going to teach in prisons culture shock

8/3/2019 Going to Teach in Prisons Culture Shock

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The Joumai of Correctional Education 56(1) March 2005

Going to Teach in Prisons:Culture Shock*

Randall Wright

AbstractNovice prison teachers experience confusion and disorientation-cuiture shock-whenthey go to teach In prison because teaching and prison cuitures collide. The stages ofacculturation assoc iated with culture shock are predictabie and so are the identities andexperiences of teachers who are positioned by the cuiturai dyn amics o f prison teaching.Accuituration theory enabies us to appreciate the sodai-psychoiogicai dimensions ofprison teachers' expe rience, fadiitates the design of pre-service program s for noviceprison teachers, and encourages veteran prison teachers to reflect on their experiences.

Introdu ction: Culture ShockIt's a different culture in a sense and I sort of like going to different cuitures -1 think

peop le are Interesting and how they interact in different settings is interesting(Anna, a prison teacher).

Most prison teachers did no t intend to teach in p rison. They started teach ing inprison 'casua lly,' by accident, rather than as part of a sequenced, mediated, pre-service stage in a professionai development p rogram (Geraci, 20 02 , Eggleston,1991, Wright, 2002). Learning to teach this way is not oniy 'dangerous andfrustratingf (Eggieston, 1991, p.16), it is confus ing, disquieting, unse ttiing. Formany novice teachers, prison teaching is a 'tota lly differen t' experience, andprison is a 'foreign place.' Without comprehensive pre-service training, they findthey have to 'wori< by the seat of their pa nts' (Wright, 2002), frequently iackingthe cuitura i maps (Geraci, 2002) to understand their experience. Even the


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I didn't know wha t to expect - I mean, I had one cousin wh o wo rked in ajail, and that was it, and he didn t really tell me any stories, and so I justknew what I had seen in the m ovies. When I got there, the inmates werejust walking around, and 1 was thinking: Why aren't they in their cells?Somebody's not do ing their job here! I had visions of being in a classroomwith a guard with a gun, and I got there, and it was a little m ore lax thantha t! (Kathy).Teachers bring to prison professional identities and practices fashioned in

a different cuitural landscape. Littie wonder novice prison teachers arebewiidered, confused, and disoriented on the inside as they experience thenuances of prison iife. For example, they are puzzled wh en they encounterprisoners for the first time, who surprisingly are not the monstrous 'others'portrayed in the media, but quite human after all. Moreover, they feel theheavy weight of prison waiis and towers on their bodies and minds, as thesilent language of architecture communicates to them they are in a differentplace. Furthermore, in their p reliminary encounters w ith prison officers, theyoften feel insulted and demeaned when their personal belongings are searched,or their motives for teaching In prison questioned. And, they are confused andsurprised when they raise the ire of surly officers w ho expect compliance toprison rules and practices that are a source of confusion for the new prisonteacher. Novice teachers experience cuiture shock (Jandt, 2004) because prisoncultures are different from school cultures on the outside (Ceraci, 2002).Craduaily, though, teachers adjust to prison iife as one veteran prison teacherat an interna tional symposium in Canada recalls.You know , I just remember w hen I first started, the first week it was the

first time I'd ever been in a prison . I was scared, I'll admit it. I had no ideawhat to expect, I was looking over my shoulder ever two seconds,checking to m ake sure my wa iiet was stiii in my pants pocket. Asking-youknow -if it was okay to b ring a wallet into the facility. I mean I was askingjust tons and tons of questions-you know -the security, the programs, justeverybody. Just trying to find out wh at it is iike inside there-because it'ssuch a foreign environment to anyone on the outside. But w ithin a couple


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MethodologyThis paper is based on the assumption tha t teachers undergo similarexperiences of intercuiturai adjustment, identified as stages of culture shock,when they go to teach in prisons. iVIoreover, they assume stage-reiatedidentities such as the teacher as visitor, tourist, stranger, settler, du ring th isacculturation process. Gudykunst s (1983) approach to intercuiturai adjustmentand accuituration, as we ll as Jandt s (2004) work on the stages of cuiture shockarticulates the specuiative sociai-psychoiogical topo iogy of the prison teacher'sprofessional experience and identities I propose here. This topo iogy of thestages of acculturation and identity formation of prison teachers is supportedby data from focus group interviews conducted by the author with twen ty-twoprison teachers across western Canada (Author, 2002), and from transcripts offocus group sessions he ld at an internationa i sym posium at Pine Lake, Ontario,in May, 2000.

