From Competence to Becoming: Rethinking Democracy Through Curriculum Policy

This paper explores how democracy is becoming increasingly conceptualised in European curriculum policy as a dynamic, relational process of becoming, rather than a fixed set of civic competencies. By drawing on comparative curriculum analysis and on Irish policy frameworks including Aistear, the Primary Curriculum Framework, Junior Cycle reform, Politics & Society, ESD to 2030, and Ireland’s Global Citizenship Education Strategy, the paper argues that democratic agency emerges through learning pathways, pedagogical practices, and school cultures rather than through discrete instructional content. Across Europe, democratic themes appear not as isolated subjects but as distributed curricular threads, participation, critical thinking, dialogue, sustainability and human rights, that invite learners to actively contribute to the construction of their democratic identities. This positioning reflects a broader shift towards understanding democracy as a lifelong, situated, participatory process shaped within educational ecosystems. The analysis also identifies key tensions, including assessment structures that privilege recall over relational learning and rhetorical commitments to democracy which are not always reflected in pedagogical practice. The paper concludes by proposing curriculum as a crucial ecosystem of democratic becoming, where policy, pedagogy and lived experience converge to shape emerging democratic subjectivities across diverse European contexts.