Seminar Directors

Gillian Harkins University of Washington

Anne Dwyer University of Washington

Kate Drabinski University of Maryland Baltimore County

Seminar Description

This seminar will consider the possibilities and limits of radical teaching inside or in relation to institutions of incarceration. The participants will explore what happens when we teach inside carceral institutions such as prisons and detention centers or we teach students at risk of entering such institutions.

This seminar is part of a proposed Special Issue of Radical Teacher that expands discussion from the Summer 2010 Radical Teacher Special Issue “Teaching Against the Prison Industrial Complex.” Assuming there is nothing intrinsically ”radical” about teaching inside prison walls, our discussion will examine the practice of critical pedagogy in the disciplinary context of the prison. We will also frame this discussion in terms of educational settings on the ”outside” which are increasingly becoming prison-like in their purpose, nature, and ends. The seminar will address the following questions:

• What kinds of alliances across different sorts of institutions are needed to enable radical teaching in the current carceral and academic context?

• What unique issues are raised by teaching inside carceral institutions in a moment of changing models of K-12 schooling and deepening resistance to public access to GED and higher education in general?

• How do we understand the relation between teaching inside carceral institutions and teaching against the prison industrial complex, and how does that relationship shape our teaching practices?

• How can we identify and engage the specific obstacles raised by carceral and academic institutions in our efforts to create cross-sectoral and cross-institutional collaboration related to the stated and unstated goals of public education?

• What are the potentials and problems presented by ”radical teaching” in a context where access to higher education is often framed as opposed to the purpose of the carceral institution itself?

• How do teachers discern and reckon with their own preconceived notions or stereotypes about prisoners and about teaching in prisons, notions and stereotypes that may include racial and sexual stereotypes or fantasies about the ”real” prisoner or ”authentic” teachers and teaching?

• What tools are available for teaching within these contexts that are also sharpened and adapted for teaching against these contexts?

In preparation for the conference, participants will be asked to circulate a 2-3 page response to one or more of the questions listed above. These responses will provide a starting point for our discussion during seminar. Participants may also be asked to complete a set of required readings.

Application Process

Prospective participants should email Gillian Harkins a 1-2 paragraph statement of interest, including a brief description of the topic’s relevance to their own experiences or research interests.