Teacher Consultation to Enhance Implementation of School-Based Restorative Justice

Abstract

Restorative justice (RJ) is an alternative approach to school discipline that has been gaining recognition in the public and academic spheres as a way to engage students who misbehave in school. RJ has promise to address racial/ethnic, gender, and disability disproportionality in school discipline. One aspect of school-based RJ that has received almost no attention in the literature is the professional development and ongoing support of teachers in schools using RJ. This article provides a review of extant literature on school-based RJ, teacher training, and consultation methods. Integrating the empirical literature on school consultation and teacher professional development, we argue that schools should implement a multitiered model of professional development to build teacher competency in RJ, specifically including the use of targeted teacher consultation. The proposed model is complementary to an RJ framework, systematic, and capable of evaluation; future research is needed to evaluate its effectiveness in practice.

Restorative Consultation in Schools: A Systematic Review and Call for Restorative Justice Science to Promote Anti-Racism and Social Justice

“…A systematic review of school RJP was conducted four years ago by Mayworm, Sharkey, Hunnicut, and Schiedel (2016) in which they focused on consultation and professional development (PD). They found only three research articles that reported on the influence of PD on RJP all of which reported positive effects.…”

“…It is important to underscore, however, that the lack of research in this area is problematic for schools, especially those facing problems with racial equity in discipline practices and school culture and climate, given that "in-house" consultation is critical to the effective and durable implementation of any intervention including school RJP (Doll, Nastasi, Cornell, & Song, 2017;Forman, 2015;Mayworm et al, 2016). While the reasons for this lack of science vary, one of them is likely to be that consultation research is challenging to conduct in schools (Erchul, 2015).…”

“…As discussed by Mayworm et al (2016), traditional models of consultation (behavioral, consultee centered, and organizational) clearly play a role in school RJP. Still, it is also possible to develop a consultation model that is restorative, or consistent with restorative justice principles, in its foundations.…”

“Too much changing has happened to go back”: professional development, paradigm shifts and poetry

“…Primary justice being the "condition of respect, dignity, and the protection of right and opportunities for all, existing in relationships when no one is wronged"; and secondary justice being the "response to harm or crime" (Evans & Vaandering, 2016, p. 7). Thus, restorative justice through honouring the worth and working relationally for the well-being of all, seeks to uphold and restore the worth, dignity and interconnectedness of all people allowing them to be fully contributing members of their various communities and RJE becomes holistic in its efforts to cultivate this by creating just and equitable learning environments, nurture healthy relationships, and repair harm and transform conflict (Evans & Vaandering, 2016, p. xiii) Few studies have examined pd experiences that are rooted explicitly in such normative theories (Mayworm, et al, 2016). Toews, (2013) in analysing her own experience with pedagogy grounded in restorative justice values, identifies that transformation results for participants in her courses when she intentionally incorporates restorative justice values.…”

The Cart Before the Horse: The Challenge and Promise of Restorative Justice Consultation in Schools

“…It is clear that the RJ literature is in dire need of the wisdom of school consultation literature, as there is a dearth of research on the topic. Therefore, the works of Mayworm, Sharkey, Hunnicut, and Schiedel (2016) and Ingraham et al (2016) are critical for bridging this gap. First is a muchneeded review of the RJ consultation literature, an evaluation of how varying consultation models fit with RJ, and a proposed model for RJ consultation to guide research and practice.…”