Prison Education: Reflections and daydreams about the IPEP Jaén Erasmus+ project. By Francisco de Asís Palomo Ruano.

 Reflections and daydreams about the IPEP Jaén Erasmus+ project on Prison Education.

 

With the end of the 2022-2023 academic year approaching, with a cool mind and experiences suitably ruminated, it is time to make some general specifications within the framework of action that has entailed the development of the Erasmus+ project of the IPEP of Jaén, Institute for Adults of Secondary Education, 'Changing perspectives...from formation to freedom'.

 

View of Jaén from the Castle of Santa Catalina. Author: Cristina García Torres.

In the same way that there are Andalusians who travel abroad without knowing the heritage wealth of Andalusia, which makes this territory one of the most visited in the world, not to mention Spain itself, which with its nearly 50 sites registered in the UNESCO World Heritage is in the top 5 globally, some of the participants in the Erasmus+ project throughout this 2022-2023 school year have come closer to the reality of prison education in other countries of the European Union without knowing really how they work in the State detention centers. From the interesting training received through courses in places like Florence, Zaandam or Amsterdam to the job shadowing experiences in Porto, Klagenfurt or Plock, without forgetting of course the student mobility, many of the participants have integrated into this project almost from scratch, to later acquire knowledge and skills that will inevitably enrich us as teachers. 

Rethinking educational practices for adults, prison students and young offenders

However, and with few exceptions, buildings are not built on the roof. In my experience, and I believe that in that of some other colleagues, we know little about the educational reality in prisons and other Andalusian and Spanish detention centers. Faced with the proven experience of some colleagues from IPEP, CEPER or UNED itself, some of the participants in Erasmus+ mobility have only given classes sporadically and in a limited way in the Jaén prison; others, however, have limited ourselves solely to teaching minors deprived of their liberty. Clearly insufficient. Indeed, the project coordinator, with his extensive experience both in the Erasmus+ program and in his knowledge of the educational system for internal men and women, has guided our first steps, and on many occasions, we have contacted him to try to solve doubts at an administrative, educational and legislative level, either before or after our Erasmus+ experience. 

@mmolppor

They say that comparisons are odious, but for me personally it would have been even more enlightening to start with close knowledge and elements of judgment about the organization, work and experiences that take place in the prisons of our territory, in order to seek and study links, common paths of work and organization and above all, propose to the administrations some basic lines on strategies and action plans based on the good or bad that is done here together with (and improved with) the most striking, useful and original aspects of prison education in others European countries. In this sense, the colossal task of implementing a regulated Vocational Training system in the Graz prison (Austria), with officially established curricula of common and specific subjects, and almost immediate career opportunities, would be one of the models to follow in our prisons. Likewise, the educational workshop program of the Klagenfurt short-term prison as well as the Rottenstein farm-prison project or other brilliant programs such as those of Matosinhos (Porto) possess, without a doubt, key elements for the creation and maintenance of a common educational network in the prisons of Spain or, at least, in those of Andalusia. 

Cathedral of Santa María in Jaén. @mmolpor

The lack of knowledge about whether or not there are initiatives or plans in operation of this type in Andalusian detention centers appears as an obstacle to the search for synergies between both experiences, without a doubt. This is why it becomes relevant to adopt and implement measures or initiatives whose target audience is the future participants in these mobilities and whose objectives are to familiarize them, even briefly, with the ins and outs of how pedagogy works for the incarcerated population, both at the administrative, organizational and curricular levels. There are, for this purpose, a multitude of ways, some of which, after enormous work by the coordinator of our project, Mr. Manuel Molina Porlán, will surely see the light of day soon. From the simplest ones that would involve directors or managers of the penitentiary centers themselves through personal interviews, talks or online meetings, to the organization of conferences or structured events on the subject of teaching adults and the inmate population and where they participate not only experts but also the workers, educators and teachers of different penitentiary centers, both nationally and internationally. And, of course, the consultation, creation or maintenance of general informative blogs, such as the one associated with UNESCO's UIL, or the more specific one of the IPEP of Jaén in which right now I have the opportunity to write, where the information and the experiences narrated by colleagues who have worked in the Jaén prison, juvenile centers or other correctional establishments in Andalusia or Spain as a whole represent an additional point of reference and knowledge for teachers facing new mobility experiences. 

Finally, and without intending to expand further, since this would constitute the content of a future article, I would like to give an account of a personal reflection that I made (and many of us made) once we shared our mobility experiences. And many questions have been left on the table, many hopes but also fear of the reception of the results of this project by the different educational and penitentiary authorities. Those of us who may continue or will continue to be part of this project during the next academic year are aware, however, that our will and effort to understand education in this parallel world of prisons has been, above all, sincere, and our willingness to improve it, maximum.

Francisco de Asís Palomo Ruano.

French teacher at the IPEP of Jaén, Institute for Adults of Secondary Education.

Other articles by this author:

👉Autour du potentiel des arts scéniques pour l’enseignement dans les établissements pénitentiaires

👉Job shadowing en Klagenfurt. ¿Cómo mejorar la enseñanza en las prisiones?

👉Drama is essential for the organic development of the student

👉 Sobre el potencial del teatro en la docencia en los centros penitenciarios

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