This paper raises questions about cis/hetero-masculinity in education and specifically within in the sport context (Connell, 1995). Historically men’s sport has been a space in which dominant heteronormative masculinity has been maintained and sustained (Atkinson & Kehler, 2012; Bridel, 2018; Burrell, 2021; Gill, Henwood & McLean 2005; Kehler & Atkinson, 2010; Kehler 2018, 2016; Lenskyj, 2012; Wellard, 2009). Drawing on qualitative research situated within Critical Masculinities Studies, we examine the alliance-building practices of a group of queer and cis-het athletes. With a focus on a sexually and gender diverse group of men, we shift the focus from allyship with to allyship between. We explore how both straight and queer narratives of allyship practices contribute to a shift in what has typically been considered a binaristic positioning of marginalized and privileged groups in sport. Building on previous research (Lapointe, 2015) of straight men involved in gay-straight alliances, this study extends ideas of disruptive practice that challenge normative masculinity and promote social justice (see Keddie et al 2022; Elliott, 2019; Stewart et al, 2023; Kirk, 2019) as well as makes space for queer voices in alliance-building activities. This research addresses the negotiation of sexualities and masculinities in a men’s sporting context as well as the complications for (un)doing heterosexism in allyship spaces. We provide examples of both queer and straight voices in alliance-building activities to identify the tensions as well as the possibilities for reconfiguring relationships that can promote and support athlete activism. We conclude by providing examples and raising further questions about the messiness, if not the contradictions involved in the process of (un)learning how athletes become allies.

The contribution proposes a methodological reflection on queer pedagogy (Bryson, de Castell, 1993; Mayo, Rodriguez, 2019; Gonzales et al., 2019), as developed through the ten-year experience of the Scosse association, of which we are researchers and trainers in gender education. The contribution reflects on how a queer and intersectional perspective can shape educational and training interventions in practice.

Queer theory represents a critique of the norms regulating categories of gender, identity and expression, and sexual orientations, interpreting gender as a discursive social construction which is reproduced through social interactions (Butler, 1990; Sedgwick, 1990; Wilchins, 2014). This way ensures that the cis-heteronormative paradigm perpetuates and self-feeds.

Among the theoretical knots examined: the problematization of the relationships between sex, gender, and sexuality and the "de-essentialization" of sexual and gender identity categories; the deconstruction of stereotypes and roles, transmitted in embodied educational relationships, and the contingent and provisional reading of identity categories; the rethinking of boundaries between center and margins, legitimate and illegitimate, "normal" and "anomalous"; the rejection for the classification of people into universal binary cages; the perception of being epistemologically imperfect and contradictory.

Over the years, we have developed, once again preferring reading and analysing illustrated books and paying attention to visual languages (Fierli, Franchi, Marini, 2019), paths and tools that do not offer an explicit thematic deepening with regard to gender (Fierli et alii, 2020), but rather opportunities to practice the gaze in a dynamic way. This is what happens in the works of the American artist Tana Hoban, who uses photographic language to offer opportunities for re-semantization; or in those of the Canadian Keri Smith, who, starting from aspects dear to her such as re-functionalization, positioning, the open work, suggests stripping what is familiar of its apparent obviousness, or exploiting what appears different from expectations to question what we see or thought we knew (2011). Opportunities for shifting perspectives are also offered by the imagier of the French artist Katy Couprie, or prepared by polyphonic narratives such as the splendid Voci nel parco by Anthony Browne (2017), a title that, like few others, has the ability to illuminate the axes of an intersectional perspective, making them vibrate in narrative tension. The reading of different picturebooks , with and without words, aimed at very different or transversal age groups, allows criticizing identity categories, attribution processes, and the impact of labels on people. The centrality of the visual component in the proposed paths shows the formative and deconstructive value of presenting a plurality of artistic techniques, illustrative styles, and uses of colour, able to show contrasts and consonances with the perceptual level, to dismantle the assumption of objectivity.

Do picturebooks, used as mediating tools in educational practices, have the capacity to help build open and free imagery? And does educational practices, in the areas of identities, sexualities, growing bodies, have the capacity to listen to needs and ideas coming from little and adolescents persons?

The manuals on the changing body, which still segregate by gender, reinforcing a binary and hierarchical view of the world; the books on reproduction that propose motherhood as an unavoidable choice and only destiny; the white, healthy, able-bodied, and prosperous bodies that crowd the representations, how much do they contribute to change in and out of school and how much, instead, do they reinforce a deeply hegemonic, patriarchal, violent idea of relationships?

Is publishing for children and adolescents, the independent and militant kind that offers quality books, ignites curiosity and opens horizons, always brave and in step with the times?

How many (and which) taboos still persist in books that tell us about bodies, sexualities, identities and gender? (Brugeilles et al., 2002; Oltra-Albiach, Pardo, 2019; Blakemore et al., 2009; Allan, 2012; Fierli et al. 2020a) Are they powerful tools for change and transformation or do they eternalize (Turin, 2003) stereotypes and prejudices and perpetrate the reproduction of the cisheteronormative paradigm?

Hardly the reflection on the body is encouraged and fostered by adult reference persons, rarely it turns into an analysis referred to pleasure, emotions, sexuality, and is open to a gendered perspective that does not offer a merely binary and essentialist, sanitizing and reproductive view (Coats, 2018; Zanfabro, 2017; Fierli et al., 2020b).

