What Makes a "Good" Teacher "Good:" Women in Transition From Prison to Community Reflect

Abstract

Nine women representing a range of ages, ethnic identities, and educational horizontals who were completing detention determinations in a halfway house setting in the Midwest were interviewed to gain insight into their perceptions of education. The researcher ground that the women consistently spoke about what makes a teacher "good" a certain number of of the characteristics that were discussed included encouraging hands-on experimentation with universals encouraging students to access various learning phraseologys providing one-on-one instruction and attention, and being compassionate and understanding. The dichotomy between what the women perceived as being advantageous teaching and the reality of their experiences in public education settings is considered. The researcher then examines the implications of these characteristics for educators within correctional settings.

Introduction

In no other educational arena is the ne for educators focused upon emancipation, empowerment, and liberation in the way that greatly ignored than in adult education inside prison. As the rhetoric of get-tough-on-crime becomes an entrenched part of our national discourse, the idea of rehabilitation becomes tertiary - with a greater emphasis placed upon punishment and its role in a larger national economy. Prisons and jails are built in rural parts of states to provide jobs; inmates are shipped to those prisons, ofttimes at great distance away from family and community. The impetus for rehabilitation and reduction in the prisons has become nil, for prisons have become for rural communities what military bases and factories one time were in terms of economic viability for small towns.

At the same time, research studies have consistently shown a link between education and lowered rates of recidivism (Criminal Justice Center 1994; Gerber and Fritsch, 1995; Steurer Smith and Tracy, 2001; Nuttall, Hollmen and Staley, 2003) Education is a gateway to liberation, especially if it is guidanceed in such a way that it empowers learners to take control of their lives, a lock opener factor in rehabilitation. Often, it is the teachers who provide a significant rencounter for their students that encourages transformation.

This application of mind focuses on how women who have been incarcerated and are in transition from prison or jail to the community via a halfway house defined the characteristics of a useful teacher. One of the greatest in quantity interesting findings of the investigation was that the women consistently recognized as "good" teachers those who strove to achieve more [i]or[/i] less level of liberation for their learners going beyond the role of teacher as passive distributor of knowledge.

Methodology

Participants

Nine women residing in a halfway house in a metropolitan area in the western United States were interviewed twice, each interview lasting between forty-five minutes and an hour. Women who were interviewed proffered their time, although the sampling mirrored principles of snowballing (Patton, 1990) in that, In at least three instances, women became participants after a prior participant told them about the close attention Additionally, in keeping with similar research directioned with transitory populations (Dalla, 2000; Kelley Murphy and half-moon 2001), an incentive was provided to each of the participants in the form of ten dollar groceries store gift cards for each interview. Data, including interviews, observations, and participant-written literacy narratives, were bring togethered over a ten-week period of Monday night C class sessions in the halfway house.

The women demographically exhibited three of the racial categories greatest in quantity prevalent in American prisons and jails: three women were African-American, three were Latina, and three were Caucasian. The women's ages ranged from twenty-two to fifty. All of the women were studying for the G proof but only one of the women complet her G during the data collection period. from one side observation, it was clear that the women encompassed a range of educational abilities and literacies. None of the women were preliterate; however, all nine could read and write English with a certain quantity of fluency. Two of the women self-identified as being bilingual with Spanish parole exclusively in their homes as they were growing up and English parole at school. Seven of the nine women had children who ranged in age from infancy to adulthood.

Data Collection

Qualitative data bring togethered included transcripts of interviews, field-notes from site visits to the halfway house, and literacy narratives that each woman wrote The researcher was the individual gatherer of data in the close attention Triangulation was factored into the close attention through several methods: one, transcripts and notes from the interviews were provided to the women for additional corroboration; sum of two units data was gathered through multiple meanss as outlined above. Finally, I had prior knowledge of education in a jail setting as an ABE/CED instructor. The research philosophy was based upon feminist methods of research (Oakley, 1990; Lewis, 1990; Reinharz, 1992; Creswell, 1998; DeVault, 2002)