Further research shouid refine the theo retical framework by discerning theexperientiai nuances of each stage of cuiture shock. Finaily, it shou id be notedthat acculturation theory suggests irreversible stages-transitions compieted onthe way to accuituration. I suggest however, that some teachers may neverproceed through ail the stages, anchored as they are, in historicai identitiesformed in other cuiturai contexts. An d, some teachers may seem to progressthrough aii stages, but suffer setbacks in prison (with a change ofadm inistration for exam ple), so they return to an earlier stage with itsassociated identities and experiences.

W hy Culture Shock? Teach ing Cultures and Prison/Teac hing CulturesThere are several descriptions of externai (in other words, non-prison) schooicultures put forward in the literature that heip us to understand the concept,and describe the features of p rison teac hing -the source of cu iture shock.

Jackson s (1968) ethnographic study of external schooi cuitures describeshow cuiture is (re)produced in the p redictabie, repetitive patterns of behaviour-routines-such as seatwork, group discussion and teacher demonstration thatreinforce the 'ruies of order' in classrooms and the school. Nesbit (2000)identifies schoois as cuiturai iandscapes where constitutive vaiues, beiiefs and


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The Joum ai of Correctionai Education 56(1) March 2 00 5Cuiture Shocit Wrig httogether and treat one another-as an important dimension of teaching cultures.Feiman-Nemser and Floden (1986) m aintain that teaching cultures are

. . . embodied in the work-related beliefs and knowledge that teachersshare-beliefs about appropriate ways of acting on the job and rewardingaspects of teaching, and knowledge that enables them to do their work (p.508).McBrian and Brendt's (1997) dictionary definition of schoo l culture focus on

the relations between teachers, students and administrators. Their defin itioncomplements Nesbit's description of school culture which leaves out student-teacher interactions by suggesting that it is an important dimension of schoolcultures.

Jermier, J. M., Slocum, J. W. (Jr.), Fry, L. W, and Gaines, J. (1991) provide auseful if more generic definition of organizational culture as a way of thinkingand be ing in the world . Culture is defined by these authors as ' . . . the basic,taken-for-granted assumptions and deep patterns of meaning shared byorganizational participants and manifestations of these assumptions andpatterns' (p. 170).

Little, however, has been written about prison teaching cultures, thoughmuch of the iiterature on prison teaching implicitly defines and describes thesecultures and their (dis)connections to the taken-for-granted assumptions ofprison authorities and prison operations. Mathews' (2000) work for example,hlghiights the d ifferent assumptions o r ideoiogical tensions between teachersand prison staff. She notes how teachers are

... professionals trained to be part of a helping profession ... chargedwith the duties of educating prison inmates-within a system designed forpunishment. People from opposing ideological backgrounds mustsomehow work together in order to accompiish a very difficult mission(p-179).Expiicit references to prison teaching cultures in the literature are meager,


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The Joum ai of Correctional Education 56(1) Marc h 200 5W right Culture Shock

I argue that prison cuitures infuse teaching cuitures in prisons, not totailyabsorb ing them, but transfo rming them sufficientiy so as to create cuiture shockfor the novice teacher. In other words, prison teaching cuitures shouid bethought of as hybrid, syncretic cuitures-a biend of home and host woridbehaviors, experiences, and identities. In o rganizationai theory, teachingcultures are organizationai subcuitures. Organizationai subcuitures gravitatearound the primary organizationai cuiture, and are ' . . . associated w ithpersonai, task, organizationai and performance-reiated variables (e.g. gender,education, rank, occupation, shift, occupationai comm itmen t, and wo rkperformance' (Jermier, etai., 1991, p.174). Organizationai subcuitures can resistthe dom inant organizationai cuiture. in this case, we can describe them asorganizationai countercuitures.

Geraci describes prison organizationai cuitures as miiitaristic orauthoritarian: There is a powerfui, and often unquestioned chain of command(principies of hierarchy, and strict enforcement of ruies) embedded in thepoiicies, procedures, and practices of prison staff. Certainiy, the prison worid isone of hierarchy and difference, where interpersonai relations are structured bya rigorous taxonom y that distinguishes 'U s' from 'Th em ,' in a fineiy tooledschema of criminais and crimes (author, in-press, September, 2004).

Cuitures of con finement-such as in prisons, asyiums, tota l institutionswhere life in its entirety takes piace with in the wails (Goffman, 1970), aregrounded in strategic ruies and processes oriented towards administrativeiyincorporating inmates (and, we might add, teachers?) easiiy and e ffectiveiy intothe system to uphoid institutionai order (Goffman, 1970).

