Incarcerated Students - Change and Conflict (From Locked Up But Not Locked Out - Correctional Education Is the Key, 1982 - See NCJ-89912)

• NCJ Number: 89914
• Author(s): J Reynolds
• Date Published: 1982
• Length: 9 pages
• Sale Source: National Institute of Justice/; NCJRS Photocopy Services
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America
• Note: *This document is currently unavailable from NCJRS. Available on microfiche as NCJ-89912

Annotation

This study examines the conflict between the commitment to learning and the expression of self-defeating patterns in inmate students, reasons for this conflict, how it can be recognized in the classroom, and how educators can help students resolve this conflict.

Abstract

Incarcerated students are probably aware that education will help them achieve a better life although they may pretend not to value school. In committing themselves to educational achievement, students are likely to experience conscious and unconscious conflict between their new goals and old behavior patterns. The conflict may be manifested through guilt, anxiety, hostility, and disruptive behavior. Students may also regress into adolescent behavior, because they may need a last opportunity to experience and evaluate a former identity; they may find it reassuring to express a familiar self-image while adjusting to school; and misbehavior may force removal from school, which relieves the student of the frustration of developing more responsible behavior. While maintaining firm control of the class, teachers should reassure students that change is both possible and desirable. An effective teacher should learn a variety of ways to help students grow out of negative self-images and identities. Five bibliographic entries are provided. (Author summary modified)