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CWP Seminar
What’s the point of Higher Education for Offenders?
Anne Pike 9th September 2008
Outline
• OU Offender Learner profile • The Benefits of Higher Education• The Digital Divide• Bridging the Divide• The International Perspective• The way forward
OU Offender Learners
• Approximately 1500 in the UK and Ireland • 7% female (=1.8% of female prison population) • 1.5% of male prison population• Most prisons - all security categories• Low entry qualifications
Previous Qualifications of all students in prison
No formal qualifications3%
Less than 2 A-levels28%
2+ A-levels or equivalent7%
HE qualification10%
Postgraduate qualification1%
Not known51%
Entry Qualifications 2006-07
What do they study?Top 10 Courses 2007-08
• DD100 An introduction to the Social Sciences 34% • MU120 Open Mathematics 10%• A103 An introduction to the Humanities 10%• MST121 Using Mathematics 9%• B120 Introduction to Business Studies 7%• Y163 Starting with Psychology* 7%• Y154 Open to Change* 6%• Y157 Understanding Society* 6 %
• D218 Social Policy: Welfare, Power and Diversity 6%• Y162 Starting with Maths* 5%
* Openings 10 point course
Retention figures 2006-2007Retention Figures for last 5 years
0.0%
10.0%
20.0%
30.0%
40.0%
50.0%
60.0%
70.0%
80.0%
2002/03 2003/04 2004/05 2005/06 2006/07
Academic year
Per
cen
tag
e co
mp
leti
on
s
All
Prison
DAR
FAF
DAR: Students with disabilities; FAF: Students with financial assistance
Investigating the Digital Divide for OU offender learners
[COLMSCT website > Activities > e-learning communities]
• Interviews/Questionnaires– 35 prison students– 56 staff (OU, prison, stakeholders)
• Prisons– Cat A – D, – Male & female– public, private
• Ongoing
Benefits of HE for Offenders?• Confidence – can study, stay the course, succeed(student comments)
“If I’d been on the outside I’d never have done this…I want to do a degree now ….and use my time usefully.”
“I built up confidence and pushed forward then I just took off”
• Empowerment – being a student, new knowledge, options“When you have a laptop it’s wonderful … It makes you feel like you’re really a student” (Female student (closed))
“For the first time in my life I know what I want to do” (Social Science Student)
“Education gives you the option to stop re-offending” (Male Student – close to release)
A mission
“It’s like the university of life here, you meet just the biggest cross section of people from every sort of background. I want them to have education too… I’m doing [a] Mental Health [course] now..I want to teach people with autism”
A new direction
“I started the Open to Change course
because I wanted to see where life
had gone wrong”
Benefits of HE for Offenders?
Gaining Employment
• Northern Ireland - MLA• Guardian Columnist• Lecturers – PGCEs and Higher degrees after release• Own business• Senior roles with Charities working with
Offender and Ex-Offender
But….
Benefits of HE for Offenders?“We must educate them to the right level… for employment they need to be better than the average” (HoLS)
Digital Divide for OU students• Access to IT – attitude, control “there’s no point in rehabilitating if you don’t know modern technology” (student)
• Internet Access - safety, public perception“[without internet access] even relatively ‘media-rich’ institutions still feel
profoundly isolated from the wider society” Jewkes (2007)
• Course Choice“I can’t get the degree that I wanted … all the courses are needing internet access
now”
• Access to the OU site“I have access to my own material but not the
OU library. … I have access to all the University Libraries
in the world except the OU.”
OU Commitment
‘We are determined to find a way of reconciling the need to move to online learning with the need to maintain access.’
OU Offender Learning Review
• Offender Learning Steering group
• Offender Learning Coordinator
• Offender Learning Group
• New Partnerships
• LTS Technical support
Bridging the divide in England
• University for Industry(UfI): Learndirect • Programme of Offender Learning and Resettlement
Information Services (POLARIS) – 8 prisons in London, many now live. Openlearn provided.
Conflict with Virtual Campus
• Virtual Campus Trials– 2 test beds – West Mids, Eastern. LSC run. Openlearn and
M150 trial
• Intranets – Whitemoor WW
Improving Access to Higher Education (HE) and Distance Learning (DL) in Prison
“Equality of access should be at the core of any strategy for social justice and, in this context, provision of flexible education widens access and improves equal opportunities” (Mitra, 2008).
