Living democracy in higher education: A guide to aesthetic and embodied learning for democracy (AELD)

This Guide reframes democracy in higher education as a lived, relational, and pedagogical practice rather than a distant political system or abstract concept. Grounded in participatory action research conducted across Croatia, Finland, and Germany within the AECED project, it presents Aesthetic and Embodied Learning for Democracy (AELD) as a necessary pedagogical orientation that reconnects democratic ideals with everyday academic encounters in seminars, supervision, laboratories, and digital spaces. The Guide elaborates core democratic values (freedom, equality and equity, responsiveness) and democratic principles (power-sharing, transforming dialogue, holistic learning, relational well-being), alongside key orientations such as democratic sensibility, responsive pedagogies, and the acceptive gaze. Through conceptual grounding, reflective prompts, and field-based vignettes, it supports educators in creating learning environments where democracy is not merely taught but practised through embodied, aesthetic, ethical, and relational engagement.