London Review of Education

Volume 12, Number 2, July 2014

Project-based learning in Scottish prisons

Kirsten Sams*
Manager, Offender Learning and Skills, New College Lanarkshire

The article describes the development of a project-based approach to learning in seven

Scottish prisons. It argues that the project-based approach is ideally suited to prison education
due to its flexibility and ability to enrich the relatively narrow prison curriculum and create
meaningful links with wider society, reducing the isolation of prisoners. The approach also
empowers staff and encourages interdisciplinary working. The project-based approach is well
placed to support and reinforce desistance-based practice in education and fits well with both
the new Scottish Prison Service strategy, Unlocking Potential,Transforming Lives and with Scottish
Government’s education policy, Curriculum for Excellence.

Keywords: prison education, project-based learning, prisoner participation, arts education

The policy context

Ultimately, the way forward in prison education cannot be separated from a strategy that seeks
to reform the penal system itself, and this in turn cannot be separated from the broader social
and political context within which prisons have to operate. To achieve the policy and practice
agendas we have outlined prisons have to stop being places where politicians can appear ‘tough’
and prisoners in turn have to be offered opportunities that have hitherto been denied to them.
(Wilson and Reuss, 2000: 181)
If Reuss and Wilson are correct in their premise, recent developments in Scottish penal policy
would seem to augur well for an ambitious and reinvigorated system of prison education in
Scotland. On 18 November 2013, Colin McConnell, the recently appointed chief executive of
the Scottish Prison Service (SPS) announced the publication of a new strategy, Unlocking Potential,
Transforming Lives and spoke of a golden age for the prison service in Scotland. McConnell
expressed his ambition for a service that would ‘build on an individual’s strengths and potential.
By doing this, we will empower those in our care to unlock their potential and transform their
lives’ (SPS, 2013: 3).
He noted that: ‘Learning and personal development within SPS has tended to focus on
what can be classed as structured or formal activities. The delivery of programmes, vocational
training [and] classroom-based education … often concentrate on addressing personal, social
and psychological needs (or deficits)’ (SPS, 2013: 85). And he argued that this approach should be
replaced with one that focuses on assets, promoting strengths and aspirations, and encouraging
the development of pro-social identities. Unlocking Potential also recommends that:
SPS considers the potential for the transfer of responsibility of relevant community based prison
services such as Education, Community Learning and Development and Prison Based Social
Work to an appropriate mainstream service provider where there is assessed benefit and such

* Email: [email protected]
©Copyright 2014 Sams. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative
Commons Attribution Licence, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any
medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
198   Kirsten Sams

