School outside and inside the prison: open questions and methodologies in an action research project on the theme of legality

We describe and analyze a project on Education to Legality (“Education to legality between schools and the services of criminal and precautionary enforcement limiting of freedom”, 2022-2023) carried on in Lombardy, an Italian Region, as an institutional agreement including the Regional School Office, penitentiary institutions, universities, to outline guidelines and innovative methodology of education to legality between schools and prisons that can be implemented in middle and high school. The project included a training course and workshop activities for school principals, teachers, prison educators, and involved the training and implementation of Action Research groups composed of schoolteachers (who work outside and inside the prison), criminal justice professionals, and university professors/researchers, building a codesigned path of education to legality. This was aimed at both external students and students subjected to measures restricting personal freedom - in prison or under house arrest. We report in detail the activity carried out by an Action Research group established and coordinated by the University of Milano-Bicocca, Department of Human Science for Education. This group also included: two teachers of the high school IIS “Paolo Frisi” (Prison Section) in the Bollate Prison, Milan; two teachers of the IIS “Paolo Frisi” (Adult Education Department), Milan; two legal-pedagogical penitentiary officials; a manager and responsible for the observation and treatment of the Lombardy PRAP (the regional superintendency of the penitentiary administration); two classes of adults of the IIS “Paolo Frisi” (a first-year class of the Bollate Prison, 6 students, and a third-year class of the Adult Education Department,14 students). This contribution presents the initial reflections that emerged from the research, and focuses on the education approaches: times, spaces, methodologies