Attitudes of California Department of Corrections educators toward inmate learners

Purpose of the study. The purpose of this study was to examine the attitudes of correctional educators in the California Department of Corrections toward their inmate learners.;Findings. The attitudes of correctional educators seriously impact the probability of educational success as defined by breaking the cycle of recidivism by providing training and instruction to inmate learners. The data indicated that a majority of the correctional educators possess a positive attitude toward their jobs as indicated by their desire to remain in their teaching or instructional position. The data also indicated positive attitudes toward the inmate learner, and generally showed sensitivity toward inmates with learning disabilities. The data showed no relationship between gender of educator or inmate learner, or the number of years spent by the educator in either the public or private educational system to correctional educators' attitudes toward inmate learners. Implications for future research, training and educational policy development in the correctional education setting are provided.;Procedure. A total of 228 surveys were mailed out and 156 correctional educators from the 23 correctional institutions in operation as of January 1993 responded. A systematic sampling process for selecting the survey participants, based upon a percentage or like number of vocational and academic educators, was utilized. Eight research questions were analyzed by means of one- and two-way Multivariate (MANOVA) analyses, Univariate (ANOVA) analyses, Wilks' Lambda, frequency and percentage results derived from the survey instrument.