Restorative Approaches for Education: “Right” Relationships in Curriculum, Classrooms, and School Cultures

• In Event: Roundtable Session 2

Session Type: Roundtable Session

Abstract

Through both curriculum analysis and empirical case studies, this symposium provides critical insights into how a growing restorative justice movement may or may not be transforming schools. Panelists reject current conceptions of restorative justice as a set of training models that can be applied to every school. We argue that restorative approaches are based on building ‘right’ relationships determined by stakeholders within particular school contexts. Drawing upon feminist relational theory and critical race theory, we address principles that may guide a restorative approach (e.g. contextualism and dialogism). We also provide illustrations of how students and educators interpret restorative approaches (e.g. talking circles and living curriculum) in diverse school settings. Taken together these papers address the possibilities restorative approaches provide for citizenship education curriculum, inner-city elementary schools, and secondary school cultures in Canada and Scotland.

Sub Unit

• Division B - Curriculum Studies / Section 1: Critical and Post-Foundationalist Perspectives and Practices

Chair

• Joel Westheimer, University of Ottawa

Papers

• A Restorative Approach to Civic Learning in Canada - Kristina R. Llewellyn, University of Waterloo; Jennifer Llewellyn, Dalhousie University

• The Restorative Approach at Halifax City School: A Critical Case Study - Amy Boudreau, Mount Saint Vincent University

• The Politics of Restorative Justice in Schools: Lessons From Students’ Perspectives in Scottish and Canadian Schools - Kristin Reimer, University of Ottawa