a transfer will improve the efficient delivery of services and community and offender outcomes.
(SPS, 2013: 65)
The changes heralded by Unlocking Potential echo the aspirations and principles of the Council of
Europe report on prison education which states that:
… the education of prisoners must, in its philosophy, methods and content be brought as close as
possible to the best adult education in society outside; … education should be constantly seeking
ways to link prisoners with the outside community and to enable both groups to interact with
each other as fully and as constructively as possible. (Council of Europe, 1989, cited in Warner,
2007: 171)
Unlocking Potential is the most recent in a series of reports and policy papers heralding a new
approach to criminal justice in Scotland. The Report of the Scottish Prisons Commission,
Scotland’s Choice (Scottish Government, 2008), highlighted 23 recommendations for the reform
of penal policy. In the same year, Audit Scotland produced a report on managing increasing
prisoner numbers in Scotland (Audit Scotland, 2008), and this was followed by another on
reducing reoffending in Scotland (Audit Scotland, 2012). In June 2012 the Angiolini Commission
on Women Offenders reported its findings recommending sweeping reforms to the treatment
of women offenders (Scottish Government, 2012), and in March 2013 the Justice Committee
published its Inquiry into Purposeful Activity in Prisons (Scottish Parliament, 2013). Together these
publications represent a national commitment to change, a recognition that Scotland cannot
continue to sustain its high prison population and that new approaches are needed.
It is worth noting that Justice and Education are linked in the structure of Scottish
Government, with one directorate having responsibility for both areas. So when Colin McConnell
came to announce his new vision he talked about the need for SPS to better align itself with the
wider ‘learning and justice family’. The co-existence of these two policy areas in one directorate
provides opportunities to harness the contribution of prison education to ‘desistance’.
Desistance is thought of by most researchers more as a process than as an event and
involves ‘both ceasing and refraining’ from offending (Clinks, 2013: 4). A distinction is drawn
between ‘primary desistance’ (the absence of offending behaviour) and ‘secondary desistance’,
which ‘refers to a much more deep-seated change in the person, reflected in their developing
an identity and perception of themselves as a non-offender’. It is secondary desistance that is
increasingly considered more important and interesting for researchers. An understanding of
secondary desistance forces us away from static models of people as ‘offenders’, ‘criminals’ or
‘prisoners’ and encourages an understanding of change(s) in personal identities (McNeil et al.,
2012: 4), changes which can be encouraged and supported by good education programmes.
Education policy in Scotland was the subject of a national debate in 2002, which resulted in a
review of the 3−18 curriculum and the publication in 2004 of the review group’s report entitled
A Curriculum for Excellence (Curriculum Review Group, 2004). The Curriculum for Excellence
(CfE) has been rolled out in schools and colleges since August 2010 and described as the biggest
overhaul of the Scottish education system since the Second World War (Garavelli, 2013). It has
also been described as one of a new breed of national curriculums; a curricular model that
seeks to combine top-down government prescription with bottom-up school-based curriculum
development by teaching professionals (Priestley, 2010: 23). Under this model teachers are seen
as agents of change and have a considerable degree of autonomy over the content and structure
of learning in the classroom. Another key feature of CfE is the emphasis on interdisciplinary
or cross-disciplinary learning, collaborative learning, problem-based learning and action-based
research. There is an emphasis on transferable skills that can be applied across different areas of
knowledge, though it also acknowledges that some skills may be subject-specific.
 London Review of Education   199

At the same time the importance of creativity in education is acknowledged, and Creative
Scotland’s vision (2013: 9) is one in which: ‘All children and young people will be empowered as
well-rounded individuals to develop their imagination, demonstrate capacity for original thought
and understanding of meaningful innovations, contributing effectively to the world at large.’
The recent developments in justice and education policy in Scotland outlined above provide
a unique opportunity for prison education in Scotland.They represent a shift away from the ‘risk−
need’ model, identified in Canada in the 1990s (Bonta and Andrews, 2007), and from curriculums
designed to address deficits in basic skills in order to facilitate re-entry to the labour market, to
a more positive desistance-based model, with an emphasis on the development of the whole
person. Of course the problem of ‘narrowing’ in education, which sees people mainly in labour-
market terms, clearly exists in the wider world beyond prisons (Warner, 2007: 1). However,
while that narrowing of focus appears to be gaining ground in England and Wales, the recognition
of the value of an asset-based, desistance-led approach in Scotland offers the opportunity to
develop a vision for prison education which builds on some of the excellent practice to date and
acknowledges the diversity of the prison population and their differing needs.

