Pushing back/pushing forward: embracing the margins to build non-punitive learning environments in Canadian correctional facilities
Author
Faculty Advisor
Date
2024
Keywords
higher education, correctional education, incarceration
Abstract (summary)
Educators who work in carceral settings must conform to institutional restrictions, while simultaneously responding to students' learning needs and imprisoned realities. As a teacher, this meant aiming to create a non-punitive environment in a physical space built for retaliation. It also meant confronting the various disciplinary and gatekeeping practices in higher education. Because prison educators exist on the margins of carceral and education systems, I was able to utilize my unique position of “not quite” belonging to either to push back on both. Drawing on my experiences as a teacher and administrator in a government-funded, college-operated program inside Canadian correctional facilities, I will first reflect on the purpose of education in prison. Next, I use adult education theories to explain the inadequacies of existing educational practices within the prison environment, and explore resistance we encountered as we challenged both educational and carceral institutions. Throughout, I will reflect on how I navigated these systems to improve student success access to education.
Publication Information
Patrie, N. (2024). Pushing back/pushing forward: embracing the margins to build non-punitive learning environments in Canadian correctional facilities. In A. Buckley (Ed.) Higher education and the carceral state: Transforming together. (pp. 144-154). Routledge. http://dx.doi.org/10.4324/9781003394426-18
Notes
Item Type
Book Chapter
Language
Rights
All Rights Reserved