Toward Abolition Pedagogy: Teaching Social Justice in Prison Combined Classrooms

• In Event: Millennium Hotel Roundtable Session 5
  In Roundtable Session: Abolition Pedagogies: Toward Radical Resistance in Schooling Spaces

Abstract

Combined course programs have emerged as a component of secondary education in prisons, and bring undergraduates from “outside” together with incarcerated students. Combined classes provide a forum for engaged dialogue, exchange of ideas, and cross-cultural exchange between the non-incarcerated and the incarcerated. Critical pedagogy is necessary in the combined prison classroom. In a political climate fraught with challenges to democracy, and ongoing racial injustice, such a pedagogy must engage the broader, transformative, socially responsive and civically-minded mission of education. We offer examples from coursework that encourage students from very different social positions engage theories of justice, oppression, and liberation in dialogue. We also acknowledge the limitations of abolition pedagogy in prison and elsewhere to achieve racial justice and abolition.

Authors

• Michelle Ronda, Borough of Manhattan Community College

• Ragnhild Utheim, Purchase College - SUNY