Project-based learning
The emphasis in CfE on interdisciplinary projects and studies and opportunities for personal
achievement has provided a useful framework for much of the current practice in prison
education. While CfE’s reception in schools and colleges has been mixed it has been largely
welcomed by the relatively small staff teams working in prison learning centres (from between
four to nine full-time-equivalent education staff depending on the size of the prison) as providing
a pedagogical framework within which to understand and reflect on existing teaching practice.
New College Lanarkshire’s experience of Inspiring Change, an ambitious year-long
programme of arts activities in prisons designed to test the ability of the arts to engage prisoners
in learning, was another stimulus for project-based learning. The impact of Inspiring Change
demonstrated that the arts had a significant role to play in raising aspirations and enlivening
the curriculum, and created an atmosphere conducive to collaborative working and new ideas,
encouraging and reinforcing a creative approach to the curriculum:
We present in what follows numerous examples of prisoners enthusiastically embracing the
challenges that Inspiring Change programme offered them, acquiring new skills and developing an
appetite for learning, discovering talents of which they and others had previously had little inkling
and perhaps most significantly, reflecting on their past behaviour, future possibilities and their
relationships with their families and others. (Anderson et al., 2011: 7)
The experience of Inspiring Change led a group of college staff to develop an internal guide
to project-based learning for prison teachers, incorporating the lessons of the evaluation and
referencing CfE.While Inspiring Change highlighted the benefits of the project-based approach for
prisoners − an alternative way to learn that did not remind them of negative school experiences
– the benefits for staff were less well articulated. So while Inspiring Change demonstrated that
projects can embed a range of basic literacy, numeracy, and IT skills, and provide opportunities
for students to acquire skills such as time management, collaboration, and problem solving that
are needed for work and life in the community, the aim was also to demonstrate to all teaching
staff that the creativity which accompanies this way of working – involving students, seeing
connections between different curricular areas, linking with outside partners – had direct benefits
for their teaching practice. The aspiration was to change the attitude of learning-centre staff to
project-based learning, rather than merely to increase the number of projects taking place.
200   Kirsten Sams

The involvement of students in the process was central to the ambition. Project-based
learning referred to a process in which teachers and students designed, planned, and carried
out a project that produced a publicly exhibited final outcome such as a product, publication, or
presentation, and resulted in an activity that everyone could share and celebrate. The inspiration
for projects could come from many different sources. The initial spark for a project might
come from a teacher’s passions or indeed from a student’s passion. ‘The important thing is that
somebody is very excited about the idea − that person’s excitement is infectious’ (New College
Lanarkshire internal guide to project-based learning).
Partnership, or at least considering how other organizations outside the prison could help
and support projects, was regarded as important. The engagement of local businesses, charities,
arts organizations and local authorities all help to imbue projects with meaning and relevance
and provide welcome opportunities for prisoners to engage with the outside world.
The guide issued to teaching staff included a fictional example, the Imprisoned Writers
Week project, to help them formulate their own ideas (see box).

Imprisoned Writers Week

The Student Forum would like to plan and run a week of events and activities investigating
the lives, experiences, and work of people imprisoned, across the world, for their writing.
The project would consider imprisoned writers, historically and currently, in a range of
countries. It would take place during Scottish Book Week and would engage students in all
classes. The project would be featured in a future edition of STIR, the new Scottish prison
arts magazine. It would be the first event to take place in the new library. It would therefore
help to raise awareness of reading and writing and help to encourage prisoners’ engagement
with the library. The aim of the project is to:
• raise awareness and understanding of the issues of imprisoned writers
• promote the library through a series of book-related events
• give students opportunities to support other people in need
• support students to understand the plight of people imprisoned for their views, as
opposed to crimes
• engage students in reading and writing through the study of writers with whom
they will identify.
The week will be centred around visits from Scottish PEN:
• a discussion on their work and the issues of imprisoned writers
• a session with literacy learners, using a board game Zoravia, designed by Scottish
PEN to raise awareness and understanding of the issue of imprisoned writers
• a talk and reading by an exiled Palestinian poet.
Students in the Forum will be involved in a number of learning activities:
• promoting and advertising the events in the Learning Centre and throughout the
prison
• researching historical examples of imprisoned writers, such as Dostoevsky,
Solzhenitsyn, and Arthur Koestler
• presenting their findings through readings and displays
• engaging with other classes to support them to contribute to and participate in
the project
• supporting students in the Learning Centre to write letters of support to
imprisoned writers.
 London Review of Education   201

Students in other classes can be involved through:

• creative responses to the writings of imprisoned writers (Art, Creative Writing)
• research into the historical and cultural backgrounds of imprisoned writers (IT,
Geography, History/Modern Studies)
• engaging with the visits from Scottish PEN and writing reports of their experiences
(all)
• reading extracts from the work of imprisoned writers and commenting on them
(Literacy/Communications)
• writing letters of support to imprisoned writers (all).

