Abstract
The authors use sociology of the college classroom to analyze their experiences as feminists teaching sociology courses in the “unconventional setting” of prison. Reflective writing was used to chronicle experiences in the classes. They apply the concepts of doing gender, interaction order, and emotion work to the prison classroom. Based on their analysis, the authors examine the challenges and opportunities for critical education in prison. They aimed to use their teaching efforts to reach out to marginalized students and develop students’ sociological imaginations to assist them through the challenges of confinement and reentry. The authors’ analysis has implications for both prison education and higher education more broadly. They conclude that the success of prison education is dependent on establishing democratic classrooms that can enable students to see themselves as something more than inmates.
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