When Prison Is the Classroom: Collaborative Learning about Urban Inequality
Name
Steil Mehta 2017 Prison is the Classroom Collaborative Learning About Urban Inequality JPER.pdf
Description
Accepted version
Size
171.75 KB
Format
Adobe PDF
Checksum (MD5)
209083f9bbd64e5ce95f21a1bfbd4b3c
Author(s)
Steil, Justin P
Mehta, Aditi
Date Issued
October 2017
Journal
Journal of Eduation Planning and Research
Publisher
SAGE Publications
Citation
Steil, Justin and Aditi Mehta. "When Prison Is the Classroom: Collaborative Learning about Urban Inequality." Journal of Eduation Planning and Research (October 2017): 1-10 © 2017 The Author(s)
Version
Author's final manuscript
Abstract
This article analyzes the pedagogy of an urban sociology course taught in prison, with both outside and imprisoned students. The course examined the production of knowledge used in the field of planning and sought to facilitate the coproduction of new insights about urban inequality. Participant observation, focus groups, and students’ written reflections reveal that, in comparison to traditional classroom settings, students explored with greater complexity their embodiment of multiple social identities, wrestled more deeply with the structural embeddedness of individual agency, and situated their personal experiences in a broader theoretical narrative about urban inequality. Building trust in the face of significant power disparities within the classroom was essential to learning. The findings highlight the importance of new locations of learning that enable classrooms to become contact zones, pushing students to collaboratively reimagine justice in the city with those outside the traditional classroom.
Keywords: planning education; urban inequality; sociology of knowledge; prisons
MIT Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Urban Studies and Planning
Terms of Use
Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike
Persistent DSpace Link
DOI of Published Version
http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0739456x17734048