The example reflects well the aspirations of the new approach. The choice of theme is very
outward focused. It uses the prisons as a starting point but focuses attention on the plight of
others, encouraging empathy and a wider understanding of the different uses of imprisonment. It
involves working with an outside group (Scottish PEN, part of International PEN, an association
of writers pledged to protect freedom of expression and promote literature across frontiers
throughout the world) and increases the level of contact between prisoners and outsiders via a
series of visits by authors. It allows the teacher(s) to look at the issue from a series of different
angles, including literature analysis, cultural history, and politics, and develops a range of skills by
embedding a number of different teaching techniques: exercises, discussions, debates, interviews,
reading, and writing. It also offers interest to those who are more able to look at the issue in
depth and challenges them to read complex texts (Dostoevsky) without excluding those whose
skills and knowledge may not be as developed. It is ambitious in its aspirations for the learners,
who have importantly been involved in the design of the idea via the college’s ‘embryonic learner
forum’.
The remainder of this article focuses on two real examples of project-based learning in New
College Lanarkshire prisons. Both engage with the principles of project-based learning described
above and, crucially, involve direct engagement with the world outside prison.

STIR
STIR, a creative arts magazine for prisoners, embodies all the aspects of the approach outlined
above. The idea for STIR grew partly out of a desire to professionalize the production of prison
magazines which were a feature of every learning centre but which varied considerably in
quality and were published infrequently, and partly from a desire to find a meaningful outlet for
prisoners’ creativity that would present a positive image of prisoners to the public and to one
another. Initially funded by the National Lottery Awards for All programme, the magazine went
on to secure funding from Creative Scotland that enabled it to become established. Based in the
long-term prison, Shotts, the magazine provides a real context for learning and the opportunity
to develop a wide range of skills. It encourages consistency in teaching and learning approaches
within the learning centres as well as collaboration and exchange of ideas between teachers and
between prisoners. It has been highly effective in linking prisons with the wider community and
presenting an alternative view of prisoners that counters that promoted by tabloid journalists.
In desistance terms, involvement in STIR appears to generate feelings of self-worth and control
as well as an altered perspective on past selves and activities, identified as important factors in
distinguishing persistent offenders from those who desist (LeBel et al., 2008: 136).
With the support of an inspirational teacher, an editorial board was formed at Shotts and
a concept for the magazine was developed: high quality, focused on the arts, outward-looking,
202   Kirsten Sams

