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Abstract
The aim of this study is to investigate educational background, educational wishes, actual participation in prison education, and self-reported learning problems among former child welfare clients in prison. A significant concern is that prisoners' educational level is far lower than for the general population. The same concern has also been expressed regarding former child welfare clients. The question is whether prisoners with a background from the child welfare system are especially vulnerable. The survey reported in this paper addressed the entire Norwegian prison population. We distributed a questionnaire containing questions about whether the prisoner or their family had been in contact with the welfare system, educational issues such as educational background, whether they wanted to participate in prison education and actually participated, and to what extent the participants had self-reported learning problems. We also investigated whether such learning problems affected participation in prison education. The results showed that around one-third of the 2065 respondents were former child welfare clients. The mean age of the respondents in the child welfare group was 31 years and 7.9% were women. The results further revealed that those who had been child welfare clients had a lower educational level and more self-reported learning problems than the general prison population, but most of them still wished to start an education while incarcerated.
En betydelig bekymring er at innsattes utdanningsnivå er langt lavere enn for den generelle befolkning. Den samme bekymring har også blitt uttrykt angående tidligere barnevernklienter. Hensikten med dette studiet var derfor å undersøke spørsmål knyttet til utdanning hos tidligere barnevernklienter i fengsel. Spørreskjemaundersøkelsen denne artikkelen baseres på rettet seg mot hele den norske fangepopulasjonen. Skjemaet inneholdt spørsmål om hvorvidt den innsatte eller hans eller hennes familie hadde vært i kontakt med barnevernet, i tillegg til spørsmål om utdanningsbakgrunn, utdanningsønsker, utdanningsdeltakelse og selvrapporterte lærevansker. Vi undersøkte også om slike lærevansker påvirket deltakelse i utdanning i fengsel. Resultatene viste at rundt 1/3 av de 2065 respondentene var tidligere barnevernklienter. De som hadde vært barnevernklienter hadde lavere utdanningsnivå og mer selvrapporterte lærevansker enn fangepopulasjonen forøvrig, men de fleste av dem ønsket å begynne en utdanning i fengsel.
Acknowledgement
We would like to thank senior adviser Torfinn Langelid at the County Governor's office, headmasters of the prison schools, and the prison governors who organized the data collection and the prisoners who participated.
Notes on contributors
Hilde Hetland, Ph.D., is a professor in educational psychology at the University of Bergen, Norway. Dr Hetland's research is related to child welfare, prison education, leadership, and motivation.
Anette Christine Iversen, Ph.D., is a professor in social work at the Department of Health Promotion and Development, University of Bergen, Norway. Dr Iversen's research is related to child welfare, complex problems, interagency collaboration, and knowledge and competence in child welfare services.
Ole-Johan Eikeland is a social and political scientist and researcher at Eikeland Research and Teaching, Norway.
Terje Manger, Ph.D., is a professor in educational psychology at the University of Bergen, Norway. Dr Manger has published books and journal articles on topics such as gender differences in mathematics, educational motives and self-concept, prison education, behavioral problems in school, and general educational psychology.