Political Science Faculty Publications and Presentations

Teaching Political Theory at a Prison in South Texas

Document Type

Book Chapter

Publication Date

2020

Abstract

Taking students to a local prison for a field trip is an effective way to engage students on issues central to democratic citizenship. Even if some students opt out of the voluntary prison visit, a field trip to a prison creates a vibrant learning environment where students can share their experience with other classmates as well as reflect on their experiences with authority figures. The visit to the prison also disrupts power relationships between student/instructor because all prison field-trip participants are inmates for a day. This chapter puts into question the authority, hierarchy and knowledge nexus via experiential learning and constitutes a contribution to a general theory of radical political theory pedagogy as the practice of equality.

Comments

© 2020 The Author(s)

Publication Title

Critical Political Theory and Radical Practice

DOI

10.1007/978-3-030-23831-5_4

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