celebrating and recognizing talent, communicating with wider society. Some of those involved in
the editorial board had participated in the earlier Inspiring Change project1 run by Motherwell
College (now New College Lanarkshire), and its influence is clearly visible in the aspiration of
STIR, with its focus on visual art and design, and an interest in wider cultural issues.
The commitment to quality was balanced from the outset by a desire to be fair, democratic,
and inclusive.The magazine’s name was selected via a competition and the editorial board received
almost 500 suggestions from all seven participating prisons. The structure of the magazine was
discussed and agreed by prisoners who decided on the following key elements: editorial, visual
art, poetry, fiction, life writing, reviews (music, art, books), interviews, and a community section
to highlight opportunities for prisoners to engage with the arts on their release. In addition,
from issue 3 onwards, it was agreed that it would be helpful for each edition to be themed.
The rationale for this was to encourage submissions by sparking ideas, although the themed
approach has also supported the educational aspirations of the magazine. Themed issues on
subjects such as urban life, environment, sport, and independence mean that teaching staff can
structure and design their lessons in ways that not only provide a context for submissions to
STIR but also allow for the acquisition of new knowledge and skills. The book review section
provides opportunities to link library reading groups and literacy work in the classroom with
opportunities for prisoners to publish work. The interviews allow teaching staff the opportunity
to use author or other external visits as a context for developing their students’ questioning,
analytical, and editing skills by commissioning them to draft questions, interview visitors, and
write up the conversations for submission to STIR. As the magazine has become established
more staff are involved and linkages across the curriculum are being made.
For the forthcoming issue 7, maths students at one prison have submitted an article on the
importance of mathematics in art, in which they quote one student based at HMP Low Moss: ‘In
the maths class when we were discussing simple Venn diagrams, it struck me that a Venn diagram
could be considered more pleasing than what is currently offered up as “modern art”’. The
student then explored with the teacher and the rest of the class the links between mathematics
and art. The class made beautiful coloured paper models of geometric shapes (icosahedrons
and dodecahedrons) which they photographed and submitted alongside their article for STIR. IT
teachers have supported the design of submission forms which have recently been adapted to
enable them to be uploaded directly to a database, allowing the editorial board to log and analyse
all the submissions.
As the magazine has developed, the processes and support structures have grown and
become more established. This has only been possible thanks to the support and enthusiasm of
prison teaching staff, who act as STIR coordinators and support and encourage local editorial
boards in their own prisons.These staff meet regularly as a group alongside the Shotts prisoners.
They feed back on how the magazine has been received and convey ideas for future issues from
their own students to the Shotts editorial board. These meetings are chaired by one of the
prisoner members of the Shotts board.
In addition, there is a STIR strategic group consisting of individuals from various cultural and
academic institutions who meet with the Shotts editorial board three times a year to discuss
longer-term plans for the publication. This direct and ongoing dialogue between the prisoners
and well-known and respected figures from the arts and academia provides an all-important link
with the outside, and allows the prisoners to hear directly how their work is being received in
the community. Praise and encouragement from the world outside the prison is motivating and
encouraging. The awards from the Koestler Trust, the Scottish Print and Publishing Agency, and
The Herald have undoubtedly reinforced the commitment of the editorial board to the magazine.
 London Review of Education   203

Underpinning these structures there are complex processes involving submission forms,
feedback forms, disclaimer forms, a timetable for the production of the issues (three a year),
an advance programme of themes, and regular newsletters to keep all the prisons informed of
the editorial board’s activities and developments. The prisoners administer all these processes
themselves with assistance from teaching staff.The skills learnt in this context are clearly relevant
to employment but also, crucially, help long-term prisoners retain agency and mature and develop
by engaging with their peers and the outside world. In the context of a long-term prison, keeping
these skills alive over a prolonged period of time, not allowing them to atrophy, is crucial: ‘We
are not static creatures, but create and develop continually. An environment that keeps us static
is essentially inhumane’ (Liebling, 2011 cited in SPS, 2013: 43). Similarly, Eggleston and Gehring
(2000: 307) have warned of the impact of confinement on individual maturation and drawn
attention to the apathy, passivity, and dependence which can result from ‘institutionalization’
which they characterize as ‘anti-democratic’. STIR, with its emphasis on prisoner-led activity,
attempts to counteract this ‘institutionalization’.
The humanity and high principles of STIR shine through its editorials and the content of every
issue. Many in prisons – prisoners, teaching staff and prison officials − were originally sceptical.
The magazine was accused of being too highbrow and elitist. The editorial board were advised
to include more puzzles and to simplify the language. These critics completely misunderstood
the vision. Prisoners and teaching staff wanted to aim high, to challenge stereotypes and to
show what prisoners were capable of. The cover of STIR makes no overt reference to prison.
The intention was to create an arts magazine first and foremost. The importance of raising
aspirations is highlighted by Eggleston and Gehring (2000: 309): ‘High aims and high expectations
facilitate improved behavior. Providing opportunities in which (prisoners) can fail – opportunities
which are not available in the medical model/coercive institutional setting – establishes a ‘stage’
on which prisoners ‘act out’ their (otherwise latent) pro-social inclinations.’
Of course, the publication does not reach every prisoner, but with each issue its profile rises.
More and more work is being submitted and apocryphal stories are told of prisoners reading it
behind copies of the Daily Record so as not to lose face.
STIR now has a website (www.stirmagazine.org) to provide access to the magazine for a
wider audience, in particular for prisoners’ families. The editorial board is ever more ambitious
in its planning. Issue 8 will focus on Independence, to coincide with the referendum, and issue 10
will be a collaboration with a Norwegian prison to highlight progressive penal practice.
At the very least, STIR has demonstrated what prisoners are capable of if given the
opportunity, support, and encouragement. The members of the editorial board at Shotts view it
as a job (though it rankles with them that their hard work is not remunerated). They take their
roles seriously and feel a sense of responsibility to their contributors and readers. They meet
deadlines and spend hours reading through submissions and proofreading text.They acknowledge
when they have made mistakes but are fiercely protective of their editorial control.The editorial
board recently wrote an article for the English prison magazine Not Shut Up in which they
expressed what STIR means to them:
The creative arts provide a valuable outlet for people from all walks of life. As a template for self-
expression, they provide a constructive means for expressing emotion. In an environment where
time can bear down on the individual and crush the spirit, any positive activity that engages people
must surely be seen as a success.
That’s why we’re so proud of STIR. (Not Shut Up, 2013)
204   Kirsten Sams

