Abstract

MARQUES-MOREIRA, José António; DA SILVA VALENTE, Sónia Patrícia; DIAS-TRINDADE, Sara  and  ANSELMO DA SILVA MACHADO, Ana Carla. Lifelong Learning and Distance Education in an Imprisonment Context in Portugal. Rev. colomb. educ. [online]. 2023, n.87, pp.159-186.  Epub Jan 01, 2023. ISSN 0120-3916.  https://doi.org/10.17227/rce.num87-13082.

Education is considered an inalienable right and the application of a custodial sentence presupposes that the citizen loses only the right to physical freedom, and the necessary conditions for the enjoyment of the other rights must be guaranteed. In this context of deprivation of liberty, Distance Education can play a decisive role by ensuring a diversified offer in lifelong learning. To contribute to the academic training of people in seclusion, a project is being developed in Portugal that is based on the creation of a Virtual Campus, and it is in this context that this study is developed. Starting from the need to know the prison reality, this research has as its main objective to establish, based on the perceptions of prisoners, reeducation technicians, and elements of the coordination of three Portuguese prisons, a picture of the learning conditions in these spaces, and from these perceptions to design a Virtual Campus for education. Framed in a non-positivist paradigm this is a study that emphasizes on the perception of subjects, using a qualitative methodology. The results, obtained through interviews with these actors, allowed us to conclude that the conditions existing in prisons, for the development of educational activities, are very limited and precarious, regarding the existence of study spaces, access to digital technologies, and available materials and resources.

Keywords : distance education; lifelong leaning; reclusion; prisons..

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