The Final Countdown!
‘I learnt more about me as a person. I realised how smart we all were without knowing’.
‘It’s about social change, about class, about whose voices matter and are heard more and what that means’.
.. said two students on Friday, who had recently completed a 'Learning Together' social science course I had helped to initiate. This time next week I will be setting off on the European phase of my Winston Churchill Memorial Trust travels visiting other prison university partnerships in Belgium, Denmark and Poland. In the Autumn I will be visiting the States where partnerships such as 'Inside Out' and the 'Prison to College Pipeline' have been long established. Juggling the logistical travel arrangements along with my day job at Prisoners' Education Trust, a toddler and house move in recent weeks has been stressful to say the least, but the words of the students on Friday at the celebration event reminded me why it would all be worth it!
Over the past year I have had the privilege of being on the steering committee of the European Prison Education Association (EPEA) and have been humbled to meet so many passionate people with different approaches, ideas and cultural values, all with the same aim of improving prison education and outcomes for learners. I am curious to explore ways prisons and universities are collaborating across the globe, so I can bring back what I learn to the UK. In particular I want to find out how aspirational learning can create opportunities for both individual and social change.
The celebration event I attended on Friday highlighted both these types of change are possible. For ten weeks students from a nearby University had studied social research methods alongside students resident in the prison. One student said he initially thought social science was studying pubs and clubs, so was a bit shocked when he received the reading materials! However he now says that one of the readings, ‘The Sociological Imagination’ by C.W. Mills, was particularly inspirational. It’s made him realise that to have freedom of mind he needs to ‘think beyond the familiar’ and that maybe some of the reasons why he is in prison may be due to social phenomena. For example he applied social science to rap music and reflected that ‘it has made me understand why people chase the lifestyle portrayed in music, how society makes people chase things they can’t afford like new phones out every six months. When I’m out I’m not going to be chasing those things any more’.
Two students who had been released at the end of the course even came back to prison for the event! ‘The reading was alien at first, but I’m applying things now on release that I didn’t think I would’ one said. Others are now thinking about higher education: ‘I thought the university students were going to be stuck up, but I now know university has a broad variety of different people. Uni could be a place for me.’ One has already applied to attend university in September.
As well as personal change, the potential for social change was also evident. To practice their new found social research skills, the students spoke to other learners about how to improve education in the prison. Ideas included more incentives through the IEP scheme to increase motivation. Specific course ideas included personal training, humanities and languages. They also contributed to an external evaluation, making constructive suggestions for improving the course in the future, including more support with critical reading. In response to these suggestions the Governor said they would consider the ideas and enable the students to carry out more research to help improve the prison as ‘we need to be more scientific about changes we make’.
On my travels I have an exciting itinerary of prison and university visits lined up exploring a range of collaborative and participatory projects, which aim not only to facilitate access to higher learning in prison and after release, but also to involve prisoners in a meaningful way to help shape their prison experience and also the culture and ethos of the prison. I am hugely grateful to the Winston Churchill Memorial Trust for the funding, my understanding boss Rod Clark for giving me the time off work (and my wonderful colleagues for holding the fort) and the many prison education academics and staff who have generously offered to facilitate activities including 4 prisons in 3 days in Denmark and staying in the 'guest room' of a prison in Poland!
I look forward to absorbing ideas and being inspired by the people I will meet on my Winston Churchill journey. I hope you enjoy following my blog over the next few weeks and will be inspired too!