Glasgow School of Art

One of the strengths of STIR is that it offers a permanent and sustainable context for project-
based learning. The concern with developing sustainable approaches was one of the primary
motivations for the establishment of a placement programme with Glasgow School of Art.
Placements are an ideal mechanism for enriching the prison curriculum. They encourage
interaction between the prison and the outside world and provide new learning experiences
for all concerned. In the past, placements have been accommodated at the request of individual
students and were not necessarily aligned with the priorities of the learning centre. We believed
that a more strategic approach to placements which involved identifying specific curricular areas
and institutions with whom we might develop long-term collaborations would provide greater
opportunities for students and teaching staff alike.
Art is an important element of the prison curriculum, and we were keen to explore how we
might strengthen the link between art and the development of other skills such as literacy and
critical thinking. The visual arts have always played an important role in prisons. Their popularity
is attested to by the astonishing range of work submitted every year to the Koestler Trust.
which promotes prison art. However, visual art in prisons is traditionally focused on painting and
drawing or, in those prisons lucky enough to have kilns, ceramics and other types of 3D work.
New College Lanarkshire was keen to encourage prisoners to think more broadly about art and
its significance in their lives and the lives of others, and it was for this reason that we decided to
pilot a placement programme with the Department of Sculpture and Environmental Art (SEA) at
Glasgow School of Art (GSA). SEA challenges its students to ask what art is, what it does, who
it is for, and why? These are questions that were not previously explicitly considered in most
prison art rooms.
The placements happened over a period of five to seven weeks, and fourteen students from
GSA took part, two in each of the seven prisons. Prior to the placements commencing, the GSA
students visited the prisons and met students and teachers in the learning centres. The visits
were intended to explore appropriate topics for realisation.
The resulting ideas were all very different, ranging from the creation of wall panels and
children’s art workshops for the visitor centre at Shotts, to a ‘ladies who lunch’ event at the
women’s prison Cornton Vale, inspired by the American artist Judy Chicago’s installation The
Dinner Party which depicted place settings for 39 mythical and historical famous women. All the
students approached the placements with great maturity and devoted much time and effort to
preparing for their sessions with the prisoners. Conscious that prisoners may not have been
exposed to environmental art before, they were keen to explain their own practice as a starting
point for the workshops:
On the first meeting we feel it would be productive to show some artists’ work to motivate them
(the prisoners). We will pick artists that show a range of media the students might not be used
to and that also have interesting developments in their work. (GSA student, project proposal for
HMP Barlinnie)
The placements were seen as having benefit for all concerned. For teaching staff they afforded the
opportunity to have regular contact with staff and students at one of Scotland’s most prestigious
art schools, enabling them to keep their own practice fresh. One art teacher who had been
teaching for over 14 years in the same prison, who was initially sceptical and had allowed his
own practice to lapse, took it up again following the placement.The experience of mentoring the
art-school students also heightened teaching staff’s awareness of their own skills and experience
in managing the classroom and understanding their students’ needs:
 London Review of Education   205

