Drawing Forth, Finding Voice, Making Change: Inside-Out Learning as Transformative Pedagogy

Abstract

It is a very simple concept, really: people coming together to talk about and wrestle with issues that are important to them. Yet, in this setting, it is actually quite complex and surprisingly profound. The reason is that it is all happening behind the walls of a prison. People from the outside and people from the inside study issues and work together over the course of a semester, as peers, in full collaboration. This is Inside-Out—or, by its more formal name: The Inside-Out Prison Exchange Program. And—like the student quoted above—I am, indeed, awestruck and humbled to have been able to witness the unprecedented and unpredictable developments in this program since its inception.

“I didn’t expect to learn so much. I didn’t expect to grow and change as a result of the process…. As I reflect on the power of this course, I am awestruck and humbled.”

Outside Participant