'I am a learner': research on college in prison wins a national award

For many of the 24 students Rosemary Russ, Christine Pribbenow and Valerie Nguyen followed, school had once been a place that told them they did not belong. Their University of Wisconsin–Madison study — life-history interviews before and after college courses taken inside correctional institutions — watched that story change: students began describing themselves, in the study's title phrase, as learners, taking ownership of their education. The work has now won the 2026 Imogene Okes Award for Outstanding Research in Adult Education, a national honour for scholarship that moves its field.

SDG 4 · Quality education — Mechanism: institutional program