Conference Program

Schools are deeply shaped by cis-heteronormative, binary and adultist regimes (Hall, 2021; Santambrogio, 2022; Demozzi & Ghigi, 2024) that reproduce broader social hierarchies and sustain cultures of gender-based violence, often through the implicit and hidden curriculum (Donovan et al., 2023; Rapini, 2025; Selmi, 2025).

In the Italian context, schools are currently experiencing contradictory tendencies. On the one hand, there is an increasing amount of censorship surrounding sexuality and gender education (Scarcelli & Selmi, 2025), as evidenced by the introduction of parental informed consent for sex education activities and the prohibition of such initiatives in primary schools. On the other hand, schools appear to be increasingly engaging with issues related to gender-based violence, particularly male violence against women and digital violence. However, these topics are often addressed within securitarian frameworks or through paternalistic and victimising narratives, which risk overlooking the broader cultural, material and relational conditions that produce violence. Moreover, discussions concerning young people’s uses of digital media frequently tend to be framed through dynamics of moral panic (Scarcelli, 2020), shifting attention toward risk and control rather than fostering critical and situated reflection on gendered power relations in post-digital contexts.

Against this backdrop, this paper asks how schools can create interstitial spaces for democratic agency in order to implement transformative gender and sexuality education practices that deconstruct, rather than reproduce, the culture of violence?

This contribution is based on an ethnographic research project (Bove, 2019) conducted in an Italian secondary school. The project involved interviews, participatory workshops and collective analysis with teachers and students. The research employs a participatory and reflexive methodology, consistent with a transfeminist epistemology (Branlat et al., 2023; Keenan, 2022; Leach, 2006).

Preliminary findings highlight significant tensions surrounding school discourses on gender-based violence. These discourses often generate forms of male resistance (Ging et al., 2024; Keddie, 2022) and struggle to engage students in meaningfully connecting their lived experiences - particularly within post-digital environments - with gender-based violence (Setty et al., 2024). Furthermore, the systematic invisibilization of LGBTQIA+ subjectivities within educational narratives contributes to the reinforcement and radicalisation of anti-gender discourses within the school context, perpetuating epistemic injustice (Fricker, 2007) and violence (Wozolek, 2018).

The research also foregrounds the tensions teachers experience when addressing gender and sexuality. These include fear of backlash from families and school leadership, institutional constraints, and a sense of unease in moving beyond disciplinary boundaries toward more dialogical, relational and embodied pedagogical practices. At the same time, the findings suggest that spaces of mutual recognition and critical dialogue can emerge through a pedagogy of discomfort (Reygan & Francis, 2015; Zembylas, 2015) that addresses vulnerability and co-learning, rewriting of classroom hierarchies and challenging the adultist power/knowledge binary that underpins traditional schooling.

When conceived as a participatory process, educational research itself becomes a democratic practice of questioning (Agud-Morell & Breull-Arancibia, 2025; Pacheco-Salazar, 2018; Bove, 2009). It fosters collective reflection on educational practices and creates opportunities to sustain gender and sexuality education, even in restrictive contexts.