Conference Program

The contemporary geopolitical context demands renewed attention to the relationship between democracy and education as articulated by John Dewey, rendering timely a critical and updated reading of his thought in light of ongoing social, cultural, and technological transformations.

This contribution is situated within the framework of UNESCO's Global Citizenship Education and examines how social pedagogy can contribute to strengthening democratic participation through the integration of cultural heritage education and rigorous social impact assessment methodologies. Drawing upon the UNESCO framework on global citizenship, which emphasises belonging to a broader community and common humanity, it is argued that cultural heritage education constitutes a strategic resource for promoting active and democratic citizenship. Heritage education, addressed to all individuals throughout the lifespan, not only fosters knowledge and respect for cultural assets but also promotes lifelong formation for active citizenship, requiring synergy between territories and educational institutions. The shift from an expertise-led and object-oriented preservation paradigm to an inclusive and people-centred approach has transformed how cultural institutions engage with communities.

This paper critically analyses the principal methodological approaches for measuring social and educational impact in cultural heritage interventions. Cost-Benefit Analysis provides quantitative economic evaluation of cultural investments. Multiplier Analysis examines the indirect economic effects generated by cultural activities within local economies. Contingent Valuation assesses the perceived value of non-market cultural goods through stakeholder surveys. The Social Return on Investment (SROI) methodology, developed by the Roberts Enterprise Development Fund, emerges as the most widely adopted tool globally for strategic planning and social impact communication, quantifying social value through stakeholder engagement, proxy identification, and systematic verification of outcomes.

The integration of artificial intelligence systems within this evaluative framework presents both opportunities and challenges for democratic citizenship education. Whilst algorithmic systems can enhance the measurement of intangible impacts generated by cultural institutions, they also require critical epistemic responsibility. Educational curricula must develop the critical thinking capabilities of students and educators to navigate the ideology of disinformation whilst leveraging artificial intelligence for sustainable development.

Following the UNESCO 2030 Agenda objectives and the European Recommendation on Key Competences for Lifelong Learning, this contribution advocates for a competency-based approach wherein personal, social, citizenship, entrepreneurial, and cultural awareness competencies become the formative goals of educational pathways. The Service Learning methodology emerges as a particularly effective pedagogical practice enabling students to learn through community service whilst engaging with real problems within their living context, including cultural heritage preservation and valorisation.

This paper concludes that reconstructing democracy in the current geopolitical disorder requires evidence-based evaluation of educational and cultural interventions, wherein social impact assessment methodologies serve not merely as accountability tools but as instruments for promoting a new democratic citizenship capable of addressing the challenges of contemporary global society.

The use of new digital technologies and Artificial Intelligence, including generative AI, has been increasingly emerging as an enormous potential with regards to the promotion of active citizenship and participation in a truly democratic perspective, as it can offer numerous possibilities for all citizens to access resources in terms of effective equity. In fact, if we start from the analysis of education as a dependent variable within a complex system of a complex society in which profoundly different languages, religions, sexual orientations, cultures and ways of behaving coexist on a daily basis, the need to see a new perspective emerges for education for multicultural global citizenship which is striving to also become intercultural. A pedagogical reflection in this regard shows how this phase of the educational process is the favorable terrain for developing a conscious adherence to shared values ​​and cooperative and collaborative attitudes that are the prerequisites for practicing civil coexistence. clearly in such a complex and articulated training process, generative AI takes on an essential role, both in the research and improvement of contents, as well as in their structuring and re-structuring to support the greatest possible usability: especially in terms of participatory and inclusive citizenship, it is essential to make continuous references to the specific weight of the values ​​and to the most suitable teaching methodologies and strategies for their easier internalization. Above all, new digital technologies can truly constitute an enormous bridge, not only virtual but also physical, in bringing cultures closer together in sharing cultural instances, ways of behaving and traditions, thus reducing the distances between ethnic groups and thus contributing to smoothing out the edges of the risks of inter-ethnic conflicts that contemporary globalised society can generate in terms of commercial and working efficiency and effectiveness. Clearly, the identification and use of new digital tools and new digital technologies cannot ignore a general consideration of the economic conditions at various latitudes of the globe. And this can undoubtedly invalidate the use of the Internet and the global network. This serves, democratically speaking, as a stimulus for governments to invest more and more in research and to reduce economic and social inequalities that can jeopardize the effective use of the elementary human rights connected to democracy. It is clear that a complex universe such as that of digital technologies, which is always undergoing profound and rapid change, always requires constant updating in terms of skills and knowledge for its real use in terms of equity and democratic effectiveness.

