Policy Press
6 The light to fight the shadows: on education as liberation
Abstract
Kris McPherson writes of his experience of imprisonment in Scotland, his life in crime and his struggle to leave both behind him. Assembling powerful arguments from his prison life and his studies with The Open University, McPherson provides compelling insights into what criminologists have started to call ‘desistance’. McPherson’s unique synthesis of scholarship and penal experience is an outstanding example of “making good with criminology”. It offers personal tribute and testimony to the influence of Scottish criminologist Fergus McNeill and his colleagues.
Abstract
Kris McPherson writes of his experience of imprisonment in Scotland, his life in crime and his struggle to leave both behind him. Assembling powerful arguments from his prison life and his studies with The Open University, McPherson provides compelling insights into what criminologists have started to call ‘desistance’. McPherson’s unique synthesis of scholarship and penal experience is an outstanding example of “making good with criminology”. It offers personal tribute and testimony to the influence of Scottish criminologist Fergus McNeill and his colleagues.
Chapters in this book
- Front Matter i
- Contents v
- Notes on contributors vii
- Acknowledgements ix
- Openings and introductions: education for the many, prison for the few 1
- From prisoner to student 11
- Pioneers and politics: Open University journeys in Long Kesh during the years of conflict 1972–75 33
- A university without walls 51
- Open universities, close prisons: critical arguments for the future 73
- The light to fight the shadows: on education as liberation 97
- From despair to hope 111
- Straight up! From HMP to PhD 125
- From Open University in prison to convict criminology upon release: mind the gap 139
- From the school of hard knocks to the university of hard locks 153
- Becoming me with The Open University 165
- From D102 to Paulo Freire: an Irish journey 179
- Ex-prisoners and the transformative power of higher education 195
- What the OU did for me 213
- Appendix: Study with The Open University 225
- Index 227
Chapters in this book
- Front Matter i
- Contents v
- Notes on contributors vii
- Acknowledgements ix
- Openings and introductions: education for the many, prison for the few 1
- From prisoner to student 11
- Pioneers and politics: Open University journeys in Long Kesh during the years of conflict 1972–75 33
- A university without walls 51
- Open universities, close prisons: critical arguments for the future 73
- The light to fight the shadows: on education as liberation 97
- From despair to hope 111
- Straight up! From HMP to PhD 125
- From Open University in prison to convict criminology upon release: mind the gap 139
- From the school of hard knocks to the university of hard locks 153
- Becoming me with The Open University 165
- From D102 to Paulo Freire: an Irish journey 179
- Ex-prisoners and the transformative power of higher education 195
- What the OU did for me 213
- Appendix: Study with The Open University 225
- Index 227
