ABSTRACT
This chapter highlights social justice approach to teaching and learning and draws upon ideas stemming from Paulo Freire in his famous work The Pedagogy of the Oppressed. Many women who are prisoners and ex-prisoners feel profoundly disempowered by virtue of their life experiences. Health problems experienced by women prisoners and ex-prisoners need to be addressed not only at the individual therapeutic level but also require an understanding of issues affecting health created by broader socio-political and economic issues of disadvantage, discrimination and poverty. This chapter is addressed to those who are interested in developing and implementing curricula around these ideas and within the value system that has been articulated by Freire. It includes the role of prisons in society; the culture of prisons and the impact of this upon the health of prisoners and upon those working within the system; the effect upon local communities of women's imprisonment; issues surrounding reentry to the community and advocacy for structural change.