Foucauits (1977/1995) vision of the prison as a piace of omnipotentsurveiliance, discipline and controi contrasts with Sykes'(1970, p.xv) vision of theprison not as a 'juggernaut capabie of crushing aii opposition' (1970, p.xv), butan organization where 'schismatic struggies' and contradictions surface in thebatties between keepers and kept. For Sykes, prison cuitures are cuitures offear, shaped by the expectancy of a riot or hostage taking-the ioss of controi.'The guard in his tower hoids a position organized around the theme ofpoten tiai crisis, the possibie event made improbabie by v igiianc e' (Sykes, 1970,p.3). The cuiturai attributes of vigiiance and con troi are vaiued and


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The Joumal of Correctional Education 56(1) March 2005Culture Shock Wrig ht

... cliqued, selective sharing of critical information, abuse of power andposition, codes of siience, and even intimidation , am ong other factors. Thisnegative prison cuiture permeates the environment. Impacting both staffand inmates, and can be seen as the backdrop to a host of prisonproblems ranging from poor staff moraie to abuse of inmates and highration of inmate vioience (p. 3).Despite the awareness in the iiterature of the phenomena of prison

teaching cuitures, teachers know , tacitly and practicaiiy, that prison teachingand external teaching cuitures are different. For example, Gordon, a teacher atone maximum security institution for about four years, reaiizes that correctionaleducation is "... separate and distinct from the field of secondary education,even the fieid of aduit education. Although they m ay be twins, they're notidenticai." This is because ' . . . correctionai educators have a set of experiencesand developed skiiis that make them unique from other educators in the publicschooi." He adds that teachers on the outside " . . . may have a surfaceunderstanding of what it's iike to teach in this environment, but don't have atrue conceptuai understanding of correctionai education." Given the uniquenessof prison schooling, he recommends a "move towards academic recognition" ofcorrectional education as a speciaiized fieid of education at the university.

The brief literature review on the elements (uses of space, patterns of time,reiations between coiieagues) described in the iiterature review above , enablesus to identify the subtie and not-so-subtle transmutations of these elements onthe inside (the things that veteran teachers, iike Gordon, come to know). In thenext few paragraphs I identity how eiements of teaching culture are infusedwith prison cuitures.

The prison house alters the teachers' bou nd ing and use of physicai space,as teachers adopt a miiitary syntax of space ordered according to rules of risk,danger and control. (Some teachers m aintain a heightened fearfuiness o f prisonspaces forever, so that we migh t ta ik about "paranoiac spaces" as a feature ofprison teaching cuitures.). Teachers become accustomed, and eventuailyimmersed in the institutionai morass of observation and reporting (the toois ofvigiiance) to counter the threat o f riot and crisis, and learn to con trol inm ate


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The ritualistic patterning of time, another dimension of schooi culture isshaped by prison operations. Teachers on the outside deve iop tem poralschemas based on the school day, seasons, end of the year celebrations,graduation ceremonies and holidays. This rituaiistic sense of time is punctuateddifferentiy as it is subordinated to the regimen ted, mechanical, institutionai timeof the prison (lock-ups, searches, count, canteen, visits) reflecting the prison soperational needs. The m ean ing of tem pora l rituals is aitered too , in prison.Christmas (usuaiiy a joyous time for many) is reframed by teachers andprisoners as a period of prisoner ioneiiness and pain.

in their interactions with students-another important site of cultural(re)production-teachers iearn to keep their professionai distances fromprisoners (Geraci, 2000, Wright, 2002). Interactions between teachers areembedded and reproduce prison schooi cultures too. Often veteran prisonteachers beiieve it appropriate to wa rn, cajoie, advise, and admonish otherteachers (novice and veteran) to comply w ith institutionai norms and rules (seeGeraci, 2000, for her recommendations and exampies).

Schooi cuitures are buiit up too, in the on-going negotiations betweenteachers and community members, or reiations with the worid outside schooi(Nesbit, 2000). in prisons, novice prison teachers must iearn and appiystrategies of con tainm ent-no thing in, no thing ou t. This m icro-practice reinforcesthe organizational cuiture which iimits the physicai and sociai avaiiabiiity ofprisoners inside and outside prison (Giddens, 1984).

Given the subtieties of prison teaching cuitures, it is iittie wonder thatteachers are shocked by their eariy prison teaching experiences. As a noviceprison teacher, i was horrified and shocked when I almost iost my job forleaving the movie projector in the prison haiiway, when i went to ciass). Asteachers become accustomed to teaching in prison, their deepiy heidassumptions about teaching and about their identity are caiied into question.