Workshop Presenters:- A. Pike: COLMSCT CETL, Open University, UK • P. Mortimer: CNED, France• Dr A.Viedma Rojas: UNED, Spain• Dr. T. Irwin and Dr. D. A. Wilson, UNESCO Centre, University of Ulster, Northern Ireland• Dr. S. Mitra, National Institute of Open Schooling, Delhi, India
See http://labspace.open.ac.uk/course/view.php?id=3965
International Study
Main areas of concern• Prison: Poor media and public perception. Main
purpose of prison to protect the public. Need to raise awareness of the benefits of HE
• Pedagogy: Unique prison culture and environment –
need an adapted pedagogy which effectively identifies this – informal and formal learning links, role of prison officer, staff training
• Technology: Appropriate use of modern technologies and the internet. Safe platforms exist but connectivity slow. Flexibility in program design, campus models the way forward.
Prison
• Much media coverage and academic writing invite us to view the ‘inadequate person’ not the ‘positive qualities and potential’
• Education occupies contested space within the prison regime • How do we nurture a society which believes that prisoners can
change? • Provide role models of prisoners ‘made good’ • Quantitative research required exploring links between HE and
reduced recidivism• 3-5% of European prisoners could undertake HE
(Callejo & Viedma, 2007).• Targets of just 2%, where possible, may provide
prison managers with a more compelling reason to
adopt HE (study group)
Prisons can be described as ‘human dustbins’ (Parkinson, 1997)
Pedagogy• Offender Education extremely demanding• Dearth of practical information • Initial induction and training for new educators• Day-to-day running of prison dependent on the good will of prison
officers• Students’ view prison officers as ‘indifferent’ or ‘obstructive’ (Pike,
2007)• Prison officers have untapped interest in learning and
resent offender learning opportunities
(Irwin & Wilson, 2008)• Provide prison officers with easier access to HE
and develop their role to allow more participation in
the rehabilitation of offenders
Technology• In 9 countries, 90% of prison HE students found computers and
internet access inadequate or very inadequate (Callejo & Viedma, 2007)
• Fears around using technology in prison should be clearly identified and addressed (Mitra, 2008)
• We need flexible learning programmes which use modern technologies and web access but allow for variability in the short term
• Campus models of education in prison, either physical or virtual, may encourage communities of practice by all learners in prison, including staff
• Linked e-learning networks could encourage the trial of virtual spaces and develop distance education in other languages
The Way Forward
• Multi-stranded collaboration to develop and deliver an effective service – Employer engagement to identify curriculum needs– Work with the many organisations who already work in this field – Share ideas between higher and distance education institutions
in UK and Europe– build trans-national networks with shared responsibilities and
adequate means of delivery– Seek funding for large scale, in depth, quantitative research
• Maintain our position
References• Braggins, J. and Talbot, J. (2006) Wings of Learning: the Role of the Prison Officer in Supporting
Prisoner Education, The Centre for Crime and Justice Studies [Online] Available from http://www.kcl.ac.uk/depsta/rel/ccjs/wings-of-learning.pdf [Accessed 25 January 2007]
• Callejo, J.& Viedma Rojas, A (2007). EURODESIP: Diagnosis of State of Higher Education in Penal Institutions in Europe, Conclusions and Recommendations, UNED
• Parkinson, E. (1997) Educating Adults In Prison [Online] Available from www.leeds.ac.uk/educol/documents/000002623.doc [accessed 22 August 2003]
• Irwin, T. (2003) ‘Prison Education in Northern Ireland: Learning from our Paramilitary Past’, The Howard Journal, 42, (5), 471-484
• Irwin, T. (2008a) The ‘Inside Story’: Practitioner Perspectives on Teaching in Prison, Howard Journal of Criminal Justice (In Press)
• Irwin, T. and Wilson, D.A. (2008) The ‘Good Relations’ Agenda and the Changing Context of the Prison Officer in Northern Ireland: The Development of a Pilot Project, Paper presented at the fifth Pan-Commonwealth Forum on Open Learning, July 2008, University of London. [Online] http://labspace.open.ac.uk/course/view.php?id=3965
• Mitra, S. (2008) Social Justice in Education: The Role of Open Schooling, Presented at the fifth Pan-Commonwealth Forum on Open Learning, July 2008, University of London. Online at http://www.wikieducator.org/images/a/a0/PID_136.pdf
• NATFHE, (2004) Submission to the Education and Skills Select Committee Inquiry into Prison Education [Online] Available from http://www.natfhe.org.uk/temp_downloads/f11o133z103g90s39q92l137s2w59x106t117a91y85m120i67/prisedsub04.doc [Accessed 15 December 2006]
• Pike, A (2007) Investigating the Digital Divide for OU Distance learners in a prison environment. Online at COLMSCT project
Research interviews
Interview Group Status and Role No
Prison OU students Prisoners doing OU courses 35
Prison Education staff OU Coordinators, tutors, education managers, librarians
29
Prison managers Heads of Learning & Skills and Resettlement staff
4
Open University Staff Associate lecturers, staff tutors, support managers
16
Government & NGOs Managers 7
35 prison students and 56 staff
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