News from Portugal – Ms Ana Filipa da Silva Pinho: A dissertations on education in prison

A friend of the UNESCO Chair in Applied Research for Education in Prison, Ms Ana Filipa Pinho da Silva, from Portugal, has sent us her master thesis. It focuses more specifically on the rehabilitation and training in prison and the relationship the two may have with future professional reintegration.

Here is the abstract:

“ABSTRACT
The current essay sums up the work done throughout Master’s degree, second year of Educational Sciences course and illustrates the training experience carried out in the prisional facility of Paços de Ferreira. The opportunity to meet and participate in a reality that was once completely unknown and kept away from society, raised a large number of theoretical and methodological questions that were later made significant on the actual ground. Investigation and intervention were hand in hand in the process, and the later was based on the gradual integration of a plan that kept in mind the pre-existent progressive rehabilitational work. Consequently, the approach to the prisional reality and Educational Services, where the actual training took place, was done backward and forward (had its ups and downs). In an inquisitive state of mind, the boundaries and role of the investigator were assessed. The full adaptation to the physical and time realities of the institution demanded gaining the trust of the technical team already developing their work as well as access to the professional routine of that social unity. The intervention intended to test the actual functions of a Rehabilitation Counsellor, who is meant to follow everything related to inmate’s time in prison, contributing to the adaptation to the prisional environment as well as promoting conditions to aid inmates in reintegrating into professional and social life.
Through a comprehensive methodology, the aim was, on the one hand, to develop a critical analysis of the intervention related to the rehabilitation process and this professional, crucial to the prisional environment and, on the other hand, to register records of inmates attending vocational education which is officially seen as a vital instrument in the promotion of social rehabilitation and subsequently preventing prisoners from committing further crimes, all this bearing in mind the guidings for Adult Education as well as the personal and academic interests. This said the aim was to understand this training method: discussing the advantages and disadvantages of their rehabilitation process and the link it may have to their return to a professional and social life. From individual approaches raised a new understanding of the importance of education for these individuals; prisoners perceive the time spent in education as a gate away from the closed encounters of the prison, which creates a tension between present and future, leaving an indelible mark in their eagerness to reapproach the outside world”.

The thesis is written in Portuguese and is entitled “A intervenção reeducativa e formativa com indivíduos em situação de reclusão : O trabalho do Técnico Superior de Reeducação e a Formação Profissional em contexto prisional“.

It will also be available in our reference center, under the “Dissertations/theses” section.