The acculturation iiterature provides a framework to describe the sociai-psychoiogicai states and identities o f teachers (as tourists, strangers, settiers,and so on) which underscores the coiiective nature of their individuaiiy feitexperiences, in the remainder of this paper, i document the stages or cu ituraiadjustment of the prison teacher and suggest a topoiogy of teacher identities


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The Jo uma i of Correctionai Education 56(1) Marc h 20 05Cuiture Shock W rightsome identities may be so strongiy formed elsewhere as to be reiativeiyimm une to the formative processes o f prison iife; and some identities that seemfixed, may be aitered by the contextuai dynamics of prison iife (a change inleadership for exampie). in these cases, the accuituration framework heips usspeak of teacher identities or types (teachers as tourists, settlers and so on) tha tare not closely identified with stages in the accuituration process. iVIore wiii besaid about the broader intercuiturai forces at work in a moment.The Stages of Culture ShockStage On e: The Teacher as 'Tourist"Jandt (2004) has described cuiture shock as a five stage process. Stage oneis described as the "honey moon' phase 'wh ere everything is new and exciting.The person is basicaily a tourist with her or his basic intensity rooted in thehom e cu iture' (pp. 320-321). At this stage the individuai is often overwheimedwith impressions from the host environment and at the same time, finds thecuiture exotic and fascinating. Tom, a novice teacher at Canyon Prison at thetime of the interview, describes his eariy prison experience:

. . . with me, as soon as I heard that there was a jo b in the prison; it s iike'Wow, that's cooi, I'd love to wo rk in a prison!' You know, it seemed iikeone of those jobs where you can teii your friends-weii, guess what i didiSo, when my sister toid me about the ad, and i phoned to see what kind ofposition it was, I spoke to Jena, and she said, 'Now, one thing i have to tellyou-it is in a prison.' And I'm thinking, that's the main reason why I'mcaiiing!Traveling to prison gives Tom the right to ciaim the tourist's speciai

priviiege or authority to speak as one who's been there (wherever 'there" maybe);

. . . when i first started teach ing there, I used to teii my friends, oh yes, Iteach in a cage, and i have a cattie prod and every now and then one ofthe inmates runs up and goes 'I'm going to kiii you!' and I take my cattie


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The Jo um ai of Correctional Education 56(1) March 2 00 5W right Culture Shockanother) but according to a temporal continuum of ephemerality orpermanency:

A tourist visits a country fo r a short period of time for such goals asreiaxation and self-enlightenment. A sojourner lives in a country for limitedperiod of time, from as littie as 6 months to as iong as 5 years, with aspecific and goai-oriented purpose, such as education. The word expatriateis more often used to refer to a non-citizen worker who iives in a countryfor an indeterminate length of time." (Jandt, 2004, p. 319)

Tourists come from afar and, not intending to stay iong remain socially distantfrom the host g roup. Sojourners differ fro m tourists because they intend to stayionger and as a result, they might become sociaiiy closer to the host group.Nevertheless, these teacher identities are variations of the more generic visitoridentity, in that teachers are so ciose to their hom e cuiture, they cannotappreciate their host environment. Some teachers are forever tourists, despitetheir length of stay in prison. We hear from them how they are just passingthrough, iook ing for som ething eise to come aiong, going to ieave whe n theyfind a better job, and so on.

Stage Tivo: Disintegration and Difference - The Teacher as Exiie orMarginalThe second stage in the acculturation process is described as the disintegrationand difference stage. Novices become irritated and hostile as the familiar cuesof their home world disintegrate and the differences between host and homeculture become more apparent (Jandt, 2004, pp. 320-321). They find thebehaviors of others In the host culture unusual and unpredictable and begin todislike the culture. Anxiety, anger, and w ithdrawa i are typicai reactions. Herethe teacher may adopt the professionai identity and state of mind of the exiie.The condition of exile involves the idea of a separation from either a iiteraihomeland or from a cultural and ethnic origin (Ashcroft, Griffin, Tiffin, 1998, p.93). The exilic identity may be the resuit, though not exclusively, ofcircumstances where the teacher has no choice but to ieave their schooi in


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The Jou mai of Correctional Education 56(1) Marc h 20 05Culture Shock Wrig htthe novice pubiic schooi teacher), and they end up inside. The teacher as exileis neariy overwheimed by his or her nostalgia for home which may iead to theimpression he or she is 'nursing a wound' (Janmohamed, 1995, p.448).Sometimes these teachers never go home, but stay (physicaiiy) whiie remainingdisgruntied, embittered and nostaigicaiiy attached to their professional woridieft behind. These teachers can also be described as marginal persons.

