Special Issue 2025 of Apprendre + Agir
The mission of the UNESCO Chair in Applied Research for Education in Prison is to contribute to the dissemination and mobilization of practical and scientific knowledge on education in prisons with two main objectives: to raise awareness among decision-makers of the importance and usefulness of education in prisons and to promote access to education, in all its forms and at all required levels, in detention facilities around the world. If prisons are places of constraint and, all too often, places of punishment, they are also places that can contribute to the social rehabilitation of offenders. Education, whether it leads to recognized diplomas and qualifications or not, whether formal or not, whether it aims at the development of technical skills or artistic sensitivities, etc., is a fundamental link in the process of social rehabilitation. Education programs and activities are all the more important in a prison context because these learning opportunities are sometimes the only times when incarcerated people can (re)find a sense of human dignity.
With the Montréal International Conference on Prison Education, which took place from October 16 to 18, 2024, the Chair and its partners1 brought together people from more than fifteen countries who are interested in prison education, as researchers, practitioners or decision-makers, who collectively built a space for dialogue where everyone could learn in order to, possibly, act on the ground. It was therefore natural for us to collaborate with the ICÉA team and the journal Apprendre+Agir. In the following pages, we contribute to the dissemination of some of the knowledge that was shared and consolidated during the conference. We also took this as opportunity to make some place to contributors who were unable to join us in person because of the distance and travel costs.
We hope that these articles, which give a good idea of the diversity of learning activities that take place in prisons, of the importance of interventions along the prison continuum and a window on the conditions experienced by people who work in this field, will stimulate your curiosity and convince you of the importance of continuing to defend the right to education for incarcerated people.
Throughout the process of organizing the first Montréal International Conference on Prison Education and preparing this special issue of Apprendre+Agir, we had a thought for the late Paul Bélanger, without whom all of this would not have been possible. Indeed, Paul Bélanger has been a key figure for three of the main partners in the organization of the Conference, as he was director of the Institut de coopération pour l’éducation des adultes (1972 to 1984), director of the UNESCO Institute for Lifelong Learning in Hamburg (1989 to 2000) and co-founder and president of the scientific committee of the UNESCO Chair in Applied Research for Education in Prison between 2011 and 2022. We would therefore like to join in the chorus of praise that has already been extended to this internationally renowned expert and ardent defender of adult education, in all circumstances and throughout their lives. Thank you Paul!
Notes
- The Ministère de la Sécurité publique du Québec (MSP), the Fonds de recherche du Québec – Société et culture (FQRSC), the Département d’éducation et de formation spécialisées, Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM), the UNESCO Institute for Lifelong Learning (UIL), the Association des services de réhabilitation sociale du Québec (ASRSQ), the Institut de coopération pour l’éducation des adultes (ICÉA) and the École de criminologie, Université de Montréal. ↩︎
Author
Frédérick Armstrong
Co-chair in research
UNESCO Chair in Applied Research for Education in Prison
frederick.armstrong@cegepmv.ca
Cite this article
Armstrong, F. (2025). A Word From Frédérick Armstrong. Apprendre + Agir, special issue 2025, Learning and Transforming: International Practices and Perspectives on Prison Education. https://icea-apprendreagir.ca/a-word-from-frederick-armstrong/