Moving Away From Zero Tolerance: The Challenges Encountered by a New York City High School Implementing Restorative Approaches to Discipline

• In Event: 72.021 - Learning From Ethnography: How We Make Change in Urban School Discipline

Abstract

Objectives
Negative schooling outcomes experienced by minority boys have attracted attention from a broad range of researchers and education practitioners. One of the most troubling findings regarding minority males’ school experiences is their overrepresentation in disciplinary consequences. In New York City, the site of this study, black students represent 33% of the student population but account for 53% of suspensions over the past decade (National Civil Liberties Union 2011). Suspensions and expulsions result in a critical loss of instructional time for offending students and are correlated with a host of negative outcomes ranging from disengagement in school to involvement in the juvenile and criminal justice systems (American Psychological Association 2008).

Though a large body of research confirms that school removal policies do not successfully deter misbehavior or maintain safety and order in schools (Kupchik 2010; Nolan 2011), little research has investigated alternative practices. Restorative justice, an emerging approach to discipline, can take many forms including peer mediation and restorative conferences, which facilitate dialogue between individuals in conflict. This research contributes to the conversation around school discipline by producing an ethnographic account of an urban high school’s implementation of restorative approaches to discipline and challenges encountered in the implementation process.

Perspectives/Theoretical Framework
This work is situated in an understanding that macro-level social forces such as school segregation, the legal climate of schools, and zero-tolerance policies at the federal, state, and local levels have undermined key relationships in schools that must be rehabilitated in order to effectively and fairly discipline students (Arum & Velez, 2012; Kuscera & Orfield, 2014; Noguera, 2008). The paper is particularly interested in the role that restorative approaches play in altering key in-school relationships and the challenges that schools encounter as in-school relationships are altered.

Data Sources and Methods
This paper draws upon data collection at the School for Restorative Justice (pseudonym) collected during from 2014-2015. Data collection activities included approximately 200 hours of observation as well as 50 semi-structured interviews with key administrators, teachers, and students at the school site. Observation notes, interview transcripts and reflection memos written throughout the data collection process have been uploaded to MAXQDA, a computer-assisted qualitative data analysis software program. I use initial coding, pattern coding, and data display techniques (Miles, Huberman, & Saldana, 2014) to identify emerging themes and assertions related to my research objectives.


Results and Significance
This paper will present findings about the form and structure of restorative approaches to discipline as well as the challenges related to the implementation of restorative approaches in a New York City public high school. Data analysis is in progress but initial analysis suggests that three broad categories of challenges will be addressed in the findings: teacher resistance to restorative approaches, challenges associated with teacher-student relationships, and challenges related to the implementation process (i.e. need for additional training for teachers, staff confusion about restorative process, etc.). This study addresses a critical need for research on non-exclusionary approaches to discipline, approaches which provide an important leverage point for improving school outcomes for minority students.

Author

• Sarah Lazarus Klevan, New York University