Pamela's comments on her identity and experience are reievant here.Pameia works for a private education company in prison and would like thesame pay and benefits her unionized colleagues receive for teaching in prison.She is even willing to leave teaching for another position in the prison if itbecame avaiiabie. However, even when unionized staff positions are advertisedin prison, her 'app iica tion ' (iiteraiiy and figuratively) to become mem ber of thehost culture is considered unacceptabie. In response to an organizationalclimate survey sent out by her employer, she explains why she is dissatisfiedwith host environment:

We a ll work in the same ins titution. If a com petition fo r a CSC [CorrectionaiService of Canada] position becomes avaiiabie, we often appiy. One of themain reasons we are not accepted, is we do not have CSC experience, ifail to understand this iine of reasoning. We are not considered equai, norare we treated, respected or paid equaiiy to other CSC staff. Equaiity inwage parity w ould be a giant step forwa rd.Pameia describes her feeiings and identity as a m arginal person this way:It is frightening to think of how iittie input we have into the decisions thatare made by CSC surrounding our jobs here. iViany a staff m eeting w iii seeus in endiess discussions about things like, 'do you think we should orderthe blue pens or the black ones with the shiny tops?' Worthwhile andsignificant operational poiicym aking is never discussed with us.Pameia's marginaiity is produced in her reiations with the prison school

manager who , unlike her, is a civil servant. She cites examples of how he


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The Joumai of Correctional Education 56(1) March 2005W right Culture Shockher wishes not to be fiimed by a news crew for a newscast on prison educationare ignored by the prison schooi manager. Eventuaiiy, she ieaves prison to finda better job in the community. In these incidents (real or imag ined), she reportsthe antagonistic posture of the prison manager that re-confirms her marginaistatus in prison.Stage Three: Reintegration - The Teacher as StrangerIn the third or reintegration stage, oid and new cognitive cues are melded, andthere is an increased abiiity to func tion in a new cuiture, through there is stiiianger and resentment toward the new cuiture for being 'different'(Jandt, 2004,pp. 320-321). Teachers wh o experience the differences between home and hostworids iess chronicaiiy than the exiie can be described as strangers. Teachers asstrangers intend to stay, to take up residence, but are positioned (made intostrangers) by an indifferent or am bivalent host cuiture, so they feei both nearand far, sociaiiy close and distant from the host group, and are constantlynegotiating to close distances. The position of the stranger is 'the position ofthe individual on the margin, part inside and part outside the group' (Jary aJary, 1995, p. 656-657). For Schutz, (1964) the ideai-type of stranger is theimmigrant who aspires to be part of the cuiture, but whose experience isshaped by the knowiedge that he or she is still an 'applicant' to the hostcuiture.

An ideai-type situation of the teacher-as-stranger appears when contractstaff must negotiate the strike iine. Strike actions present enormous re iationa idifficulties for teachers, posing as they do general problems of sociai andoccupational solidarity (or division). Strikes clearly separate managem ent fro munion positions within an organization. In my Canadian experience, somecontract teachers cross the iine with CSC escorts (subject to the derision ofthose on the iine), wh ile others honor the picket. Some teachers prefer no t todeclare themselves and take personal leave to resolve the diiemma. In herletter, Pameia expresses her anger at h aving to be on the line to support thestrike action, and, at the same time , being criticized by those on the iine fo rtak ing up space that really be longed to unionized staff.


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The Jou ma i of Correctional Education 56(1) Ma rch 20 05Culture Shock W rightFor this reason, novices feei iess isoiated, more in control (Jandt, 2004, pp. 320-321). Kathy at Canyon Institution enjoys teach ing in prison because she nolonger has to mark student assignments late into the evening as she did inschooi on the outside. (She is prevented from tak ing assignments o ut of prisonby privacy ieg islation wh ich protects the identities of her students.) Kathy alsolikes 'wo rk ing at the pen because of the hours and you can ieave it at wo rk. Irealiy enjoy that. I don t know w hat I'd do if I did have to go back to pubiicschooi. You know, you can do your w ork and leave it there. Thaf s what I likeabout it."

