Restorative Justice and School Safety: Pedagogy, Praxis, and Discipline

• In Event: Roundtable Session 64
  In Roundtable Session: Restorative Approaches to School Violence Roundtable

Abstract

Restorative justice can be framed as a paradigm shift from social control to social engagement, drawing on three broad leverage points that offer a distinct praxis for the regulation of safety and justice within school communities. A shift from motivational levers that focus on external sanctioning systems (rewards and punishment) to a focus on relational ecologies that draw on the value base of internal sanctioning systems. In this relational context, responding to a safety concern shifts from third party institutional representatives to first parties who are closest to the harm and the community affected. The process of engagement finds reason for emotion, rather than trumping emotion with reason, drawing on powerful motivational ecologies within the lives of individuals and communities.

Authors

• Brenda Elizabeth Morrison, Simon Fraser University

• Dorothy Vaandering, Memorial University