Free the imprisoned knowledge! Inclusive educational paths in prisons

This contribution is based on a concrete experience in the context of a project for the right to study in prison at the University of Milan (Italy), from which we intend to examine the function and potential of education in prison in the dual role of a universal right and a tool for social (re)inclusion. In particular, we will reflect on how commons education can work within a particular context such as prison through experiences of defining shared educational paths between external trainers and inmates starting from the latter’s needs and skills. Starting from the consideration of the socio-economic and cultural characteristics of the prison population, we will outline a possible educational approach aimed at contrasting processes of exclusion. Specifically, we will focus on the forms of ‘peer-to-peer learning’ – with specific reference to direct experience of shared learning between university students with the role of tutor and prisoner students – and the shared construction of knowledge, which will be interpreted as a means of contrasting both the hierarchical dynamics of traditional knowledge and the power relations that permeate the prison context. These educational methods will also be interpreted as forms of inclusion in the social discourse on inequalities and possible means of combating them, in the conviction of the co-responsibility of different social actor – prison and university above all – in the development of policies for active social inclusion through learning pathways promoting freedom and equality.