Another prison iiteracy teacher and administrator describes facetiousiy,how in prison, there are no extracurricuiar activities, no parent-teacherinterviews, and no home visits. Teachers appreciate how , in the host cuiture,they are not permitted to stay after schooi with students, usuaiiy because theschooi is not supervised by guards after school hours. (Even so, staying iaterw ith a student, even when it is operationally possible to do so, is also treatedwith suspicion, so it becomes a practice which is discouraged, as noviceteachers soon iearn.)

iViarlene, a m inimu m security teacher w ho started as a voiunteer in achapel, describes her personai growth, and we sense how she has found herplace in prison, by learning to back away from inmates, to give them roomwhen they need it, to understand their good and bad moods. There is a sensethat she has settied w ith regard to the nature of her students and herrelationship w ith them whe n she says:

'iV e iearned how to be a quiet, gentie spirit [in prison). I thought, well, Iwouid have to be dead first before that happens, but as soon as 1 camehere, it was the on iy way, because . . . you have to be very sensitive abouttheir egos, you know they, being in jaii - they can't read, they can't write ... 'At stage four, teachers assume (approximately) a settler identity and state

of m ind. Unlike the tourist, who is definiteiy going home, and the stranger, wh ois caught between home and host cuitures (and unsure about both), the settiermakes a commitment to stay, progressively converting the past into traces that


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Stage Five: Reciprocal Interdependence - T he Teacher as TranslatorTeachers do not simpiy forget the worid outside the prison walls. Over time,teachers rekindle what they iost (like settiers in the host environment), byreasserting the ontoiogicai priority of the outside as the "reai worid" when itcomes to issues of teacher certification, program accreditation, and studentcertification (Wright, 2002). In the fifth stage of the adjustment process there isa dear understanding of the reciprocai interdependence between home andhost cuitures (Jandt, 2004). At this stage, teachers assume identities astranslators or mediators of cuiturai worids. Teachers m ake enormous efforts topuii the outside (the community, its norm s, and practices) into the school so thatit becomes more iike an outside than an inside. At this stage teachers haveachieved biculturalism "by becoming able to cope comfortably in both thehom e and new cultures" (Jandt, 2004, p. 321).

Holiy's description of herself as a "go-between' reveals how her identity isshaped or positioned on the edges of inmate, teacher, prison and outsidecultures:

As the coordinator, i kind of see my jo b as basically . . . almost like publicrelations. I mean . . . I think it's my job to be there when the teachershave, yo u know , concerns or whatever. If there are any issues that com eup that shouid be addressed by say CSC [Correctionai Service of Canada] orwhatever, i feei that I'm the . . . you know , the dipiomat in that case, that i[can] be there to support peopie and 1 think aiso to heip give direction tothe school. Not necessarily my own-although tha t's one of the bonusesthat you can sort of have some input. But basically to find out wha t allthe teachers are feeling and always sticking to our goais and the objectivesand things like that at the school. Are we meeting the objectives of CSC? Ialso think it is my roie to be there for students. I use the word counselingmaybe slightiy in a different sense, but even just as another person tospeak to even if It were, you know, even a situation with another studentor even a teacher or as a mediator som etimes. For exam ple if a teacher ishaving some difficuity with a student I can either speak to them myself orthe three of us sit down so that I lend support to bo th I think, you know , to


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Th eJ ou m alo f Correctional Education 56(1) March 200 5Culture Shock Wrig ht

think it is aiso my responsibiiity to, you know, iieip offenders, to be a roiemodei or give them guidance and directions where they wiii be abie tosucceed on the street. You know, m aybe they don t have a iot of skills andeither peopie skiiis or work habits and that kind of thing. I sort o f . . . seemyseif as basically, sort of a go-between everyone, you know, I sort ofpuii it aii together, that's how I see it.As Waiter Benjamin (1968) has noted, the task of the transiator is not

simpiy to transmit the inform ation from the source ianguage by find ing itslexical equivalent in another, but to ensure that the transiation is cuituraiiyappropriate so that it coveys the unfathomabie, the mysterious and the poeticas weii. Teachers wh o adjust weii to prison iife are able to make sense of the irmuiticultural environments and like Hoily, translate them for their students.Acc ulturation Is No t a Give n: So m e Factors to Consider