On the initial visit I saw the potential drawbacks of working with the already established group of
prisoners attending art class on Mondays … two Vietnamese prisoners and one Albanian prisoner
who don’t speak English, one of the Monday students is unable to concentrate for long periods
of time due to his methadone programme and other health issues. Two regular students are
particularly unruly and disruptive. Consequently, I have re-arranged the Monday art class register
to include prisoners who are able to contribute effectively within the short timeframe we have
to work to. (Art teacher, HMP Barlinnie)
Most teachers found the experience of mentoring the students very enjoyable as it reminded
them of their younger and more idealistic selves.
The initial pilot placement programme was funded by Artworks,2 which aims to develop
skills of artists working in participatory settings. For the art-school students the perceived main
benefits were increased employability arising from the placements, and learning to communicate
and sometimes modify their artistic vision in the context of a real and complex environment.
However, although this was an important benefit, this was not the primary motivating factor for
the students who participated.Without exception they were motivated by an interest in prisons
and prisoners and a desire to share their enthusiasm for art with them:
The students mixed well with the prisoners and the prisoners were receptive to talking to
them. At the end of the session the art students were on a high and seemed enthused … They
commented on how much they had enjoyed the visit. (Learning Centre manager, HMP Shotts)
The girls came into Barlinnie in the morning and spent some time with the class. They were both
very enthusiastic and friendly and engaged the students immediately. (Art teacher, HMP Barlinnie)
All the GSA students started from a commitment to a co-production model which allowed the
prisoners to feel part of the planning process. All were clear that they did not wish to impose
their ideas on them:
We would like this to be a collaboration between us, the teachers and the students. Not to be a
project dictated to the students by us as we do not feel this would motivate them... (GSA student,
project proposal for HMP Greenock)
Most were also very aware of the isolation of prisons and prisoners from the wider community
and tried to incorporate some linking of the inside and outside in the work:
The initial stimulus was a set of conversations between ourselves and learners, concerning how
they feel that they are perceived by the outside world. Learners reported feeling that they were
all ‘tarred with the same brush’, perceived to be violent/thuggish. To engage with this, we propose
a creative exchange between a set of learners in the prison and a set of learners at GSA. (GSA
student, project proposal for HMP Glenochil)
An emphasis on links to families was also important to many projects. At Shotts the students
worked with the art lecturer to support workshops with prisoners’ children during the extended
father and child visits. The exhibition of the final work from HMP Barlinnie was held at the
Briggait in Glasgow and attended by prisoners’ family members.
The prisoners benefited from the opportunity to engage with a different approach to
art – understanding the importance of ideas alongside the acquisition of practical skills. The
opportunity to mix with ‘fellow students’, albeit from a very different background, encouraged
and reinforced the pro-social identity of student rather than prisoner.
The success of the placement programme with Glasgow School of Art has led to the
development of new placement programmes with Glasgow University in creative writing and
to wider discussions about the potential for sustainable links between prisons and universities.
206   Kirsten Sams

