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Discover Competences for Democratic Culture (CDC) and why language matters

The Reference Framework of Competences for Democratic Culture (RFCDC), developed by the Council of Europe, presents a comprehensive model of competences needed for individuals to promote and protect human rights, democracy, and the rule of law. The competences empower individuals to engage, contribute, and act as democratic citizens and to live peacefully and harmoniously with others in culturally diverse societies (Council of Europe 2018a). The RFCDC offers actionable guidelines on enriching curricula with a democratic citizenship perspective. 

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The Model of Competences for Democratic Culture consists of 20 competences, elaborated as descriptors, grouped into Values, Attitudes, Skills, and Knowledge and critical understanding (Council of Europe 2018a; 2018b). The descriptors can be used for curriculum development, teaching and learning, assessment, and self-reflection which allowslanguage education to function as both a disciplinary domain and a democratic space.  

Figure 1. Model of Competences for Democratic Culture: © Council of Europe (2018a), Reference Framework of Competences for Democratic Culture, Volume 1, p. 38

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A video created by the Council of Europe introducing the CDC can be watched here. The Reference Framework of Competences for Democratic Culture (Council of Europe 2018a; 2018b; 2018c) can be found here.  

For young learners (below the age of 10), a separate, more age-appropriate set of descriptors (within the framework of the 20 competences) can be found here: Descriptors of competences for democratic culture for young learners (Council of Europe 2021).  

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Second implementation meeting of the DECODE project

The DECODE project is approaching its most exciting stage—the on-site piloting of the CDC-based teaching activities in language education This has been co-created by pre- and in-service teachers and teacher educators from across Europe.

On 18 February 2026, the DECODE project team organised the second online implementation meeting, bringing together 30 teacher educators and teachers from across Europe who had volunteered to implement the teaching materials in their primary language classrooms. The aim of this reunion was to provide a welcoming and collaborative space for participants to get to know each other and to ensure that everyone involved felt confident and well-prepared for the piloting phase. Roles, responsibilities, timelines, allocation procedures, and support structures were clearly outlined, helping teachers to move forward with clarity and shared sense of purpose.

Picture 1: © Emina Jelešković / Source: Second Online Implementation Meeting of the DECODE Project
Picture 2: © Martina Kramar / Source: Second Online Implementation Meeting of the DECODE Project

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Particular attention was paid to the guidelines for including home languages in CDC-oriented language education—a core principle reflected throughout the teaching materials.

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To learn more about competences for democratic culture and language education, explore the resources below.

Further reading

Development of CDC-based teaching materials in language education

The participants of the DECODE network meeting that was held in Graz on 24-25 June 2025, were so inspired and motivated by the project that they continued to be involved through their autonomous group work on developing CDC-based teaching materials in language education. Each of the groups arranged 2-4 virtual meetings, during which the participants refined their ideas and finalised their activities.

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In Picture 1, you can see the members of a very creative and hard-working group: Melita Lemut Bajec, Jeanine Hennessy, Magdalena Pic and Tu Anh Ha, holding one such meeting. During this online collaboration moderated by the DECODE project team member, Emina Jelešković, they developed several great activities for the project.

Picture 1: © Emina Jelešković / Source: Online meeting attended by Emina Jelešković, Melita Lemut Bajec, Jeanine Hennessy, Tu Anh Ha and Magdalena Pic

Another group of innovative and productive teacher educators – Thomais Rousoulioti, Alma Žero, Laura Stenman and Jeanine Hennessy – arranged a series of online sessions in which, apart from designing CDC-based teaching materials, they discussed their further collaboration.

Picture 2: © Alma Žero / Source: Online meeting attended by Thomais Rousoulioti, Alma Žero, Jeanine Hennessy and Laura Stenman

The DECODE team was also impressed by the efforts of an enthusiastic and prolific tandem of Melita Lemut Bajec and Mateja Dagarin Fojkar from the University of Ljubljana, Slovenia, who created three more activities in addition to those produced in their working groups.

Notably, all other participants made considerable efforts within their groups in designing CDC-based activities, which are being added to the bank of project teaching materials.

Along with that, a member of the DECODE project team, Anna Shemaeva, was kindly invited by her PhD supervisor, María Elena Gómez-Parra, to deliver a seminar entitled “Fostering competences for democratic culture in young learners through language education” to a group of her fourth-year students in the Primary Education programme at the University of Cordoba, Spain.

This seminar offered attendees an opportunity to learn about the Reference Framework of Competences for Democratic Culture (RFCDC) and explore why and how to teach CDC in the language classroom. It also introduced the DECODE project – its goals and expected outputs, and the template proposed by the project team. In addition, group work was arranged for the pre-service teachers to put their new knowledge into practice and create CDC-based activities in language education following the DECODE template. Having worked on the assignment outside the classroom during the following week, each of the nine groups submitted high-quality activities, and some of these will be implemented in the DECODE project.

Teaching materials produced by all contributors are in the process of being reviewed by the DECODE project team and then forwarded to the ECML programme consultant Chantal Muller for further evaluation. This will be followed by feedback which will lead to the formation of the first set of the CDC teaching materials in language education.

Picture 3: © Anna Shemaeva / Source: Seminar “Fostering competences for democratic culture in young learners through language education” at the University of Cordoba, Spain

If you would like to explore developing competences for democratic culture through language education further, the resources below are a good place to start.

  • “Developing competences for democratic culture for young learners through language education” (DECODE) – ECML project page in English, German, and French: www.ecml.at/decode.
  • Council of Europe (2018), Reference framework of competences for democratic culture (3 volumes), Council of Europe, Strasbourg, available at: www.coe.int/en/web/reference-framework-of-competences-for-democratic-culture/rfcdc-volumes.
  • Council of Europe (2020), Common European Framework of Reference for Languages: Learning, teaching, assessment – Companion volume, Strasbourg, available at: www.coe.int/lang-cefr.
  • Council of Europe (2021), Descriptors of competences for democratic culture for young learners, Strasbourg, available at: this link.
  • Council of Europe (2022), Recommendation on the importance of plurilingual and intercultural education for democratic culture, Recommendation CM/Rec(2022)1 adopted by the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe on 2 February 2022 and explanatory memorandum, available at: this link.

DECODE network – participants’ testimonials

The DECODE project’s network meeting, held on 24–25 June 2025 in Graz, Austria, marked a major milestone for the project and proved to be a great success. This would not have been possible without the active participation of primary teachers, language teachers, and teacher educators from all over Europe, who generously shared their experience, expertise, and unique perspectives. The participants all valued the collaborative nature of the event, with its well-facilitated networking opportunities and rich, stimulating environment. They were able to deepen their understanding of Competences for Democratic Culture (CDC) in the primary language classroom, exchange ideas, learn from each other, and receive peer support.

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Since no one can describe the participants’ experiences and views better than they can, we encourage you to watch this video featuring educators from Germany, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Sweden, Ireland, and Greece who took part in the event, sharing their reflections on why competences for democratic culture are relevant to their professional contexts and the benefits the DECODE project brings.

1. Why are competences for democratic culture relevant to your professional context?

2. What unique benefits does the DECODE project bring?

Further reading