Rewriting sentences : a study of teachers’ motivations, histories, and identities in the prison writing space

Abstract

Prisoner education represents a deliberate attempt to disrupt the prison by empowering, rehabilitating, and educating prisoners. Studies have consistently shown that prisoner education reduces rates of recidivism, making prisons safer and enabling prisoners to reintegrate more easily into, and contribute to, their communities. This study draws from Composition and Rhetoric theories, approaches, and pedagogies to address the goals of prisoner education—to educate incarcerated prisoners so that they may live as productive citizens. Central to this study is the belief that writing instruction represents an intellectual, exploratory, and expressive approach from which prisoners—like their counterparts in writing classes outside of the prison—greatly benefit. Building on prison writing education scholarship, this study argues that teachers’ motivations, histories, and identities are pedagogical resources that enhance prison writing programs and represent an array of unique and rich approaches for educating prisoners in the prison writing space, which is often technologically restrictive. This study analyzes three teachers’ published works and the researcher’s interview data to identify and examine pedagogical practices that contribute to a larger landscape of prison writing education practices.