Care as the "Heart" of Prison Teaching.

Abstract

Despite the powerful, pervasive institutional imperatives of the prison to control, discipline and house inmates, teachers seem to care deeply for their students. They also intuitively know that caring is very much a part of a successful teaching practice behind bars. This descriptive study contributes to a framework of teacher caring in prison schools using data from questionnaires and conversations with prison teachers. As a result of this preliminary inquiry into teachers' practical knowledge of caring relationships, it is hoped that teachers will be supported in their efforts to exercise sound pedagogical judgement with regard to the relational dynamics of prison life. Also considered is the possibility that caring relationships in prison resist its oppressive characteristics. Introduction: The Study of Care Despite the institutional imperatives of the prison house which are powerfully felt, everywhere within the prison walls, we should assume a straightforward correspondence principle between schooling and the reproduction of oppressive institutional norms (Kanpol, 1991), as some have suggested (Davidson, 1995,1996). First we must try to understand how teaching practices are lived out, on their own terms, daily and personally, by teachers in institutional environments, so as to recognize the agency of teachers, before we assume determinating relationships. Perhaps it is surprising and seemingly incongruous to speak of care and prisons in the same breath. Yet by doing so, we call attention to qualities of human interaction that institutions such as prisons, organizations, and public schools may have forgotten or dismissed. Even among public schools teachers and school administrators, care is not on the agenda. Care is often a discounted experience (Wilde, 1996) because it is easier to find evidence of teaching in the results of achievement tests, learning outcomes, performance indicators, accountability contracts, and efficiencies that focus on means and