Conclusion
The problems which beset prison education have been rehearsed many times. High turnover in
short-term prisons, difficulties of teaching mixed-ability groups, lack of progression opportunities
for the more able, limited depth and range of the curriculum, the prevalence of a one-size-fits-all
model that ignores the diverse needs of the prison population, the lack of modern technology to
support distance and higher level learning, isolation of teaching staff, and lack of opportunities for
professional development − all make teaching in prisons challenging.The project-based approach
to learning described above can ameliorate some of the methodological difficulties faced by
prison teachers when devising teaching and learning strategies for prison classrooms.
There is evidence that the project-based approach encourages collaborative working not
only between teachers themselves but also between teaching staff and officers and between the
learning centres and the wider community. The approach appears to be successful in engaging
prisoners but there remains a deplorable lack of good quality research into prison education. In
particular, there are no serious longitudinal studies which would enable us to draw conclusions
about whether involvement with education in the prison increases chances of desistance on
release.
Anecdotally we know that, for some, the involvement in education initiatives such as STIR
have proved effective:
STIR is a journey and this can be seen by the evolution of content and in the progress of those
involved. At the ceremony for the most recent award, one of the attendees was an ex-prisoner,
ex-editorial team member, now at liberty and still involved in the project. Another ex-prisoner,
again influenced by STIR and the availability of art classes within prison, has gained funding and set
up art facilities for ex-offenders (Evolve Art – Glasgow). These are the stories that we would like
to see portrayed more often, stories of hope and promise. (Not Shut Up, 2013)
The positive outcomes for the two prisoners mentioned were due not solely to involvement in
the editorial board during their sentences but also because of relationships built via STIR with
other organizations and networks, which were able to support the individuals on release.
In essence the approach described here is not new. Project-based learning offers prison
teachers a context within which to broaden their students’ horizons, challenge existing beliefs,
and raise aspirations. Duguid (1987) argued in the 1980s for a liberal arts approach for prison
education, arguing that education must be a civilizing experience, one which stretches existing
thinking and encourages a re-evaluation of values. He argues that a liberal education focused on
the humanities frees the individual from the limitations of outlook brought on by social class,
labelling and the prison. Liberal arts students are more inclined to think of the world in terms of
cause and effect, have the ability to be committed to one position while understanding diverse
views, and have more sophisticated understanding of power and authority. They may also have
increased empathy and intellectual flexibility. As Duguid points out, without these attributes
increased literacy and vocational qualifications will have little impact on the lives of released
prisoners.
This truth has been recognized more recently by the Prisoner Learning Alliance which
advocates in its recent report for a ‘whole-person’ approach to learning. ‘True employability
skills sought by employers encompass much wider capability in self-belief, resilience and ability
to work with others that are best promoted by a wider vision of learning (Prisoner Learning
Alliance, 2013: 6). Similarly, a recent report by the European Commission notes:
There are a number of ways in which the attractiveness, quality and efficiency of prison education
and training can be improved … Innovative learning methods, which put the emphasis on the
 London Review of Education   207

learner and build on their knowledge and experience, are needed to attract prisoners into
learning. (Hawley et al., 2013: 5)
There remain many challenges to the development of an education policy and practice which
will meet the needs of all prisoners. However, the prospects for a fundamental reshaping and
refocusing of prison education, in Scotland at least, look promising.

Notes
1. Inspiring Change was an ambitious programme of arts activities in five Scottish prisons led by
Motherwell College and involving a range of national arts organizations, including the Citizens Theatre
and Traverse Theatre, the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, the Scottish Ensemble, the National Youth
Choir of Scotland, Scottish Opera, and the National Galleries of Scotland. The National Galleries
element of the project resulted in an exhibition of prisoners’ work entitled Mirrors: Prison portraits;
see: www.nationalgalleries.org/education/projects/mirrors-prison-portraits (accessed 21 May 2014)
2. ArtWorks Scotland is a national professional development initiative for artists working in participatory
settings. It is one of five projects across the UK that are part of ArtWorks: Developing Practice in
Participatory Settings − a special initiative from the Paul Hamlyn Foundation − and is partnership
funded by Creative Scotland. Online. www.creativescotland.com/what-we-do/major-projects/creative-
learning-and-young-people/artworks-scotland (accessed 8 May 2014).

Notes on contributor
Kirsten Sams works for New College Lanarkshire and is responsible for the learning and skills programmes
in seven Scottish Prisons. She recently led the Inspiring Change project, which evaluated the impact of the
arts in engaging prisoners in learning. She is a member of Creative Scotland’s Arts and Criminal Justice
Advisory Group and helped establish STIR magazine.

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