In accordance with changing social conditions, correctional education must be guided by certain principles: (1) theory informs practice; (2) knowledge can inhibit transformative learning; (3) culture inhibits crime; (4) teachers can function as students and students as teachers; and (5) what goes around comes around. Correctional education is a role modeling arena, and professionalization in correctional education is closely associated with personal characteristics that accrue from maturation and with skills and experiences that lead to qualification and licensure. Correctional education must reflect the major changes that have occurred in national and world politics and must be congruent with related cultural and social changes that have transpired. 9 references