With this contribution we present the research and reflection from the project Fammi capire. La rappresentazione dei corpi, dei generi e delle sessualità nei libri illustrati 0-18 anni (Let Me Understand. The Representation of Bodies, Genders and Sexualities in Picturebooks 0-18 Years), on books and picturebooks that explore different possibilities and visions. Born in 2016 from an idea of Scosse, Ottimomassimo Libreria and Maddalena Lucarelli, the project includes a itinerant bibliographic exhibition, in which some unobtainable classics stand out together with interesting new proposals from Italian and foreign publishing, selected thinking about the possibility of using them as tools of free knowledge and education starting from bodies. The research developed as an asystematic and at the same time articulate and reasoned reconnaissance of the existing, aimed at responding to professional needs and emerging questions. From being necessary and urgent, it has gradually assumed a systematic nature that over time has produced: several bibliographies devoted to specific thematic insights; transdiscplinary comparisons with other outlooks and other professionalism; the identification of different approaches present in this publishing field; and continuous stirrings of reflexivity that have led to revisions over time of selection and cataloguing criteria and research questions.

Today, being a trans youth and freely expressing oneself remains a complex and challenging experience, particularly within Italy, where institutional and political support for trans children is scarce. Specifically, within education, the absence of government regulations recognizing trans identities in schools is a pressing issue (Bourelly, 2022; Bourelly et al., 2022). This article aims to scrutinize parental and educational approaches concerning trans youth within Italian elementary schools. The insights presented stem from a comprehensive thematic analysis employing a codebook approach, drawing from data obtained through two research inquiries. Seventeen parents of trans children, aged between 6 and 12, participated in this study. The findings reveal a spectrum of practices. Nonsuppurative behaviours, influenced by cisnormativity (Ansara & Berger, 2016) and adultism (Flasher, 1978), are evident in actions taken by both parents and school figures. Conversely, affirmative practices emphasize the importance of parental and school support, inclusivity, open dialogue, and education, fostering an approach centred on the child's needs. In summary, this study exposes the hurdles faced by trans children within Italian schools, primarily stemming from adultism and entrenched cisnormative attitudes. It highlights the absence of comprehensive guidelines and adequate teacher training, resulting in the harsh treatment of trans students. Advocating for inclusive school policies, this research champions empowering children as decision-makers, aiming to dismantle restrictive norms and pave the way for a brighter and more liberated future.

In recent decades, the potential of popular culture has taken on great importance in the educational research around the world. Entertainment coming “from below” or from “pop culture” can be an useful pedagogical tool for deconstructing systems of power (Giroux, 2020), such as heteronormativity.

Even today, there is a certain distrust towards popular culture. This diffidence has its roots in the spread of mass media (e.g. newspaper, radio, film and television) between late 19^th and early 20^th centuries, when there was a radical change in the way culture was made and enjoyed (Horkheimer, Adorno, 2010). When considering popular culture, the underlying tensions concerning its dual tendencies (repressive and emancipatory) must be pointed out (Edwards, Esposito 2020).

In pursuance of its critical gaze aimed at the oppressive and homogenizing potential, popular culture as an educational theory and practice can be useful in framing certain social issues (Stramaglia, 2012, 2016, 2019; Zoletto, 2020), such as bullying, homobitransphobia, racism, and sexism. Some researchers on the relationship between critical pedagogy and popular culture argue that the dialogue between these two perspectives can bring out the oppressive ideologies rooted in our society (Benson, Chik, 2014; Friedrich, Corson, Hollman, 2021).

In this regard, an example of the educational potential expressed by popular culture refers to the analysis of the new LGBTQIA+ identity representations in graphic novels (Aldama, 2021) and TV series (Caruso, 2020; Rosenberg, D’Urso, Winget, 2021). As far as the pop world is concerned, there are some models of new imaginaries referring to non-stereotyped gender identities, such as is the case of the new Netflix series breaking down the example of cis-gender world.

These researches have shown that there is a gap between cultural claims producing new gendered models for adolescents and a pedagogical and educational mode, often adult-centric and inherent to firm cultural instances, not fully open to the needs of the queer young community.

From these considerations and from the point of view of popular culture, as a means of deconstructing the oppressive potential imposed by society, this proposal aims to question the possible triangulation between popular culture, pedagogical and educational knowledge, and queer theory to promote new epistemologies (Burgio, 2012; Pérez, Trujillo-Barbadillo, 2020).

Queer theory promotes a conceptual revision of the heteronormative model on which our society is

based, which tends to observe the other with a "normalizing" (Sassatelli, 2006) gaze aimed at maintaining the dichotomous male/female order. By subverting the binary culture, queer theory helps us to problematize the category of difference, shining the spotlight on those subjectivities that have claimed their right to express their identity beyond the schemes, inspiring the world of education to imagine educational models based on categories such as disorder, chaos, disorganization, the unprecedented, categories that, the writer believes that these categories can be an effective framework for forming a posture that recognizes the complexity of humans (Lopez, 2018). What contribution can queer theory make to the spread of a culture that emphasizes enhancing differences; how this theory can enter schools and help girls and boys to "undo" sexual and gender binarism and claim their right to an identity that is “out of binary” (Burgio, 2021; Di Grigoli, 2023). And if, starting from the meaning of the word queer ‒ which derives from the Germanic oak which, in turn, means "transverse", diagonal, "oblique" (Bernini, 2017) ‒ it is possible to identify in education to a non-linear, transversal, creative thought, capable of opening up to the possible and rejecting simplifications and forms of reductionist reasoning based on dichotomies (male/female, culture/nature, reason/affectivity, man/machine, natural/artificial), the pedagogical framework within which to promote queer pedagogy. The contribution intends to reflect on the relationship between education for creative thinking and queer pedagogy understood as a training model capable of promoting training in being authentic.