procedural participation, often overlooking the embodied, affective, and relational dimensions through which democracy is first encountered and lived. This paper advances the concept of democracy-as-becoming to examine democratic learning in Early Years and Primary Education, where democratic relations are enacted through everyday pedagogical encounters rather than transmitted as abstract knowledge. The study draws on a transnational Participatory Action Research (PAR) programme conducted within the Aesthetic and Embodied Learning for Democracy-as-Becoming (AECED) project across multiple European contexts. Focusing on four cases in Portugal and Croatia, the paper presents a cross-case analytical synthesis of professional learning processes in which educators participated as co-researchers. These cases combined aesthetic, embodied, narrative, and digital pedagogical practices across online and face-to-face professional learning environments. Data included reflective writings, online discussions, observation notes, and visual and narrative artefacts generated through iterative PAR cycles. The analysis identifies three interrelated pedagogical ecologies—embodied, aesthetic–narrative, and digital/hybrid—through which democratic becoming is enabled, negotiated, and constrained. Across these ecologies, democratic learning emerged through relational grounding, co-creation, and embodied participation, while also being shaped by institutional conditions and perceptions of pedagogical risk. The paper contributes a data-informed conceptual model of democratic becoming grounded in cross-case analysis, highlighting how democratic sensibility develops through the interaction of relational, embodied, professional, and institutional dimensions. It concludes by discussing implications for teacher education, curriculum design, and research on democratic education, emphasising the need to recognise aesthetic and embodied pedagogies as core infrastructures of democratic life

Action research · Citizen journalism · Craft · Curriculum · Democracy · Narrative · Narrative inquiry · Participatory action research · Children's Rights and Participation · Global Educational Policies and Reforms · Posthumanist Ethics and Activism

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