CONTEXT / BACKGROUND Good practices in adult education, including those of all partners carried out in daily practice or in specific projects, show how the arts are a powerful tool in learning strategies that can be used in a diversified and flexible way functionally to the specific needs of the identified targets: learners in detention and their educators. It is evident that educators represent a strategic target for reaching the final target: citizens in detention. It is therefore necessary, first of all, to increase teachers' skills by making available reference tools and methods which, among other things, could allow the use of the arts as "lubricants" in relational mechanisms. OBJECTIVES The ESCAPE macro-objective is to maximize the use and impact of performing arts in educational strategies and practices within prison systems. ESCAPE does not intend (or at least does not mean only ...) to use an artistic discipline for an educational purpose, but aims to offer utilities to educators in charge of any learning program / plan of disciplines / curriculum to be able to count in a systematized form on artistic tools and methods in order to: - support and integrate the methodologies of their specific teaching, - have a "lubricant" in the relational mechanisms with their students, - to promote the attention and motivation of the learners. PARTICIPANTS Educators and learners of the prisons of Seville (E), Pesaro (I) and Covilhã (P). ACTIVITY Search for a needs analysis. Elaboration of three curricula for the use of Theatre, Dance and Music in conjunction with the curricular disciplines. Three summary publications on the experimentations carried out in Italy, Portugal and Spain. A summary publication on the ESCAPE project. Four docufilm on the experiences in the three partner countries and on the project as a whole. Structuring of an E-learning platform. Website and social pages. Structuring of a specific social platform. Nine experimental courses in the three affected prisons. Two workshops. Six mobilities of Job Shadowing. Seven multiplier events. METHODOLOGY Research, training and production activities have been engineered into a research path that develops along two lines: - Nine experimental courses in the three affected prisons; - Training of educators through workshops and crossed job shadowing. The methodology of the process was designed starting from an analysis of the needs that leads to the structuring of three curricula using Theatre, Dance and Music in conjunction with the curricular disciplines to be discussed in a first workshop among operators and to be applied experimentally along an educational year in nine courses (three for each penitentiary with the use, respectively, of Theatre, Dance and Music). In parallel to the courses, six Job Shadowing mobilities in the three different penitentiaries will allow a supplementary training activity for the operators, also useful for observing the didactics put in place in favor of the prisoners and reflecting on the outputs being processed. At the end of this phase will be discussed in a further workshop both the more advanced versions of the curricula (revisited in the light of courses and Job Shadowing in prison), and the synthesis of the experiences that have been described in preliminary versions of appropriate output-report . A final review after the second workshop will allow the release of the final version of all the methodological outputs that, together with the dissemination outputs (four docufilm, website, social ...), will be disseminated in various forms, including the use of multiplier events. The results of all these activities will therefore allow the establishment of reference practices condensed into specific products that are functional for the implementation and dissemination of experience at various scales. RESULTS The main results we intend to achieve are: an increase in skills by educators dealing with prisoners, an increase in the number of courses using methods that use the performing arts in adult education, both those organized by the partners, and those organized in the respective countries in the penitentiaries, to make the project’s output and outcome European reference tools and practices in terms of characterization, value and usability. IMPACT In the medium term, educators working in prisons will be brought to apply in their work context the new knowledge of didactic-pedagogical, planning and / or management order by applying the new methodologies learned. The learners will see increased motivation to follow the educational activities, self-esteem and process of social inclusion and work.
The ESCAPE macro-objective has been to maximize the use and impact of performing arts in educational strategies and practices within prison systems. ESCAPE did not intend to use an artistic discipline for an educational purpose, but aims to offer utilities to educators in charge of any learning program / plan of disciplines / curriculum to be able to count in a systematized form on artistic tools and methods in order to: - support and integrate the methodologies of their specific teaching, - have a "lubricant" in the relational mechanisms with their students, - to promote the attention and motivation of the learners. On the other hand, we did not intend to offer "turnkey" methodologies and tools as each strategy must be modeled in an individualized way on highly diversified contexts that have different peculiarities in terms of characteristics and needs. Rather, we wanted to offer references, examples... to glimpse possibilities and potentialities that could raise awareness and stimulate other operators and organizations to make the performing arts an essential element in their practices and educational systems.
In drafting the proposal, the partnership was inspired by the following elements: 1) linguistic and cultural diversity, as a new challenge and opportunity; 2) the crucial role of learning, to be reconsidered in a holistic key; 3) the recognition of the plurality of necessary educational actions with particular attention to cross-agency collaboration; 4) the need to enhance the forms of non-formal and informal learning; 5) the necessary training of prison staff to help create and promote positive learning environments for prisoners. Good practices in adult education show how the arts are a powerful tool in learning strategies that can be used in a diversified and flexible way functionally to the specific needs of the identified targets: learners in detention and their educators. It is evident that educators represent a strategic target for reaching the final target: citizens in detention. It is therefore necessary, first of all, to increase teachers' skills by making available reference tools and methods which, among other things, could allow the use of the arts as "lubricants" in relational mechanisms.