New Blog: Back to School
After many many years of indecision, false starts, hesitation and procrastination I have taken the step to return to postgraduate education.
I’ve wanted to do a Masters degree for ages and ages but a few small obstacles have delayed the application. Over the fifteen years (good grief) since I graduated from Salford with a BA (Ord) in Mental Health Nursing, I have wanted to continue in some form; I initially enrolled on the Diploma course in 2006, because it came with a bursary - without which I couldn’t have even considered the career change at the time.
It wasn’t until the second year we were given the option to switch to the degree programme which gave us the BA, with the option to become honourable later, should we wish to. I wished to - and did some vocational modules towards it - but as I have documented at length in the ‘Nursing Notes’ section of this page other things got in the way. At the time I simply didn’t have the mental bandwidth, concentration, motivation, confidence or time to look into further education beyond mandatory training. So I thought this shortfall would be something I’d need to address first.
Also, I wasn’t sure what I actually wanted to do, I just knew I really wanted to deep dive into something. I had designs on further Mental Health options, Criminology, Forensics, History, Archaeology, the list went on. So I did what was my best option at the time - nothing. Thankfully that turned out to be the best decision because it afforded me a short ten years to develop healthier habits and strategies, bringing with it a slightly clearer idea of what I want to do when I grow up. (To be clear, spaceman is not off the table.)
It was this blog and the ability to look back on my time working in the prison with freshly therapied reflection, which brought some themes to the surface which have never really left me since I worked there. I want to understand why people do the things they do - but more than that I want to understand the systems in which those things are done, and what that means.
I am very aware of the personal biases which come through in this blog - I firmly believe that in this country we operate a justice system which is touted as rehabilitative when it suits the image, but in reality is punitive by design or by neglect. Without an extant support network available to the individual through family or social contact, the chances of success post incarceration are grim simply because the system is set up to fail. This is at the expense of those people working themselves into the ground to keep it functional, as well as the people it is intended to support.
Is this true though? I have a lot of anecdotal first-person evidence to suggest it is, but I worked in a prison with the most chaotic, sporadically engaging clients who could very well skew that hypothesis. I want to be able to write with more conviction and authority than ‘One time when I was in the prison I saw…’ - it’s not a worthless point of view by any means but I want to be able to challenge it, question it and come to some sort of reasoned argument. In order to really get into this, I need to understand the concepts underneath it. I’ve found what I really want to do.
I started researching my options. Returning full or even part time to a brick-and-mortar university is just not feasible, I work full time and I need to continue to do so to keep me in… a house. So distance learning/online was my only realistic option and I kept coming back to the Open University. I’ve heard so many great things about the OU and I’m fortunate enough that the option is within my budget both in terms of time and finances, so I focused my research there. After a lot of back and forth reflecting on whether I really am ready to do this (my wife Pam has been instrumental in this, mainly via a much appreciated and supportive kick up the arse) I settled on a course which ticks every box, while adding a few more I hadn’t actually considered.
The MA in Crime and Justice describes itself thus:
This masters degree explores new perspectives and ways of thinking about crime, harm and justice. It is concerned with examining problematic areas of social life, transgression, ‘crime’, social harm and justice. You will consider the significance of power, social structure, and economic and social inequalities in understanding ‘crime’, and processes of criminalisation in local, transnational and global contexts. Studying this qualification will enhance your ability to think critically about problems of crime, social harm and the delivery of justice.
It’s exactly what I want to do. It could have been written for me.
So I applied. I had to give a summary of relevant vocational development in lieu of the shortfall in BA Hons, but perhaps the fact I’m a bajillion years old stood in my favour. Either way, they accepted my application without issue.
I’m on the course. It starts in a little under 3 weeks.
The reason for posting all this here is because:
I’m fizzing with childlike excitement. I’m currently devouring all the pre-course prep material and trying to get myself into regular daily habits in terms of study time etc.
I just read that a reflective study journal is encouraged. I was thinking about doing it anyway, but being specifically encouraged to blog about it sealed the deal. Hence the name of this post, it’ll be the name of the journal.
I’m going to keep it in a separate section and make it an optional sub, as I imagine reading a reflective learning diary might not be everyone’s cup of tea. But it’ll be useful to me to keep it updated as regularly as possible - if only to keep my head nice and empty for all the new facts and stuff.
I can’t wait.