Pilot Projects

S. No.	Country	Intervention name	Target group	Short description
1	Ireland	Mis/Disinformation: Information, media and critical digital literacy	Teacher Trainees	Two-hour undergraduate session helps trainee teachers reflect on their media use and evaluate the reliability of information about migration. It aims to build critical thinking and media literacy skills while promoting empathy and active citizenship..
2	Poland	Little School of Democracy	Children & Youth	The "Little School of Democracy" project aims to introduce students to the fundamentals of how a student council functions and to support the development of their social and organizational competences. It provides knowledge about the role and principles of student council operations, as well as its impact on school life. Through planning and implementing specific initiatives for their school, students experience that they can have a real influence on their environment. At the same time, they develop the ability to work effectively in teams, make collective decisions, and manage time and resources—skills that prepare them to take on greater challenges in the futur
3	Spain	Urban Design	Children & Youth	A small elective group interviews nursing-home residents about the neighbourhood’s history, then co-creates plans to revitalise the area, blending inter-generational dialogue with civic planning and local democracy.
4	Estonia	Global education, argumentation and "opinion line"	Children & Youth	Global-education course uses thought-provoking statements to prompt students to take positions, listen and justify views, systematically building argumentation and dialogue skills.
5	Poland	How Do We Depend on Each Other?	Children & Youth	Students co-design an educational board game on civic engagement, test it in school, then run sessions in a primary school—promoting democratic principles and inter-generational dialogue while honing project-management skills.
6	Ireland	What's the Story?	Children & Youth	Post-primary students in Dublin critically analyse news and social-media posts, check evidence and debate bias to sharpen judgment and media-literacy skills.
7	Estonia	Creating student mini-companies	Children & Youth	Students in this Russian-Estonian speaking school were creating their own student enterprises, organising and presenting their company at a fair, etc.
8	Estonia	Elections of local municipality	Children & Youth	It was a brief “simulation” of local government elections and other preparatory activities.
9	Finland	Evaluating knowledge – dialogically	Children & Youth	Grade 4 class completed two lessons on critical thinking and information evaluation. Using dialogic teaching, pupils examined fake news, manipulated images and AI videos, practiced questioning, cross-checking and seeking adult help, comparing real versus AI content built awareness, caution, and confidence to verify media before sharing.
10	Germany	Discrimination-sensitive project days	Children & Youth	After theatre-method training, older students design and deliver two peer-led project days on diversity and anti-racism for younger grades, coordinating with staff and leadership.
11	Poland	Active Student Council Project	Children & Youth	Active Student Council project focused on student council activities and built related initiatives that engage the entire school community. The project is closely linked to the “Academy of Democracy” program, which begins with a diagnosis of the current situation at the school, followed by the planning and implementation of actions aimed at improving this situation and strengthening the agency of students.
12	Poland	Participatory Budgeting	Children & Youth	Modular activities teach voting, idea submission and digital tool design, strengthening leadership, motivation and technical skills while showing students how their initiatives can influence school and local decisions.
13	Germany	Simulation game: A new Society	Children & Youth	Group simulation presents sequential challenges that students solve by applying deliberation, solidarity and other democratic competences, reinforcing collaborative problem-solving.
14	Estonia	Kogukonnapraktika = community practice/internship	Children & Youth	Community practice is a widely used programme in Estonian schools whereby students volunteer with local NGOs, doing various tasks, including reflection on their learning experience. It's usually connected to citizenship education courses, but some schools do it as a stand-alone course.
15	Estonia	Developing critical thinking and deliberation skills	Children & Youth	Groups were given a topic, two groups got the same topic. One group had to be against, the other for. They had to conduct research, create a fake profile in social media, make fake content (including deep fake video) and then make a presentation, trying to persuade students of their side or viewpoint. It concluded with a debate between students. Target group was 16-17 years old.
16	Finland	Teacher Education - Developing RDC-Based Educational Interventions	Teacher Trainees	University of Jyvaskyla course engages 200 teacher-students in designing and delivering RDC interventions in real classrooms, preparing them as co-creators of democratic learning.
17	Estonia	Kuristiku elections and TV debate	Children & Youth	Civics project lets students design political parties and NGOs, craft programmes and logos, then stage inter-class elections and media-student debates, simulating state functions and participatory politics.
18	Spain	Teachers' Assessment	Children & Youth	Quarterly 'Teaching Quality Assessment' has each class conduct small-group reviews of teaching methods, combine pupil self-assessment and deliver consensual feedback to staff, creating a continual, student-driven cycle of improvement and democratic dialogue.
19	Poland	Anne Frank Exhibition	Children & Youth	Students train as guides for an Anne Frank exhibition, examine mechanisms of exclusion and later lead tours for peers, reinforcing empathy and a sense of civic responsibility.
20	Ireland	From concept to classroom: theory and practice of democracy	Teacher Trainees	Two-hour postgraduate workshop models child-centred dialogue and equips teachers to design classroom deliberations that nurture an inclusive democratic culture.
21	Spain	Children and Human Rights	Children & Youth	Whole-school programme links children und human rights to reading and debate, engaging teachers, students and families in respectful discussion to reinforce civic responsibility across the curriculum.
22	Estonia	I as a voter, and I as a local municipality decision maker.	Children & Youth	In six lessons, 12th-graders form parties, draft local programmes, campaign and debate; 11th-graders act as first-time voters, followed by joint reflection on electoral processes.
