Conference Agenda

Service Learning contexts provide important sites in which Democratic Culture can be observed and assessed (Council of Europe, 2024). However, Democratic Culture remains insufficiently measurable, as existing approaches either misalign conceptually or are difficult to operationalize. While there is overlap between civic dimensions and Democratic Culture, widely used instruments (e.g. CASQ; Civic-minded graduate) do not fully capture the construct of Democratic Culture (Moely et al., 2002; Steinberg et al., 2011). The Reference Framework of Competences for Democratic Culture (RFCDC) developed by the Council of Europe provides a comprehensive set of 20 competences; however, its breadth makes it difficult to operationalize for assessment purposes. Attempts to operationalize the RFCDC have taken two main directions: simplifying the framework through clustering of competences (Jónsson & Garces Rodriguez, 2019), or narrowing it by focusing on selected dimensions (Geier & Hasager, 2020). While clustering improves manageability, it has not led to concrete operationalization (Jónsson & Garces Rodriguez, 2019); conversely, approaches that develop subscales from specific dimensions achieve partial operationalization at the cost of fragmenting the construct (Geier & Hasager, 2020). These limitations suggest the need for an approach that can preserve the integrity and coherence of the construct while enabling its systematic assessment. In response, this study adopts a relational lens to examine Democratic Culture, focusing on how individuals orient themselves toward others. Within this perspective, Democratic Culture can be understood as a progression: from recognizing difference, to situating oneself within plurality, to engaging in constructive collaborative action with others. This conceptualization is operationalized through a Likert-type scale comprising three dimensions and eight subdimensions. Following expert validation, the scale is positioned as a tool for assessing levels of Democratic Culture among university students. While the scale is context-agnostic, it is particularly relevant for Service Learning contexts, where encounters with difference, plurality, and collaborative action are central to the learning process.