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 the needs expressed by mathematics teachers in prison to have adequate training and to have teaching 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 is clearly present in the Italian Constitution (art. 34, art. 33 Cost.), in Universal Declaration of Human Rights (art. 26 UDHR) and it is also explicitly recognized by the Penitentiary Law (art. 15, art. 19 O.P.). Ministerial data describe a critical level of schooling among detained people in prison for adults in Italy.
Among the subjects studied in prison, mathematics plays a particular role being both a form of personal 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 research literature on this topic.
Teachers in prison are crucial “agents of change” (Zizioli, 2014), able to introduce the student to new individual and relational knowledge. However, at the moment, there is no specific training for Italian teachers in prison. Specific skills are gained “on the field”, by direct experience, and mathematics teachers in prison schools express a need for professional development and dedicated teaching materials.
A response to such needs requires theoretical elaboration since research about the teaching/learning of mathematics in prison is very scarce at the international level and almost nonexistent in Italy. First, descriptive research is needed to frame the specificity of the development of mathematical literacy within the context of Italian prisons. Then, design principles and didactical recommendations 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 Italian regions) collaborating together. Researchers will inform teachers about possible solutions available in literature (e.g. Universal Design for Learning); teachers will contribute with their experience of teaching mathematics in the specific context of prisons. Along the process of design, the researchers will develop design principles(van den Akker, 1999) to be used for the production of further materials and for teachers training.
Through the repetition of several cycles of context-analysis, design, and evaluation of products, the project will provide designprinciples for mathematics education in the prison context (as theoretical outcome) and examples of such principles in various learning units (as practical outcome). The outcomes will be collected in a book and presented to prison mathematics teachers during a dedicated workshop.