Inside-out graphic header image
Inside-out graphic header image

Our Book

– Edited by Simone Weil Davis and Barbara Sherr Roswell

Using the successful Inside-Out program, in which incarcerated and non-incarcerated college students are taught in the same classroom, this book explores the practice of community-based learning, including the voices of teachers and participants, and offers a model for courses, student life programs, and faculty training.

"Read this book! It's so important that we end the separation between 'us' and 'them' – those labeled 'prisoners,' 'criminals,' 'felons.' It is this separation and demonization of the 'others' and our failure to truly see, hear, and engage with those who have been locked up and locked out that makes it easy for us to remain in deep denial about what we, as a nation, have done. Inside-Out challenges that denial in a powerful way."
– Michelle Alexander, Professor of Law, Ohio State University, USA, and author of The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness

"Turning Teaching Inside Out shows us what can happen when 'inside' students and 'outside' students invest themselves in each other and in a shared learning process – then apply the wisdom of their collective experience to the work of social analysis. The authors of these essays have helped give shape to a powerful learning model that links individual awakening, community engagement, and large-scale social transformation. This important book deserves to be widely read, and the program on which it is based deserves to be widely emulated."
– Parker J. Palmer, author of The Courage to Teach, Let Your Life Speak, and Healing the Heart of Democracy

"It's so important that people can really talk to each other, hear each other, and learn how to build community together. Inside-Out makes space for that to happen, and to me, this is the real value of education. Teachers and learners, whether you're inside of prison or out, I urge you to read this book! In Turning Teaching Inside Out, many inspired voices present the reader with ideas about how we can infuse higher education with deeper meaning and create more justice in the world through dialogue."
– Sister Helen Prejean, Congregation of St. Joseph, USA, and author of Dead Man Walking

Winner of Society of Professors of Education Book Award 2014

Sarah Allred, Damien Arnaout, Shahad Atiya, Nathan Belche, Charles Boyd, Shawn Brown, Angela Bryant, Kristin Bumiller, Gitte Wernaa Butin, Mario Carines, Melissa Crabbe, Kyle Daniel-Bey, Kayla Follett, Phil Goodman, Keisha L. Green, Gillian Harkins, M. Kay Harris, Erin Howley, Nyki Kish, Amelia Larson, Jim Nolan, Yasser A. Payne, Paul Perry, Shoshona Pollack, Lori Pompa, Todd Robinson, Jessie Rodger, Steven Shankman, Giovanna Shay, Matt Soares, Daniel Stageman, Ella Turenne, Tony Vick, Tyrone Werts, Lucas B. Wilson

Turning Teaching Inside-Out book cover


graphic link button to purchase the book, Turning Teaching Inside Out

Click here to apply to the 2025 Inside-Out Instructor Training Institutes.