Personal change, desistance and prison education

Postsecondary programs offering vocational training and college credit to eligible inmates have had difficulty finding a place in the U.S. correctional system. Politically motivated restrictions preventing inmates from receiving federal funds for college resulted in drastic program closures. Although new laws restored funding to select inmates, enrollment in postsecondary correctional education only recently reached pre-cutback levels (established in the late 1980s). This is set in contrast to the significant increases in U.S. prison populations and spending that have occurred since the early 1990s. Contextual issues specific to the correctional system and ideological conflicts between the prison educator and prison staff may further impair enrollment and program completion. Through review of the political and contextual issues influencing the modern design of postsecondary prison education, this work seeks to propose best practices that may support the unique learning needs of the adult learner in the correctional system.

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Tug-of-War: the Pull of Formal Institutional Practices and Structures and the Desire for Personal Change

International Journal of Science and Mathematics Education ◽

10.1007/s10763-020-10139-w ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Amber Simpson ◽

Michelle Feyerabend

Keyword(s):

Personal Change ◽

Institutional Practices

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Exploring parents’ experiences: Parent-focused intervention groups for communication needs

Child Language Teaching and Therapy ◽

10.1177/02656590211019461 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 37 (2) ◽

pp. 193-209

Author(s):

Barbara Moseley Harris

Keyword(s):

Individual Differences ◽

Group Intervention ◽

Peer Groups ◽

Skills Training ◽

Costs And Benefits ◽

Personal Change ◽

Convenience Sample ◽

Safe Spaces ◽

Communication Needs ◽

Parents Experiences

Perceptions of a convenience sample of 10 parents (one father, nine mothers) who had completed one or more group-based, parent-focused interventions for their children’s communication needs were explored during semi-structured interviews. Nine different intervention groups (EarlyBird programmes, early communication skills training, or Makaton training) were discussed. Inductive and grounded theory approaches were used during thematic analysis to focus on parents’ priorities. Themes identified were: (1) intervention purposes, including initial session purposes; (2) groups as supportive/safe spaces; (3) personal change (behaviours and self-perception); (4) challenges of groups; (5) costs and benefits, including emotional costs. Parents supported previously reported findings about changes in knowledge, understanding, and perception of their role. Parents provided insights into how changes occurred, including helpful processes and professional strategies. They described emotional impacts of parent-focused intervention, particularly parental guilt. Participants perceived peer groups as contributing safe spaces and opportunities, but also challenges. Two parents experienced reduced benefits due to significant individual differences relating to their child’s more complex needs. Participants confirmed some speech and language therapists’ (SLTs’) perceptions about how interventions work and challenged others. Key findings were that (1) parents’ experiences during intervention facilitate personal change; (2) parents experience personal costs and benefits of intervention; (3) peer groups contribute to intervention effectiveness. These findings indicated that parents experience significant personal impacts from parent-focused intervention groups, and that groups provide a specific intervention type that differs from individual input. Clinical implications are that professionals need awareness of impacts on parents to support effective intervention and avoid harm; peer groups can facilitate learning and parental agency; dissimilarity to peers can make group intervention inappropriate. Study limitations included fewer perspectives from parents of children with primary communication needs. Further exploration of interventions’ emotional impacts, how group processes support parental confidence and agency, and effects of individual differences on suitability of group intervention are suggested.

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Starred Up: Prison Cultures and Personal Change

Prisoners on Prison Films ◽

10.1007/978-3-030-60949-8_3 ◽

2020 ◽

pp. 39-56

Author(s):

Jamie Bennett ◽

Victoria Knight

Keyword(s):

Personal Change

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Neglecting Decline: Remembered and Predicted Personal Development Diverge from Actual Longitudinal Change.

10.31234/osf.io/43qvh ◽

2019 ◽

Author(s):

Sarah Molouki ◽

Daniel Bartels ◽

Oleg Urminsky

Keyword(s):

Longitudinal Study ◽

Personal Development ◽

Absolute Magnitude ◽

Longitudinal Change ◽

Personal Change ◽

Future Change ◽

Change Over Time ◽

Time Period ◽

One Year ◽

Over Time

A one-year longitudinal study was conducted to investigate the accuracy of people’s assessmentsof their own personal change over time. We compared people’s predicted, actual, and recalledchange in their personality, values, and preferences over this time period. On average,participants underestimated the absolute magnitude of their personal change, yet simultaneouslyoverestimated their net improvement, in both prediction and recall. This effect was due to anasymmetry whereby people selectively neglected negative changes, especially prospectively.Although participants in our sample both improved and declined over the year, they were morelikely to remember past improvements than declines, and made nearly uniformly positivepredictions of future change. We discuss how the current findings reconcile researchdemonstrating expectations of personal improvement (e.g., Wilson & Ross, 2001; Kanten &Teigen, 2008) with other research that suggests people overpredict their personal stability(Quoidbach, Gilbert, & Wilson, 2013).

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