By now, it shouid be apparent tha t the acculturation process is not simpiy amatter of the teachers' desire and knowledge to integrate into the host cuiture.As I suggested earlier, the stages of intercuiturai adjustment of the novice prisonteacher, and the identities he or she adopts, are shaped by the socialtransactions between the teacher and host worid members. First and forem ost,the ideoiogicai distinctions between education and corrections lead to divergentworidviews and practices that are often contradictory and for many, mutuaiiyincompatibie. As a resuit of these different, deeply heid assumptions, there areteachers who w ant to /do not want to be part of the system, wh o arewelcomed/not welcomed by Its members: Teachers who plan to stay may feel(and be) marginal because of host mem ber reactions. The m arginai person isthe typicai case of the 'stranger who strives for membership in the hostcommunity, but meets with an antagonistic host reaction" (Gudykunst, 1983, p.408). In some prisons, the inmate code and unionist stance of prison guardsmay be so strong and pervasive as to position teachers as a minority group inthe middie of opposing factions, where they serve 'as buffers betweendom inant and subordinated groups and can become the targets andscapegoats for the stress of the system ' (Kitano, 1980, quoted in G udykunst,


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Stage Five: Reciprocal Interdependence - The Teacher as TranslatorTeachers do not simply forget the world outside the prison wails. Over time,teachers rekindie what they lost (like settlers in the host environment), byreasserting the ontoiogicai priority of the outside as the "real world' when itcomes to issues of teacher certification, program accreditation, and studentcertification (Wright, 2002). in the fifth stage of the adjustment process there isa clear understanding of the reciprocal interdependence between home andhost cu ltures (Jandt, 2004). At this stage, teachers assume identities astranslators or mediators of cultural worlds. Teachers make enormous efforts topull the outside (the com munity, its norms, and practices) into the school so thatit becomes more like an outside than an inside. At this stage teachers haveachieved bicuituraiism "by becoming abie to cope comfortably in both thehom e and new cultures" (Jandt, 200 4, p. 321).

Holiy's description of herseif as a "go-between" reveals how her identity isshaped or positioned on the edges of inma te, teacher, prison and outsidecultures:

As the coordinator, I kind of see my job as basicaily . . . almost like publicrelations. I mean . . . I think it's my job to be there when the teachershave, you know , concerns or whatever. If there are any issues that comeup that shou id be addressed by say CSC [Correctionai Service of Canada] orwhatever, I feel that I'm the . . . you know , the dipioma t in that case, that I[can] be there to support people and I think aiso to heip give direction tothe school. Not necessarily my own-although that's one of the bonusesthat you can sort of have some input. But basicaily to find out what a ilthe teachers are feeiing and aiways sticking to our goais and the objectivesand things like that at the school. Are we m eeting the objectives of CSC? Ialso think it is my roie to be there for students. I use the word counselingmaybe slightiy in a different sense, but even just as another person tospeak to even if it were, you know, even a situation with another studentor even a teacher or as a med iator sometimes. For example if a teacher ishaving some difficuity with a student I can either speak to them myseif orthe three of us sit dow n so that 1 lend support to bo th I think, you know , to


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think it is also my responsibility to, you know, heip offenders, to be a rolemodel or give them guidance and directions where they will be able tosucceed on the street. You know, maybe they don 't have a lot of skills andeither people skiiis or wo rk habits and that kind of thing. I sort o f . . . seemyself as basicaiiy, sort of a go-between everyone, you know , I sort ofpull it all together, that's how I see it.As Walter Benjamin (1968) has no ted, the task of the translator is not

simply to transmit the inform ation from the source language by find ing itslexicai equivalent in another, but to ensure that the translation is culturallyappropriate so that it coveys the unfathomabie, the mysterious and the poeticas weii. Teachers who adjust well to prison life are abie to m ake sense of theirmulticuitural environments and iike Hoiiy, translate them for their students.Acc ulturation Is No t a Give n: So m e Factors to Consider

By now, it should be apparent that the acculturation process is not simply amatter of the teachers' desire and knowiedge to integrate into the host culture.As I suggested earlier, the stages of intercuitural adjustment of the novice prisonteacher, and the identities he or she adopts, are shaped by the socialtransactions between the teacher and host world members. First and forem ost,the ideoiogicai distinctions between education and corrections lead to divergentworidviews and practices that are often contradictory and for many, mutuaiiyincompatible. As a result of these d ifferent, deeply held assumptions, there areteachers wh o w ant to /do not want to be part of the system, wh o areweicomed/not welcomed by its members: Teachers who pian to stay may feei(and be) marginai because of host member reactions. The marginal person isthe typicai case of the "stranger who strives for m embership in the hostcommunity, but meets with an antagonistic host reaction" (Gudykunst, 1983, p.408). In some prisons, the inmate code and unionist stance of prison guardsmay be so strong and pervasive as to position teachers as a m inority group inthe middie of opposing factions, where they serve 'as buffers betweendom inant and subordinated groups and can become the targets andscapegoats for the stress of the system" (Kitano, 1 980, quoted in Cudykunst,