Within the current phase of geopolitical disorder and accelerated digital transformation, the
diffusion of artificial intelligence and the datafication of social processes are reshaping learning
environments and challenging traditional curricular frameworks in schools and universities. This
paper argues that the widespread tendency to oppose technological competencies to the
strengthening of basic skills risks producing a false dichotomy, obscuring the interdependence
between digital innovation and the formative foundations of democratic education.(Dewey, 1916;
Bruner, 1996; OECD, 2019)
By framing artificial intelligence within the current geopolitical disorder, the paper highlights how
the educational use of AI is entangled with broader processes of disinformation, algorithmic
governance, and the reshaping of democratic participation. In contexts increasingly mediated by
platforms and intelligent systems, education is called to cultivate critical thinking and epistemic
responsibility as core dimensions of a renewed democratic citizenship.(UNESCO, 2023; OECD,
2019)
The contribution situates itself within the ongoing debate on the relationship between democracy,
education, and artificial intelligence, proposing hybrid teaching as a pedagogical and curricular lens through which fundamental skills and AI-related competencies can be integrated in a coherent and intentional way. Hybrid teaching is here conceptualized not as a merely organizational arrangement or a technical alternation between physical and digital spaces, but as a design framework capable of aligning times, spaces, languages, and tools with essential learning outcomes.(Calvani, 2011; Rivoltella, 2020)
From this perspective, the reinforcement of basic skills—such as reading comprehension,
argumentative competence, logical reasoning, and linguistic proficiency—emerges as a necessary
condition for the meaningful and critical appropriation of intelligent technologies. Without such
foundations, the educational integration of artificial intelligence risks amplifying superficial
learning practices, cognitive fragmentation, and vulnerability to disinformation and algorithmic
manipulation.(Trinchero, 2014; UNESCO, 2023)
Drawing on a theoretical framework that brings together curriculum studies, general didactics, and
democratic pedagogy, the paper outlines how hybrid teaching can foster a coherent alignmentbetween educational aims, teaching methodologies, and technological tools, avoiding technocratic or solutionist approaches to innovation. In this sense, digital technologies do not replacefoundational skills but may function as environments for their consolidation, transfer, and critical enactment within the digital public sphere.(Bruner, 1996; OECD, 2019; UNESCO, 2023)

The current geopolitical disorder is increasingly shaped by the centrality of artificial intelligence, datafication, and algorithmic governance systems that influence public debate, democratic participation, and educational processes. In this context, the classical relationship between democracy and education, as formulated by John Dewey, appears deeply undermined by the power of digital platforms, economic and financial oligarchies, and the systematic spread of disinformation. These dynamics negatively affect critical thinking, epistemic responsibility, and the conditions for exercising conscious democratic citizenship. (Dewey, 1916; Floridi, 2019)

This paper argues that AI Literacy should be conceived as a pedagogical and civic paradigm capable of reconstructing the relationship between democracy and education, recognizing the educational pact of shared responsibility as a strategic device for addressing the complexity of the contemporary digital ecosystem. AI Literacy is not understood as a technical competence, but as an integrated educational framework aimed at fostering critical awareness, ethical reflexivity, and social responsibility through an educational alliance involving schools, universities, families, and local communities. (Rivoltella & Rossi, 2019; UNESCO, 2023)

Within this perspective, artificial intelligence is interpreted not only as an object of learning, but as a cultural and political environment that structures access to knowledge, decision-making processes, and forms of participation. The educational pact of shared responsibility therefore assumes a generative pedagogical function, configuring itself as a space of mediation between educational institutions and civil society, oriented toward the construction of democratic, inclusive, and participatory digital citizenship. (Floridi, 2019; Dewey, 1916)

