A Habit Is as Dangerous as Anything: Incarcerated Student Perspectives on the Transformative Power of a Liberal Arts Education

2025

Metropolitan Universities. 2025 36(1):104-134.

Scholars and practitioners have argued that higher education in prison (HEP) can help transform incarcerated people and prepare them to re-enter society in productive ways. Viewing education as a mechanistic device that can help incarcerated students attain jobs or skills without engaging with larger questions of personal growth and fulfillment, however, does a disservice to incarcerated students. Fundamentally, education is about change and growth, but what changes and how cannot be left solely up to practitioners. We argue that programs should partner with students to understand their personal transformation using the key components of an undergraduate liberal arts education, including critical thinking, understanding human behavior, and exploring social structures. For this study, we used a mixed-methods design with undergraduate students in one college-in-prison program, and we explored transformation as a category of analysis with a particular focus on four variables: open-minded thinking, civic attitudes and skills, hope, and sense of belonging. Although we found few differences between first-year and upper-class students on our quantitative measures, qualitative results suggest that a liberal arts education within the prison can be transformative in measurable ways. We suggest that administrators and professors view students as partners and active participants in their education, and we discuss ways administrators and professors can support student growth and explore the transformative potential of HEP in the prison environment itself. [Note: The volume and issue (35, 4) shown in the citation on the PDF are incorrect. The correct volume and issue are 36, 1.]

Journal Articles
Reports - Research
Tests/Questionnaires

English

Institutionalized Persons, Correctional Education, Liberal Arts, Higher Education, Student Attitudes, Undergraduate Students, Student Development, Thinking Skills, Political Attitudes, Sense of Belonging, Psychological Patterns, College Freshmen

2025