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Conference Program

Overview and details of the sessions of this conference. Please select a date or location to show only sessions at that day or location. Please select a single session for detailed view (with abstracts and downloads if available).

Daily Overview

Session

G.10. Gender and Sexuality Education as Democratic Practice: Bodies, Relations, and Intimate Citizenship (1/3)
Location: Scienze Politiche (CU002): Aula T02

Convenor(s): Silvia Demozzi (University of Bologna, Italy); Cosimo Marco Scarcelli (University of Padua, Italy); Giulia Selmi (University of Parma, Italy); Eleonora Bonvini (University of Bologna, Italy)

Presentation 5

Gender Education and Intimate Citizenship: Youth Representations of Democracy in Educational Settings

Barbara Sonzogni¹, Gabriella D'Ambrosio², Laura Falci¹

1: Sapienza University of Rome, Italy; 2: Italian National Institute of Statistics (ISTAT)

In a context marked by anti-gender polarization and symbolic conflicts surrounding sexuality education, gender emerges as a privileged terrain for interrogating the democratic quality of educational institutions. This contribution examines how university students conceptualize gender education not merely as curricular content, but as a practice of recognition and a space for democratic negotiation.

The theoretical framework draws on the notion of intimate citizenship (Plummer, 2001), integrating perspectives from democratic education that understand learning environments as spaces where citizenship is actively practiced and negotiated (Biesta, 2011). Feminist analyses of epistemic injustice further illuminate how recognition, credibility, and voice are unevenly distributed within educational settings, shaping students’ possibilities for participation and self-definition (Fricker, 2007). Within this perspective, gender education is understood as a practice that structures modes of coexistence, legitimizes identities, and contributes to the conditions for participation in the public sphere.

The analysis is based on a survey administered to university students and focuses on four main areas: (1) opinions on the introduction, within school curricula, of content related to consent and gender diversity; (2) evaluations of the university as a space for free identity expression and of inclusive policies (e.g., recognition of chosen pronouns and gender-neutral spaces); (3) levels of agreement with the idea of gender identity fluidity; and (4) attitudes toward gender equality and relational norms related to consent, control, and power asymmetries in intimate relationships. Existing research highlights how sexuality education constitutes a key arena in which young people negotiate relational norms, agency, and ethical understandings of intimacy (Allen, 2011).

The findings are situated within current debates on comprehensive sexuality education and the resilience of democratic cultures, emphasizing the role of educational institutions in fostering inclusion, respect, and informed participation in plural societies (UNESCO, 2018). Within this framework, the paper argues that gender and sexuality education represents a transformative space for the development of agency, mutual respect, and participatory citizenship, positioning educational contexts as crucial laboratories for democratic sustainability.