Martina Kramar, the project coordinator, presented the DECODE project at the Cultnet Research Symposium held at the University of Durham, England from 2 to 4 April 2025.
She highlighted the project’s goals and outputs and emphasised how vital it is to develop competences for democratic culture (CDC) in language education—especially in times of crisis, when European democracy is increasingly threatened.

Furthermore, she invited teachers and teacher educators interested in promoting competences for democratic culture in language education in their home countries to attend the network meeting organised by the DECODE team in Graz and to join the DECODE network.

Following the symposium, a meeting was held with Michael Byram and Martyn Barrett, associate partners, during which the development, implementation, and evaluation of CDC-based teaching materials in language education were discussed. 

Author: Martina Kramar 
Photo © Martina Kramar 

• ECML project website “Developing competences for democratic culture for young learners through language education” (2025-27) (available in English and German): www.ecml.at/decode