Abstract:

The purpose of this study is to analyze the essence of good teacherhood through young prisoners’ school experiences and memories in order to find means to prevent antisocial and exclusion-oriented development in youths. The assumption is that young prisoners’ teacher descriptions include also positive memories. How do they describe teachers who have supported them or could support children’s school going? How do the research participants perceive themselves in relation to teachers and teachers’ actions? The data consisted of young prisoners’ narratives regarding their school time. Twenty-nine young prisoners, aged 17-21, from two prisons in northern Finland participated in the study. This study employed the narrative research approach. The data were obtained through free-form interviews that resembled the narrative interview method. The qualitative content analysis and the narrative analyzing models were employed when analyzing the narrative data. According to the young prisoners’ perceptions, good teachers shared certain features and skills that could be categorized into three: interaction skills, pedagogical and didactic skills, and subject knowledge. The study contributed unique information about the positive actions and features of teacherhood that can support the school work also among the children in danger of exclusion.

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