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unappreciated for the work she does in prison (which might curb theaccuituration process, or which may lead to an opposite de fiant stance,and a greater determ ination to integrate). She feeis no one reaiiy knowsabout the work teachers do in prison, and those that do, "have a hard timeunderstanding wh y we w ou id be doing it." She believes that justification isnecessary, imagining that people in the community are asking, "Whywould you wan t to do that? Why wouldn 't you rather just teach in a schooion the outside? What can you possibiy gain from tha t, other than a iiving,or whatever?"

8. Uneven acculturation. There are specific dom ains (contact zones) whereteachers activeiy seek integration and decision-making authority and otherdomains such as discipiinary hearings they shy away from. Similarly, prisonstaff may actively solicit the support of teachers and invite them in (as partof the initiative to control gangs, for example), and resist their presencewhen it comes to general security briefings.

9. Inter-institutionai configurations. The novice teachers' professional locationin other institutions, such as pubiic school boards, or private contractingagencies wiii infiuence the acculturation process. Contract teachers, whoare generaiiy less secure than state-employed prison teachers or teachersemployed by the local school district, might become more iike guards thanteachers (assimiiate), to ensure contract renewai (though as contractedteachers working in a unionized environment, they may stiil be consideredoutsiders). Greg, a contract teacher, comes to know that he is out of placein the system:

Personaiiy, many days I feel like I do not fit into the prison system.The practice of denoting my status as a contractor with a bright yeiiowstripe on my name tag aimost makes me (and iikeiy others in thesame situation) an obvious pariah in the eyes of much (sic) of theunion staff.

On the other han d, teachers w ho are private contractors m ight resist theprison cuiture, staking out identities based on their differences from state


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teachers, so that a positive or negative host reaction is not as significant tothem as it might be for contract teachers.

Conclusion: Life in the Bord erlandsWe no w have an extensive theoretic vocabuiary to describe the prison teachers'experience and identity formation in prison and to identity the factors that maycontribute to their sociaiization. iHopefuiiy, novice prison teachers possibly canuse this a rticie as a conceptual map to chart a course throug h a very confusingterritory. Veteran prison teachers might refiect or reconstruct their pastexperiences to understand how they acquired their identities as 'correctionaleducators.' Those interested in the professional deveiopment of prison teachersmight experience some pieasure icnowing that pre-service courses can bedesigned to acknowledge, and yet escape, the personai narratives (war stories)that infuse teachers' conversations because they have a ten tative theoreticframework that considers the coilective, cuiturai dynamics o f their experience.

Prison teaching is an intercuiturai phenomenon, a mixture of teachingcultures and prison cuitures. Acculturation theory provides insight into theaccuituration process. It may be useful too, as a means to identify prisonteacher 'ty pe s' that originate in stages of the accuituration process and retardfurther professionai growth as they become fixed and rigid identities. We mightfind too, that the accuituration framework opens up a different conversationabout teacher identities, that are on iy vagueiy reiated to the stages identifiedhere. We might ask how teachers function as traffic cops, judges, supplysergeants, and so on . In other words, we could expand our descriptions ofteacher identities, experiences, and practices by considering generai teachertypes, where some of these types are part of the accuituration process, andother types refiect the dynamics of teaching in prison.

Perhaps prison teachers wiii forever iive out their professionai iives in theborderiand - the:

. . . state and . . . space of iiminaiity, the in-between. Borderiands are a kindof space, sociai as much as physical or geographical, which are co-inhabited by people of different cuitures, ciasses, ethnicities, reiigions,


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The Joumai of Correctional Education 56(1) March 200 5Wrig ht Culture Shockassumptions in them. In the borderland, novel experiences and identities areshaped, as teachers assume-and are assigned-identities as tourists, guests,sojourners, strangers, outsiders, intruders, middle group minorities, translators,settlers. These identities speak to the experiential, temporal continuum ofpermanency to ephemerality, iiminality to incorporation, continuity to noveity;these are identities are initiated and sustained by the teachers' physicaldislocation and relocation-going to teach in prison.

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definition of the specular border intellectual. In J. Munns a G. Rajan (Eds.), A cuituraistudies reader: history, theory, practice (pp.441-463). New York: Longman.

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Biographical Sketch _Randall Wright is an Assistant Professor in the Faculty of Education and Senior Feilow of


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