Education That Crosses Bars: What the Study by Vanessa Colares and Flávia Wagner Reveals

In the article “Youth and Adult Education (EJA) for Persons Deprived of Liberty: Approximations and Distances from Emancipatory Pedagogy,” researchers Vanessa Colares de Bitencourt and Flávia Wagner open a window into a little-known universe: the classrooms that exist inside Brazilian prisons.

The study, developed at the Southern Penitentiary in Santa Catarina State, presents striking figures that help explain the challenge. More than half of the Brazilian prison population has low educational attainment, and 2.2% are still illiterate, according to DEPEN data. Meanwhile, outside prisons, the country records its lowest historical illiteracy rate. This disparity would already serve as an alert, but the authors’ work goes beyond statistics.

One of the most notable discoveries is the role of the school as a space for humanization within the correctional facility. Teachers report the emergence of bonds, active listening, and dialogue that counter the carceral system's punitive logic. One of the most powerful episodes narrated by Vanessa and Flávia is that of Ícaro, a student who, upon discovering his daughter has autism, found his first concrete understanding of the topic in his Biology class and a teacher willing to research further to assist him.

The study also reveals the creativity of educators in connecting content to daily life: from analyzing political cartoons to discussions about nutrition and even soccer. Simultaneously, it points out important limitations, such as the near absence of access to research books and the difficulty of promoting the cultural appreciation of the students, who are silenced by the prison dynamic.

The authors argue that education in the correctional facility is not a favor but a right. According to the authors, it is one of the only forces capable of breaking cycles of exclusion. Their article is an invitation to deeply and without oversimplification examine what it means to educate in this hostile environment.

Link to read the full article:
https://revistas.unila.edu.br/espirales/article/view/5064