|
Learning Math in Prison (LeMP) is an interventionist “educational design research” (McKenney &Reeves, 2018) project. Its aim is twofold, both theoretical and practical. LeMP responds to theneeds expressed by mathematics teachers in prison to have adequate training and to haveteaching materials suitable for the context in which they are working.Education is one of the main general problematic issues in prison, although the right to study isclearly present in the Italian Constitution (art. 34, art. 33 Cost.), in Universal Declaration of HumanRights (art. 26 UDHR) and it is also explicitly recognized by the Penitentiary Law (art. 15, art. 19O.P.). Ministerial data describe a critical level of schooling among detained people in prison foradults in Italy. Among the subjects studied in prison, mathematics plays a particular role being both a form ofpersonal enjoyment and a gatekeeper for future studies or job positions (Ahl & Helenius, 2021).Thus, the learning of mathematics appears particularly important, but there is a gap in researchliterature on this topic. Teachers in prison are crucial “agents of change” (Zizioli, 2014), able to introduce the student tonew individual and relational knowledge. However, at the moment, there is no specific training forItalian teachers in prison. Specific skills are gained “on the field”, by direct experience, andmathematics teachers in prison schools express a need for professional development anddedicated teaching materials.A response to such needs requires theoretical elaboration since research about theteaching/learning of mathematics in prison is very scarce at the international level and almostnonexistent in Italy. First, descriptive research is needed to frame the specificity of the developmentof mathematical literacy within the context of Italian prisons. Then, design principles and didacticalrecommendations still need to be developed and tested on the field.Within LeMP, organized sets of mathematical tasks (to which we refer as learning units) are co-constructed by researchers and teachers (from at least three prison schools in different Italianregions) collaborating together. Researchers will inform teachers about possible solutions availablein literature (e.g. Universal Design for Learning); teachers will contribute with their experience ofteaching mathematics in the specific context of prisons. Along the process of design, theresearchers will develop design principles (van den Akker, 1999) to be used for the production offurther materials and for teachers training.Through the repetition of several cycles of context-analysis, design, and evaluation of products, theproject will provide design principles for mathematics education in the prison context (as theoreticaloutcome) and examples of such principles in various learning units (as practical outcome). Theoutcomes will be collected in a book and presented to prison mathematics teachers during adedicated workshop.
|
