Changing the subject: A community of philosophical inquiry in prisons

Mary Bovill, Charles Anderson

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract / Description of output

This article reports on part of a project that introduced philosophy programmes to a number of Scottish prisons. It centres on the deployment within these prisons of McCall’s(1991) Community of Philosophical Inquiry (CoPI). It provides a rationale for, and analyses the participation structure, of CoPI, setting out how its communicative constraints and demands provided prisoners with novel means of reasoning and engaging in dialogue with others and with oneself. In interviews conducted with a sample of participants, they described how the critical listening to, and reasoning with, each other in CoPI tutorials had allowed them to develop greater self-awareness and a more reflexive understanding of their own thinking and actions. Findings are framed within sociocultural theorising on literacies, learning and identity. Drawing on Holland, Lachicotte, Skinner & Cain (1998) account of identity and agency, we show how CoPI afforded participants a new positionality and discursive practices.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)183-198
Number of pages16
JournalEuropean Journal for Research on the Education and Learning of Adults
Volume11
Issue number2
Early online date12 Mar 2020
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 12 Mar 2020

Keywords / Materials (for Non-textual outputs)

  • prison education
  • Community of Philosophical Inquiry (CoPI)
  • discourses
  • critical reasoning
  • reflexivity
  • positionality

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