Teaching History in Confined Spaces

Much of the research on literacy learning for young people relates to the practices in school classrooms. This response to Honan's key paper continues the theme of literacy learning in classrooms but in the confined spaces of a prison. The reflection focuses on historical literacies and takes up Honan's position on the role of social practices and spatiality that contribute to meaning making in the confines of prison. Space and the movement of people are strictly controlled in an incarceration centre. This was the place in a Queensland Corrective Centre where the author taught 12 students for 2 hours a week for 7 weeks. The pedagogies employed focussed on developing students' historical literacies in their studies of Investigating Australian History. The author utilised the writings of Paulo Freire and Queensland's Productive Pedagogies theoretical framework, and technical guidance to prison planning for the framing of this report. This paper provides a personal reflection of my time teaching a history unit to a small group of offenders currently serving time in an Australian incarceration centre. The reflection focuses on historical literacies and takes up Honan's position on the role of social practices and spatiality that contribute to meaning making in the confines of a prison, with a particular group of people whose daily routine is extremely controlled and repetitive.