23	Poland	Democracy and Human Rights	Children & Youth	Multi-subject programme combines lectures and workshops on democracy and human rights; students analyse the Universal Declaration and debate whether democracy guarantees freedom, deepening civic understanding.
24	Spain	Ecodelegates	Children & Youth	Elected secondary students from all grades lead the Green Delegates initiative to raise climate-crisis awareness. Through reflection they design individual, family and school actions that align with the city’s sustainability drive, showing peers how shared responsibility and everyday choices combat climate change.
25	Ireland	Picturebook and (Mis)Information	Children & Youth	Five short lessons for 10–11-year-olds use a picturebook, drama, and games to help pupils recognise bias, compare perspectives, and reflect on why some versions of a story are trusted more than others.
26	Poland	Democratic Project	Children & Youth	Interactive workshops unpack political ideologies and party systems; students debate democratic principles then design their own parties and policy platforms, linking theory to real-life civic engagement.
27	Germany	Children conference	Children & Youth	Children take their time (1 hour a week) to make a conference, where all voices are heard. They debate and speak about wishes considering the group and how they interact with each other, enhancing conflict-resolution skills and participatory culture.
28	Estonia	Argumentation and forming opinions based on SDG 12	Children & Youth	The intervention was connected to the elective course “globalizing world” and focused on sustainable development goal 12: ensuring sustainable consumption and production patterns. Through activities such as the opinion line, constructing arguments, engaging in debates, and delivering elevator pitches, the course was designed to support students’ ability to critically evaluate information, make decisions, and express their views persuasively and cooperatively.
29	Germany	Against forgetting	Children & Youth	Extracurricular club organises local arts-based remembrance projects honouring a Jewish architect murdered in Auschwitz, engaging community in Holocaust memory and democratic vigilance.
30	Estonia	Developing responsible democratic citizens and cooperation	Children & Youth	Interdisciplinary project-based course called “Democrat ELU” where students from different university courses formed sub-groups. The university lecturers acted as mentors and coordinators in the project, e.g. networking with schools where students did interviews.
31	Finland	Children as Agents, School as a Community	Children & Youth	Students in Helsinki track their RDC competence growth, earn points and visit Parliament to present digital avatars and insights, linking classroom practice with national democratic institutions.
32	Germany	President of the jungle – jeu democratique	Children & Youth	Using an allegorical animal story, younger pupils experience pre-election campaigns and voting, learning fundamentals of democratic choice in a playful context.
33	Estonia	Politics day, practical workshops for today's decision-makers	Children & Youth	Politics day: “practical workshops for today's decision-makers”, which consisted of three blocks. An introductory block in which students mapped out burning issues. Secondly, organizing a local government mock event. The draft submitted to the Viljandi city council was discussed: whether to extend the lease of the wrestling club located in the center of Viljandi or terminate the lease and move the Viljandi youth center to this space, whose lease with a private entrepreneur expires at the same time and which cannot be extended.
34	Germany	Mediator training	Children & Youth	Pupils have weekly training for about one hour to one and a half hour about how to become a mediator. The goal of the course is to have mediators in service who help other kids to solve their conflicts.
35	Finland	Recognising reliable information: Vocational training and plurilinguality	Children & Youth	Module on Critical Thinking and Decision-Making for a multilingual cohort. Through pair/group discussions, vocabulary building, and media-literacy tasks, students self-assessed against an assessment framework, debated reliability of information, and practiced verification methods (reverse image search, source comparison), examined deepfakes and manipulation.
36	Germany	Jeu Dramatique-Kindergarden-Students	Teacher Trainees	Using an allegorical animal story, the educators prepare an experience game for Kindergarden-kids (age 5-6) with pre-election campaigns and voting. in a playful way the educators provide fundamentals of democratic choice in a playful context.
37	Spain	Children and Youth Council	Children & Youth	School partners with the village council to establish a children and youth council, coaching pupils in meeting practice, agenda setting and integration activities that foster community dialogue and participation.
38	Poland	Tolerance Project for Other Nationalities, Religions, or Lack Thereof	Children & Youth	Vocational seniors explore minority rights through historical case studies and synagogue visits, fostering solidarity, openness and critical thinking about diversity and tolerance.
39	Ireland	Picturebook and (Mis)Information: After the fall	Children & Youth Underrepresentated Groups	Small autism-friendly group of primary pupils uses picturebooks(he Story of Humpty Dumpty and After the Fall: How Humpty Dumpty Got Back Up Again), visual supports and calm inquiry dialogue to detect misinformation, consider alternative perspectives and strengthen critical-thinking skills.
40	Spain	Political Simulation	Children & Youth	Three Grade-3 classes stage a parliamentary simulation: students join fictional parties, craft platforms and negotiate coalitions to form a government, experiencing debate, compromise and procedural rules first-hand.
41	Spain	KAOS	Children & Youth	Interdisciplinary unit on discrimination and genocide spans geography, history, foreign languages, the Catalan language, visual and plastic arts, and natural sciences; each teacher designs subject-specific activities that convey historical insight and democratic values.
42	Poland	Ursynów’s Craftspeople Through the Eyes of the Youngest	Children & Youth	By recording oral histories of local artisan shops, students learn about soft skills, community reliance and independent trades, linking grassroots storytelling to democratic society building.