The complexity of relationships and forms of cohabitation in the global era implies a reconfiguration of values, behaviours and interactions that invest not only inter-human relationships but also those with the natural environment and non-human animals. Even species differences are encompassed into dynamics of recognition, inclusion, exclusion, and oppression that involve the processes of constructions of otherness (Borkfelt 2011; Mahlke 2014; Nimmo 2016). The relationships of care, responsibility, and solidarity that value both the constitutive relationality of human beings and what they share with other living beings become moral, political, and educational alternatives to relationships based on power and instrumental, oppressive, and hierarchical social constructions (Pulcini 2009; Freeman 2016; Tota 2023; Nussbaum 2023). This leads to rethink species relationships from an ecological perspective (Tota 2023, 2024) capable of abandoning "discontinuity-based" approaches in considering humans' relationship with other animals. Recognizing proximity and what is common with other animals allows to withdraw these relationships from processes of reification that translate into practices and systems detrimental to the dignity and well-being of non-human individuals (Taylor and Twine 2014; Almiron, Cole, and Freeman 2016). Starting from this point of view, interspecies education (Andrzejewski, Pedersen, and Wicklund 2009) requires considering non-human animals in an inclusive perspective that recognizes them as significant subjects (Pedersen 2013), bearers of rights (Regan 2004 [1983]; Nussbaum 2006) in their individuality beyond species characterizations (often stereotypically constructed). Interspecies education thus shares many fundamental assumptions of anti-racist, anti-sexist, and anti-ableist education (Nocella et al. 2017; Horsthemke 2018), included their critical purpose (Russel and Spannring 2019). Even the educational tools and strategies in these fields can be considered in line with the goals of interspecies education, especially those aimed at promoting empathetic relationships with various forms of otherness and supporting processes of recognizing and narrating vulnerable subjectivities (Bruno and Peruzzi 2021). Alternative representations of otherness, particularly those provided by literary works, can serve as a 'reflexive exercise' capable of laying the foundations for alternative interspecies relationships. On the one hand, such narrative practices can effectively fulfill a delegitimizing function regarding processes of normalization and legitimization of oppressive behaviours that emerge in mainstream communication (Malknecht 2018, 2021). On the other hand, the same narrative structure unfolds its critical potential in the rehabilitation of cognitive faculties and emotional dimensions that make literature, as well as other arts, "schools of complexity" (Morin 1999), enabling "sympathetic imagination" and the imaginative extension of experience (Nussbaum 2010) beyond individual and species boundaries, activating processes of self- and otherness-recognition.

In light of the complexity and urgencies that characterize contemporaneity, it is no longer possible to ignore the need for a profound cultural renewal (Mortari, 2020). In this process, pedagogy bears the responsibility of contemplating how to guide new generations towards the development of more sustainable lifestyles. The concept of sustainability should be considered in an extensive manner, focusing towards relationships in the pursuit of new balances, way of thinking and acting (Böhme, Walsh, Wamsler, 2022).

Listening to relationships entails engaging with oneself and being open to welcoming the other, risking crisis and instability, while recognizing the value of difference as a possibility for enrichment and development (Rinaldi, 2017). Listening does not merely involve the auditory dimension. Simultaneously, connecting with one's surroundings, relating to the environment and its elements through the senses and body, is a fundamental prerequisite for developing an ecological perspective on the world (Mortari, 2020).

Despite sound constantly permeating our lives, especially in contemporary Western cultures, visual aspects still tend to prevail over auditory ones (Lèvy, 2013; Shafer, 1977). Shifting the point of observation, or rather, the listening perspective of the world, can deepen the understanding and the connection with other aspects of reality (Malaguzzi, 1996; Chieli, Filippini, Maccaferri, 2022), expanding imaginaries and possibilities of knowledge according to an acoustemological perspective (Feld, 2019; 2015).

Living experiences of deep listening, facilitated by the use of technological tools capable of capturing interaction with the environment, also allows for broadening perceptions and interfacing audibly with the complexity of reality, fostering an active relationship with sound (Grande, 2013).

The workshop The (im)possible forms of sound. Sound research and exploration in the park was conducted as part of the Scintillae project – play and learning in the digital age, born from the collaboration between Fondazione Reggio Children – Centro Loris Malaguzzi and The Lego Foundation. The experience was designed in four phases: park exploration, research and recording of the most interesting sounds using technological and digital tools (I), listening and analysis of the collected material (II), reworking the material using various types of graphic and pictorial supports and tools (III), sharing with the large group what was experienced and hypothesized during the research (IV).

By listening to the natural environment using microphones, participants had the opportunity to search for its hidden sounds: amplifying sounds inaudible to the naked ear allowed for a deeper immersion into the sound environment, perceiving the presence of life even where, apparently, relying solely on the visual channel, nothing seemed to move or happen. Re-elaborating the collected sound material through graphic and pictorial language brought the experience into a heightened dimension of complexity, offering more avenues for research, stimulating reflections then shared with the group.

The contribution presents the outcomes of the field research through the analysis of the material collected during the laboratory (transcriptions of conversations, audio recordings, graphic works, photographs) and the activated processes will be presented with the intention of evaluating the contribution of the experience to the development of greater ecological awareness and sensitivity.

