Teaching College Inside Prison Walls:
Stories from Community College Educators
Susanna B. Spaulding
Colorado Mountain College
Clifford P. Harbour, James Banning, and Timothy Gray Davies
Colorado 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 Harbour
Community College Leadership Program
Colorado State University
Fort Collins, CO 80523
970-491-5425
Cliff.harbour@cahs.colostate.edu
Susanna Spaulding
Colorado Mountain College
901 South Highway 24
Leadville, CO 80461
sspaulding@coloradomtn.edu