Adult learning behind bars: a case study of prison education in Kyrgyzstan

This study examines prison education in Correctional Institution No. 3 in Kyrgyzstan, focusing on how educational provision is experienced and implemented within the institutional, social, and policy conditions of the prison environment. Using a mixed-methods case study design, the research combines semi-structured interviews with educators, prison administrators, and NGO representatives (n = 7) with a survey of 35 male inmates enrolled in vocational education. The findings identify three interrelated dimensions of prison education: learner-centred interaction, practical relevance, and transformative possibility. These dimensions emerge from contradictions between individualised educational relationships and institutional hierarchy, learner choice and standardised structures, and the practical value of education and the immediate economic pressures faced by inmates. Rather than portraying prison education as simply a mechanism of rehabilitation or a uniform educational process, the findings demonstrate that it is a negotiated practice shaped by institutional conditions. The study contributes to research on prison education by offering a context-sensitive account of educational provision in Kyrgyzstan and the wider post-Soviet Central Asian context, a region that remains underrepresented in the literature.