Drawing on pedagogy, special education, and didactics, the paper analyzes the role of schools and universities as democratic laboratories in which students and teachers can develop critical competencies to interpret algorithmic systems, recognize the mechanisms of disinformation, and act responsibly within the digital public sphere. Particular attention is devoted to the risks of educational and digital inequality, highlighting how the lack of AI-related competencies may intensify forms of digital educational poverty and social marginalization. (Rivoltella & Rossi, 2019; UNESCO, 2023)

The contribution argues that a renewed curriculum for democratic citizenship must be based on a fruitful hybridization of education, didactics, and artificial intelligence, promoting critical thinking, conscious participation, and an ethics of shared responsibility. Only through collectively grounded educational approaches can the ideology of disinformation be countered and algorithmic systems oriented toward social cohesion, sustainability, and peace in a global society marked by increasing instability. (Dewey, 1916; UNESCO, 2023)

An inclusive and meritocratic school system represents the core of the autonomous school system, linked to the role and functions of the school principal, where the educational success of each student is the fundamental path to defining themselves as citizens of the Italian Republic, the European Union, and the world. The overall meaning, as well as a cultural and political paradigm, is provided by the teaching of civic education – Law 92/2019 – which can improve both the organization of teaching, in its epistemological and pedagogical foundations, and the governance of the autonomous school system. The pedagogical question is therefore fundamental to clarifying the relationship between the autonomous school system and the school principal and to offering the social community a school that educates for change and inclusive democracy as one of the key aspects for the salvation of humanity, severely tested by the geopolitical transformations underway in global society and by the great challenges that humanity will face in the coming decades, such as the advent of artificial intelligence.

The connection between the values of western democracies and other autocratic systems is conditioned by an environment saturated with technological manipulation and pervaded by the ideology of disinformation. Disinformation today, helped by the still unregulated use of AI, exhibits specific aspects that impact the relationship between knowledge, education, and democracy.

Web information, characterized by speed and repeatability, produces an enormous amount of unverifiable and easily falsifiable content and news (fake news). Generative AI, through chatbots, provides its users with effective answers and texts tailored to their needs, resulting in significant linguistic effects: from lexical impoverishment, particularly seen in some experiential fields of knowledge, to epistemia, which is the impression of knowledge based on the uncritical acceptance of AI responses.

Large Language Models (LLMs) are increasingly present in various learning contexts and are used to obtain information or access knowledge across all fields. LLMs offer well-articulated answers with such formal accuracy that they lead the user to confuse linguistic form with epistemic reliability. Epistemia is, precisely, the illusion of knowledge that emerges when superficial plausibility replaces source verification, in-depth knowledge, and selection of informations. Delegating judgment to such systems can influence learning processes and negatively impact people's development in the context of democratic citizenship, accentuating systemic effects such as economic and cultural inequalities, social disparities, and political asymmetries.

The contemporary crisis is not only technological, socioeconomical, or political; it is, first and foremost, an epistemological crisis. Today, we have free access to a boundless amount of knowledge, but we don’t know how to appropriate it, how to manage it. In the constant flow of web communications, it becomes essential to develop the skills of organization and connection of knowledge.

AI can communicate anything without having experience and knowledge of it. Education today must take on the following tasks: rethink the lexicon of knowledge; defend the possibility of experiencing knowledge in a world that replaces it with its linear description; build awareness of the significant losses that are reducing the lexicon linked to experience and cultivate semantic capital (Floridi).

To rebuild the relationship between democracy and education it is important to place the individual at the center of the educational process, their corporeity, their unpredictable and nonlinear thinking, the complexity of their understanding of the world through experience. Culture and especially art can be considered pedagogical tools aimed at fostering the values of social cohesion and equity.

This perspective opens a reflection about the use of AI in education, placing the experiential value of knowledge at the center, and thus recognizing the individual's active role in a complex relationship of hybridization between culture, pedagogy, and technology. Learning about the role of art and of the experience of art is important to promote the empowerment of critical thinking and the epistemic responsibility of students and teachers to reach a democratic school.