Section 2
Beyond Functionality: Writing for a Better Future Heather Shakespeare
Heather has been teaching in adult education and community learning for 15 years. Her roles have included delivering Skills for Life and family learning courses, initial teacher training, placement mentoring and additional learning support. She currently works in offender learning and can be contacted at
heather_shakespeare@blueyonder.co.uk
“Learning to write, even reasonably well, gives fluency to the rest of life.” This statement would surely resonate with every literacy teacher, but was made by acclaimed writer and university professor Jeanette Winterson in an article on the value of creative writing courses in higher education. Like Winterson, I teach creative writing, though in a decidedly less glamorous
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context and, alas, with very few of her credentials. Yet working in a women's prison, I encounter many people who desperately need fluency in their lives. I also see that this need might in part be met by learning to write, not just for functional purposes, but also creatively. In delivering both Functional Skills and creative
what is often a fractured past and tentatively contemplate what shape the future might take. From this melting pot, immensely powerful writing can and does emerge. Yet it is not only the product which has significance. The process of writing can be equally powerful and has the potential, I believe, to make a significant difference to a prisoner's time inside.
Not least, writing can make life in prison more tolerable, even worthwhile. A number of my learners have described the release it gives, as through the creative process they begin to explore and externalise the mix and mess of their thinking and experience, and hopefully
writing courses, I have become aware that whilst work towards greater understanding and more one is considered to be of pivotal importance and effective management of their emotions. One fundamental to employability and rehabilitation, the other is more likely to be seen by those who determine policy or deliver services as softer, less serious, and very much an optional extra. This article examines the value of teaching creative writing in a custodial setting, its
challenges and rewards, and what it has to offer that Functional Skills does not.
It is about 18 months since the creative writing course was introduced in the prison where I work. During that period, I have delivered the course seven times with minor adjustments at each stage. The target qualification is the Certificate in Developing Creative Writing Skills
at either Level 1 or Level 2, which is awarded by the National Open College Network with a recommended length of 30 guided learning hours, though this has not always been strictly adhered to.
What, then, was the rationale for delivering such a course? Prison is a particularly fertile
environment for writing. A student once asked me why I think people write more in prison. My answer focused on the confluence of factors which is, arguably, peculiar to this place: seemingly endless time, enforced solitude, personal crisis and emotional intensity, any of
learner, who battled constantly with self-harm, said that the creative writing course had encouraged her to use writing “as a release for pent up emotions that I can't talk about”. Another, who had struggled with addictive behaviours throughout her adult life, described the course as “a powerful therapeutic tool for
me”, in the context of detoxing from Subutex (a heroin substitute) and giving up smoking. For some, creative writing also brings an unexpected sense of liberation as they discover, within the confines of their circumstances, the unlimited scope of the imagination. One learner spoke of the course as “very liberating”, an “out of prison experience”.
It can also make prison a more productive place, providing a purposeful and fruitful activity not only in the classroom, but also for the hours the
women spend alone “behind the door”. On the back of this can come an enormous sense of achievement. Many times I have observed the palpable satisfaction as learners finish a piece of writing they have agonised over, particularly when they have an outlet through which to share it. They have something tangible to show for their efforts, something which did not exist the week before, something new and unique amidst the homogeneity of prison life. And, in a place
which could be a catalyst for writing. But I might where they have so little control, this can also have talked of the disempowerment which goes hand in hand with incarceration, the divestment of virtually all responsibilities, and the common struggle to at once make sense of
1. Winterson, J. (2012). Jeanette Winterson: teaching creative writing. Guardian News and Media Limited.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/may/18/ jeanette-winterson-teaching-creative-writing (accessed 1/5/13)
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provide that genuine feeling of empowerment which is critical to effective rehabilitation and citizenship.
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