Not just threats and weaknesses: Seeking opportunities for the teaching/learning of mathematics in prison schools

Scientific literature about teaching/learning mathematics within the context of schools in prison is very scarce. Framed by Educational Design Research, the Learning Math in Prison project started with an exploration phase of the context, realised together with Italian mathematics teachers in prison schools. The analysis conducted till now pointed out several categories of characteristics of the process of teaching/learning mathematics in Italian prisons. With the desire to better understand the nature of this process, more than listing and defining these categories is required. In this contribution, we wonder what the relationships between these characteristics are, focusing on some of them in particular. Alongside several weaknesses relating to the specific context, mathematics teachers identify particular opportunities that may prove helpful to support design principles for mathematical tasks within the prison context.