At the Future Edu Conference held in Prague, Klára Šeďová, a member of the BOLD Lab, gave a talk exploring whether schools can function as training grounds for democracy.

In her presentation, she emphasized the importance of strengthening dialogic culture in classrooms and providing students with more opportunities to take part in decision-making. According to her, open dialogue is essential for developing young people’s democratic competences.

The insights she presented were based on in-depth interviews with young people, collected in the autumn of last year by researchers from the National Institute SYRI.

Discussions at the conference also highlighted that school parliaments are often perceived by students as inauthentic and lacking real impact. Many young people who are active citizens tend to develop their participatory skills outside of school – for example, in scouting, volunteer projects, or international programs.