Since the 1980s, sustainability and environmental protection have been consolidated among the fundamental values of various public policy areas (Martone, De Feo, 2014).
Due to the progressive institutionalisation of ‘environmental sustainability’ as a policy priority, the educational field is asked to address its knowledge and pedagogical relations within this framework.
The Council of Europe assigns educational institutions the important role for the achievement of all the Sustainable Development Goals (Smaniotto et al., 2021) in order to implement the “UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development”. By 2030, it will be necessary to “ensure that all learners acquire the knowledge and skills needed to promote sustainable development, including, among others, through education for sustainable development and sustainable lifestyles […]” (COE, 2019).
Education is therefore the starting point for promoting widespread awareness of sustainable development and lifestyles in harmony with nature; and for implementing behaviours aimed at preventing environmental risks, taking action on protection of natural and urban ecosystems, and sustainable use of public spaces.
While not immediately obvious, art can “provide powerful means” to “connect learners with sustainability and cultural issues using materials and nature” (Unesco, 2023).
In a perspective concerned with “art as agency” (Acord, DeNora, 2008; Tota, De Feo 2022), the paper draws attention to how art comes into action to empower teachers and students with the knowledge, values and attitudes 1) to address the challenges of climate change and human-nature relationship in general and 2) to use creative expression to bring sustainability to life (Unesco, 2023).
Starting from an ethnographic research, the author focuses on ‘pedagogical enactment’ of Montessorian art education aimed at empowering a sense of responsibility toward environment.

How can art and, in particular, textile art, be able to promote self-narration and, at the same time, consolidate the bond with others and with the surrounding environment?

The existence of every human being is made up of stories and the studies concerning the biographical - narrative field tell us that the narration of such stories allows on the one hand to attribute meaning to one's life paths and on the other to imagine and construct new ones (Demetrio, 1996; 2012; Smorti, 2007, Mancino, 2020).

As St. Claire (2019) explains, there is a strong link between writing and weaving. This link, which has always combined fabric and the written word (St. Claire, 2019; Mancino, 2021) shows how it is possible to leave a trace of oneself and one's history both on a sheet of paper and on fabric (Mancino, 2020).

This contribution therefore intends to promote a reflection on the use, in the pedagogical and training field, of the intertwining of textile art, autobiographical writing and ecological thought. In particular, we will talk about the participatory art workshop "Tree Man", conceived and promoted by the fiber artist Giovanna Del Grande and by Daniele Delfino, an artist who has been engaged for years in research focused on prehistoric art and "Mother Earth", both members of the “Trame educative” research group of the University of Milan – Bicocca, directed by Emanuela Mancino. A workshop whose aim is to enhance self-narration in adults, also promoting contact and dialogue with their natural environment, and which has also repeatedly involved students from the University of Milan – Bicocca.

The great protagonist of this experience is the Tree Man, a sculpture awarded the UNESCO Partnership in 2018, created by Daniele Delfino.

Through the interweaving of two languages ​​destined to leave a trace, the language of words and the language of needle and thread (Belisario, 2023), participants are invited to enter into dialogue with this sculpture, which represents the nature with which, in our modern society, dominated by speed and technology (Bauman, 1995), contact has been lost. Each participant is involved by Giovanna Del Grande in the creation of strips of fabric obtained from textile waste, then transformed into pieces which, sewn together, cover the Tree Man, giving life to a textile and narrative sculpture (Idem).

Writing is a tool to give meaning to the emotions felt during this experience and to give voice to the pieces, on which everyone is called to write a message, shared in the group, to be "donated" to nature, carefully covering the Tree Man.

I wish to highlight how the intertwining of art, writing and nature can be an important pedagogical tool to give space to and enhance the stories that each individual carries, sometimes unaware, opening the way to new narratives and imagination of new future paths, but also to generate contact and respect towards one's physical and social environment of reference: an environment in relation to which each individual grows and evolves.

In the field of sociology, there are perspectives that can contribute to shape an emancipatory discourse on education. In this direction, the concept of sustainability works as a powerful methodological and epistemological tool to produce changes in the educational context and in the public discourse.

This paper aims to explore this topic in the worlds of fashion and art, focusing on the performative nature of dressed bodies (Barthes, 1967) and artistic languages (Tota, De Feo 2020). These are crucial areas where identities are shaped (Crane, 2000; Crane, Bovone, 2006) and where opportunities for innovation that positively influence learning processes are created (Tota, De Feo, 2022; Kaya et al., 2022). In other words, art can become a resource for the exercise of power and human rights (Zolberg, 1990; Dekel, Tota, 2017), as well as fashion a symbol of belonging to a social group and a space in which to articulate practices of resistance and social protest (Hebdige, 1979; Doerr, 2016; Almila, 2020).

Fashion, in particular, in recent years has been moving towards areas that previously seemed to be exclusive domain of artistic codes and, even by incorporating some trends of contemporary visual and performing art – i.e. the works of Vanessa Beecroft, Christian Boltanski, Michelangelo Pistoletto, Charles LeDray and the Italian “CirculART” project for responsible and sustainable fashion - has decided to play its public role as agency by addressing the categories of social values (Luchetti, Tota, 2012).

Clothing, after all, is a powerful device, which can also produce pollution that is both environmental and visual (Tota, 2023) and urgently requires a change in the direction of “responsible sustainability” (ivi). In fact, the fashion industry, as underlined by international policies (The Fashion Industry Charter for Climate Action, 2018; The EU strategy for Sustainable and Circular Textiles, 2022), also following the 2013 Rana Plaza disaster in Bangladesh, implies “unsustainable” human costs and is among the major causes of global pollution, both in terms of water exploitation, the release of microplastics into the environment and carbon emissions, and the production of textile waste linked to the shortening of product life cycles and overproduction.

The impact of the fashion industry is, in fact, very high and imposes a reflection about where the clothes we buy come from and under what economic conditions they are made, which is intertwined with the analysis of human resources education/training programs within corporate contexts in relation to sustainability and social responsibility.

In this perspective, the paper will explore the most recent trends in ethical and sustainable fashion (Mora 2010; Mora et al., 2014; Clark, 2008; Black, 2012; Gardetti, Larios-France, 2023) and focus on art and fashion as a space of inclusivity and social justice (Tota et al., 2023).