Drag Queen Storytimes for children have, in recent years, become a highly contested arena of educational and sociopolitical struggle. This article conceptualizes these events as a form of performative critical pedagogy that challenges normative assumptions about gender, identity, and childhood, while simultaneously opening imaginative spaces for children’s self‑positioning, diversity experiences, and encounters with non‑normative embodiments. From an educational and subject‑didactic perspective, the article examines which learning objectives—such as fostering identity development, recognition of difference, diversity awareness, and norm‑critical thinking—are explicitly or implicitly activated through these formats. Particular attention is given to the pedagogical potential of aesthetic experience and performative irritation, understood as catalysts for reflection, emotional engagement, and the destabilization of rigid gender binaries.

Methodologically, the article draws on a qualitative synthesis of existing international scholarship on drag performance, drag pedagogy, and Drag Queen Storytime, with a specific focus on how these works conceptualize pedagogical relations, learning processes, and the role of embodiment in education. This literature review is complemented by a theoretical integration with gender pedagogy and queer‑feminist educational theory, enabling a deeper analysis of how drag-based formats intersect with broader debates on diversity, inclusion, and the politics of childhood. By bringing these strands of research into dialogue, the article identifies central pedagogical mechanisms—such as performativity, ambiguity, relationality, and norm critique—that underpin the educational value of Drag Queen Storytimes.

At the same time, the article addresses the forms of resistance that these events provoke. Discourses of “premature sexualization,” moral panic, and alleged threats to children reveal how deeply gender‑political conflicts are entangled with societal power relations, cultural anxieties, and anti‑gender mobilization. These lines of conflict are interpreted not only as political reactions but also as didactic challenges that require educators to engage with controversy, rather than avoid it. The article argues that such resistance should be productively integrated into pedagogical reflection—for example, by thematizing norms, making exclusions visible, and fostering children’s and educators’ tolerance for ambiguity. Ultimately, Drag Queen Storytimes are presented as critical educational practices that contribute to democratic education by enabling encounters with difference, challenging hegemonic gender norms, and strengthening children’s capacity for critical, reflective, and empathetic engagement with the social world.

This study employs a qualitative, interpretive research design grounded in a systematic review and synthesis of existing scholarship on drag performance, Drag Queen Storyhours (DQSH), queer pedagogy, and gender‑critical educational theory. The methodological aim is twofold: first, to map how drag‑based practices have been conceptualized in relation to pedagogy, childhood, and public education; and second, to integrate these insights with theoretical frameworks from gender pedagogy in order to deepen the analysis of DQSH as a critical educational practice. The research process began with a structured literature search across journals in education, sociology, gender studies, and cultural studies. Databases consulted included Scopus, Web of Science, ResearchGate. Search terms combined keywords such as drag pedagogy, Drag Queen Storyhours, performative pedagogy, gender pedagogy, queer pedagogy, anti‑gender mobilization, and moral panic. Inclusion criteria focused on publications from the past fifteen years, with particular attention to empirical studies, theoretical contributions, and analyses of public controversies surrounding drag and gender diversity in educational contexts. Following the identification of relevant sources, the material was analyzed using thematic qualitative content analysis. The coding process was guided by sensitizing concepts from queer pedagogy (e.g., performativity, norm critique, relationality), gender pedagogy (e.g., diversity, identity development, recognition of difference), and political education (e.g., democratic learning, conflict as pedagogy, public sphere). This analytical framework enabled the identification of recurring pedagogical mechanisms attributed to DQS, such as aesthetic experience, performative irritation, and the creation of alternative spaces for children’s self‑positioning. To contextualize these pedagogical dimensions within broader sociopolitical dynamics, the study also incorporated literature on anti‑gender mobilization, right‑wing discourse strategies, and moral panic. This second analytical layer allowed for an examination of how resistance to DQSH—particularly narratives of “early sexualization,” “child protection,” and “gender ideology”—functions as a political and didactic challenge. This study synthesizes and re‑interprets existing research to articulate a conceptual understanding of DQSH as a site of democratic, norm‑critical, and performative pedagogy. The methodological approach thus combines systematic literature review, theory‑driven analysis, and interdisciplinary integration to illuminate the educational significance and contested nature of drag‑based learning formats.

The analysis of existing scholarship on Drag Queen Storyhours (DQSH), queer pedagogy, and gender‑critical educational theory reveals several central insights into the pedagogical and political significance of drag‑based learning formats. First, the synthesis shows that DQSH can be conceptualized as a form of performative critical pedagogy that enables children to encounter gender diversity, question normative assumptions, and engage in imaginative processes of self‑positioning. Across the literature, drag emerges as a pedagogical practice that mobilizes aesthetic experience, play, and embodied ambiguity to foster identity development, recognition of difference, and norm‑critical thinking—competencies increasingly essential to democratic and diversity‑oriented education. Second, the findings demonstrate that the pedagogical potential of DQSH cannot be separated from the sociopolitical conflicts surrounding it. Recurring patterns of resistance illustrate how anti‑gender mobilization functions as a broader political project aimed at restricting queer visibility and reshaping public understandings of childhood, education, and gender. Third, the study highlights that such resistance should not be viewed solely as an obstacle but as a didactic challenge with productive potential. Integrating these conflicts into pedagogical reflection—by thematizing norms, making exclusions visible, and fostering tolerance for ambiguity—can strengthen children’s and educators’ capacities for critical engagement with societal power relations. In this sense, DQSH exemplifies how educational settings can function as laboratories for democratic learning, where diversity, dissent, and norm critique are not avoided but actively explored. Overall, the expected outcome of this research is a conceptual reframing of DQSH as a legitimate and valuable component of contemporary political and gender‑critical education. Rather than a marginal or controversial practice, DQSH emerges as a pedagogically meaningful format that contributes to democratic resilience by enabling encounters with difference, challenging hegemonic gender norms, and equipping young learners with reflective competencies needed to navigate increasingly polarized public debates.

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