Comments on: Restorative justice in education – possibilities, but also concerns

By: David Fletcher

David Fletcher — Tue, 29 Jul 2014 14:40:24 +0000

Kathy, your posting has encouraged me to make connections outside of my current college and school of education to explore how other educators are addressing a philosophy of restorative practices including restorative justice in both k12 schools and in schools of education. I have over the past year been working with TeachersUnite.net, a restorative practices teacher advocacy group with members from across NYC and the International Institute for Restorative Practice (www.iirp.edu) and have discovered incredible efforts and results undertaken by individuals and organizations. What I have discovered is that schools of education (as far as my discussions and reading have indicated, including my own) are not addressing preparing future educators to understand and or practice restorative practices including restorative justice. We are planning a April 25, 2015, RP Gathering in the Bronx to include a range of participants (high school staff and students, school of educ faculty, teacher candidates, community organizations, govt agencies) in our efforts to open up a more substantial discussion in NYC. All my best, David Fletcher

By: Irene Sheppard

Irene Sheppard — Wed, 02 Jul 2014 22:58:25 +0000

Thank you for this article! I see the same issues--that teachers or counselors are asked, sometimes with less than 8 hours of training, to implement a philosophy that can take years to truly understand. And I struggle with the same question: does it make sense to "fake it till you make it?" Should teachers/counselors try the practices, even if at first, they don't deeply understand the philosophy, with the hope that experiential learning will make the philosophy clearer later? Or is the risk too high that we will spread wrong ideas about restorative practices, or do more harm than good? Is there any data on this conundrum? I'd love to know! http://www.restorativity.com/do-you-have-to-understand-restorative-philosophy-to-get-restorative-results/

By: David Yusem

David Yusem — Fri, 27 Jun 2014 04:19:43 +0000

Thanks for writing this Kathy. It is a huge struggle to make a culture shift at a school district while still operating in the culture you are trying to shift. Quality time for training is also a challenge. We can barely get principals to attend a day long training – three days sounds amazing.

The little victories keep us going…student empowerment, student requests for circles rather than fighting, and teachers and other adults experiencing the power of this process. In fact, changing adult behavior is probably the hardest part about implementing restorative justice in schools. At Oakland Unified we have a saying…”We do discipline one adult at a time”.