Teaching College Inside Prison Walls: Stories from Community College Educators

Susanna B. SpauldingColorado Mountain College

Clifford P. Harbour, James Banning, and Timothy Gray DaviesColorado State University

Phenomenon of Interest

How community college educators who teach college in prison make meaning of their experiences

Conceptual Framework

Tension between two contrasting conceptualizations of education: education as a means of social control (Bourdieu, 1967) and education as the practice of freedom (Freire, 1970/2003)

Education

As a means of social control when the power of the state, especially as exercised through the school system, molds the beliefs and values of its subjects

Education

As the practice of freedom so that the dialogue between the teacher and the student generates opportunities for critical thinking and problem solving

Prison as a Discursive Environment

The prison’s hierarchical power structure that focuses on social control contrasts with the democratic classroom that community college educators attempt to create.

Research Questions

How do educators who teach college in prison understand their work as teachers of higher learning skills?

How do these experiences illuminate the influence of the educators’ character and motivation and mediate the prison environment in the teaching and learning process?

Research Method

Narrative inquiry based on data in the form of in-depth stories collected from four participants through unstructured interviews

Transcription as Analysis

Analysis began by isolating large segments of transcribed data that appeared to be “narratives” from other forms of discourse, such as arguments and questions and answer exchanges

Three Narrative Structures

Core narratives that illustrated temporal ordering of the action

Poetic structures that were organized topically

Vignettes that represented and encapsulated important messages

How Themes Emerged from Data

Emergent Themes

Working in borderlands

The participants’ narratives of teaching in the controlled environment of the prison reflected feelings of isolation, dislocation, and dissonance.

Emergent Themes

Negotiating power relations

The participants adjusted to the restrictions of the prison environment and created a hybrid pedagogy to meet the educational needs of their inmate students

Emergent Themes

Making Personal transformations

The experience of teaching in prison provided the participants with new understandings that led them to make changes in their personal value systems

Interpretation Through a One Act Play

Scene One: Going Inside

Scene Two: Learning the Rules

Scene Three: Finding Rewards

Recommendations

For researchers

Discursive environments, such as prisons, offer distinct settings in which to interpret and present everyday life (Gubrium & Holstein, 2003).

Recommendations

For Policy Makers

“Prisoners may … be the only group of U.S. citizens systematically barred from public support for access to higher education” (Torre & Fine, 2005)

Recommendations

For Community College Practitioners

Prison education fits well with community colleges’ commitment to providing low cost access to higher education.

Thank you!Please direct any inquiries to

Cliff HarbourCommunity College Leadership ProgramColorado State UniversityFort Collins, CO 80523970-491-5425Cliff.harbour@cahs.colostate.edu

Susanna SpauldingColorado Mountain College901 South Highway 24Leadville, CO 80461sspaulding@coloradomtn.edu