The ANDANA project focuses on investigating how artistic and cultural actions can become effective tools for channeling children's voices and fostering their social inclusion in crisis and emergency contexts. In a global context of growing inequalities and challenges such as climate change, armed conflict, and natural disasters, children, as a vulnerable group, face significant limitations in expressing their needs and actively participating in society. Emergency situations amplify these vulnerabilities, relegating children to a position of invisibility in decision-making. The arts offer a universal, symbolic, and accessible language that transcends traditional communication barriers, allowing them to express emotions, understand complex situations, and participate in democratic processes from an inclusive perspective.

The 1st International Conference on Arts-Based Educational Research: Art and Democracy was born in this context of urgency and opportunity, with the aim of consolidating ABER as a benchmark methodological field in the educational and social spheres. In particular, this conference aims to encourage its development in the Spanish context, where, despite advances in critical pedagogies and transformative artistic practices, there is still limited integration of arts-based research as a widely recognized and applied methodology. The main objective is to explore how arts-based educational research can generate and evaluate new forms of social engagement and community activism on European democracy, addressing complex issues such as inequality, human rights, and sustainability from critical and inclusive perspectives. Presenting the latest contributions from the scientific community through examples of successful initiatives where the integration of art into educational projects has generated significant changes in improving school coexistence, empowering marginalized communities, raising awareness of social problems, and breaking down prejudices toward vulnerable groups. Idiosyncratic initiatives and projects using this ABER methodology are expected to be presented, as well as the evaluation of participatory methodologies and collaborative projects capable of promoting democratic values.

The TRACA project analyzes changes in post-compulsory educational trajectories, focusing on complex pathways that do not follow conventional routes. The study investigates factors such as social origin, gender, and location that influence these changes, and how social inequalities impact educational decisions. The project is divided into two sub-projects: one analyzing changes in vocational training and online university education, and another analyzing changes in upper secondary education and university. TRACA is comprised of two teams from the University of Valencia and the Autonomous University of Barcelona, ​​working in a coordinated manner.

TRAMEVIC (Transnational War-time Memories in East Asian Visual Culture) examines the creation of wartime transnational memories in East Asia through visual culture. The processes of visual remembrance of war-related issues as fluid and changing phenomena that constantly adopt new meaning. The topic is particularly relevant today as it includes unresolved issues that keep conditioning international relations today and regularly cause diplomatic tensions in the region. The project proposes an original transnational and transdisciplinary approach that focuses on how the extensive new usage of images (including films, tv dramas, animation, photos, and other visual material) has allow the representation of a new kind of memory based on often traumatic experiences that expand beyond national boundaries.

The Educational Equality Observatory in the town of Manises is a permanent study initiative based on the collection and analysis of educational indicators, as well as its dissemination and disclosure to put it at the service of citizens and the people responsible for educational institutions and municipal policies. The team of the Universitat de València is formed by the coordination in charge of professor Alícia Villar Aguilés and professor Francesc J. Hernàndez y Dobon and with the participation of professors José Beltrán, Daniel Gabaldón, Sandra Obiol and Ignacio Martínez. In addition, there is a Sociology graduate, Vera Massaguer, as an Observatory technician. The Observatory carries out the analysis of the information collected from educational indicators, the drafting of the reports that are derived and also promotes training and dissemination actions on the topics and issues of interest studied. It is an initiative that began in 2017.