The project „Democracy by School“ strengthens democratic coping skills of adolescents as they exploit – accompanied by their teachers - possibilities to participate in shaping their school and municipality. With help of the project, structures in school and municipality are created that enable youth to take responsibility for their interests and participate in changing processes. The young people should grow up as active and democratic citizens. 72 persons from the scools in Italy, Poland and Germany are directly involved in the project. With the initiated projects of these people, another 600 Adolescents and more than 100 teachers in schools and municipalities (100) are reached. During the project the young participants develop a “road map for democracy”. There they capture where they want to be involved, how they want to change school and municipality as well as which interests and desires they want to stand up for. With these results they develop own projects, gain other Juveniles as fellows and use codeterminations-structures in school and municipality to advocate their interests. The participating Adolescents get support by teachers in methodological know-how and theoretical contextualization. During project-weeks participants from all countries exchange experiences and get qualified by professional consultants and experts. At the end of the project, participation of youth should be obvious in schools and municipalities – for learners and educators. Therefor codetermination-structures have been created that are used by youths. Preferably the interests of all youths are integrated and represented in these structures. With help of these structures and the involved teachers, younger students get incorporated in codetermination-structures by older students so that the project has a long-term effect.
Getting to know each other, applying them independently and consolidating instruments for participation and co-determination in school played a central role in the project project. Regular seminars and workshops on rights and obligations of students council, democracy and inclusion in school and other topics have enabled young people to participate more effectively and independently in the development of their school. On the other hand, teachers were also made aware of democratic coexistence at school, and they were shown ways in which they could involve the student body in all important discussions and decisions. By supporting the commitment at the school, the pupils acquired not only concrete knowledge and methods, but also important social skills. These competences enable them to make their voice heard. They help to shape their school and their environment, and they activate other young people who are not yet involved. Through their first experiences, the young people were also motivated for more (local) political involvement. Structures have been created that support intensified cooperation between the community and the school.The project promoted the active engagement of young people with their environment in various ways. The activities in the context of the two training and learning activities and the project team meetings have contributed as much as the diverse employment of democracy as a way of life in the partner schools and extracurricular institutions. In the context of exercises such as Role-playing sessions on inclusion, team-building exercises, and rhetoric and conflict resolution offerings have sharpened students' co-operation and intercultural skills. The process of self-positioning on social and political issues was also supported, for example through inputs, workshops and discussions in the context of the meetings and through the continuous involvement of the project participants in all countries with topics and questions about our democratic coexistence.As a result of dealing with living together at one's own school, but also in the larger context of society, the pupils have developed their own projects and implemented them independently. In this way, they were able to learn the first skills they need to be involved in an active civil society. The aim of the implementation of projects by the young people was already pursued with the competition at the beginning of the term and has since been reflected in almost all components of the project. In addition to strengthening the students' participation in democratic processes, various concepts and activities were promoted at the schools. Through these self-organized activities, students have not only learned democratic processes in theory, but also experienced them in practice.In winter of 2018/2019, a large survey was held on various issues related to the political context and characteristics of a democratic state in which pupils, teachers and other staff of schools and communities participated. In this context too, not only the project participants were intensively involved with democracy as a form of state and life. The extensive research results provide a revealing picture of the positions and values that students, teachers and other adults represent in the various institutions involved in the field of democracy and serve as a basis for further analysis of these topics, including the duration of the project out.