Recruitment & Training
Holistic Preparation: Dual Approvals
Faculty who teach in HEP programs routinely express appreciation for students, for the unique experience, and for the opportunity to participate in life changing work. That said, it is a complex teaching endeavor that requires special training and often distant travel.
Within SDSU's HEP program, faculty must be approved by their home department for disciplinary expertise and by VISTA for teaching in the prison. This dual approval supports the engagement of expert faculty who are also ready and willing to teach in a HEP program.
Disciplinary Expertise
Faculty who teach in HEP programs are required to have the same disciplinary knowledge, degree requirements, and expertise as faculty who teach comparable courses on campus.
Engaged Teaching
In addition to disciplinary knowledge, preparation for HEP faculty includes teaching in a way that engages all learners, including interactive components such as discussion and dialogue, collaboration, and opportunities to practice new processes, such as academic citations, speaking in front of the class, or engaging with a diversity of perspectives.
“Presenting my research poster in front of faculty and peers from the yard was an experience that built my confidence and benefitted me as a scholar.”
Prison-specific preparation
HEP programs are bound by the rules and regulations requirements of the correctional institution where they lead classes. This includes clearances and training for anyone who is to enter the institution, including faculty and staff. Training from correctional staff focuses on safety and security in a prison, rules and regulations related to communicating with students who are incarcerated, what is allowed to bring in and requirements for bringing anything (including books and class materials) in and out of the prison, and other guidelines specific to the security level and/or specifications of that institution.
Lived experience-informed guidance
VISTA aligns with general best practices in HEP which considers that people with lived experience are vital to the process of teaching, learning, training, and program creation. A faculty, student, or staff member with lived experience should be part of the training and leadership team and can provide context to both new and experienced faculty members.
“It's very important to have diversity in our faculty across all things like age, ethnicity, lived experience with incarceration or not, everything…Disciplinary expertise is the most important thing. And we're looking for authenticity and for people to be open-minded and willing to teach in this space, willing to make the drive, willing to teach in an interactive and engaged way, and to understand that these are students in a different setting…”
“The faculty who thrive in the VISTA program are those who really see a deep connection between what we are doing and the value of education more philosophically. [VISTA students] are almost always, if not always, first-generation college students, and these are individuals who would never have probably had an opportunity to go to a university like SDSU, and so we need faculty who really recognize that this is a unique and special opportunity. That to me it strips it down to the purpose of higher education, which is to change lives. Those faculty are the ones who really thrive and get the most out of the program because you get to see the students grow so much and it's extraordinarily rewarding to see.”