ABSTRACT Building supportive communities and improving programming for incarcerated persons can be difficult due to stereotypes derived from culture, media, and personal upbringing. Such stereotypes, like the narratives from which they are derived, are socially constructed. To develop an understanding of how those narratives construct “others” and to transform stereotypes of incarcerated “others,” we adopted a communication perspective on the problem of overcoming stigma, designed a course to promote transformative learning, and employed service-learning as a way to bring students into contact with incarcerated men in a regional prison facility. Students’ reflections over two semesters in the service-learning course revealed that interaction with people who were incarcerated transformed their beliefs and values about those with whom they worked, resulting in an attitude of “just mercy” toward people who were incarcerated and making possible a more humane understanding of themselves and those members of our communities who are incarcerated.

中文翻译：

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迈向难以想象的阶段：通过在教养所中的服务学习来转变有关被定罪的人的对话

摘要由于文化，媒体和个人教养产生的陈规定型观念，建立支持性社区和改善被监禁人员的计划可能很困难。这种刻板印象，就像它们产生的叙述一样，是社会建构的。为了加深对这些叙事如何构成“他人”的理解并改变被监禁的“他人”的陈规定型观念，我们就克服污名化的问题采取了交流的观点，设计了促进变革性学习的课程，并采用了服务学习作为一种方式。使学生与地方监狱中的被监禁男子接触。在服务学习课程中，学生对两个学期的反思表明，与被监禁人员的互动改变了他们对与他们一起工作的人的信念和价值观，