When Some of Us Are Brave: Tensions and Challenges in Transforming Justice and Education

• In Event: Addressing Social Trauma in and Through Schools: Humanizing, Restorative Justice, and Critical Hope Approaches

Abstract

Purpose/Objectives:
The purpose of this paper is to examine the “gendering” restorative justice work in schools; that is how girls, women, and people of color are often called on to serve as restorative justice circle process facilitators or circle keepers and, thus, be the “keepers” of justice in one school community. While Black girls are disproportionately experiencing harsh discipline and punishment in schools throughout the United States and, consequently, being criminalized for their ways of being and knowing (Winn, 2015; Morris, 2016), this particular school community depended on Black girl labor to facilitate restorative justice conflict circles and support students who made transitions back to their classroom communities. These circle keepers in the context of my study had a range of lived experiences in schools and in out-of-school communities; however, it is worth noting that their outspokenness was viewed as an asset in the context of restorative justice. Ultimately this study asks, what are the implications of restorative justice becoming “women’s work?” And how does Black girl labor factor into this trend? How can restorative justice be repositioned as the collective work and responsibility of a school community?

Theoretical Framework:
Building on a “betwixt and between” framework (Winn, 2010) that considers liminal spaces that Black girls and women occupy, this study seeks to expand the discourse of restoration and how school conceptualize what is being restored in restorative justice and who is worthy of being restored. And, finally, how can restorative justice student circle keepers support students and educators to access their “usable pasts” for imagining their futures?

Methods:
Using critical participant ethnography, the author was a participant observer in one high school community for two years focused on restorative justice practices in the school. The author generated field notes, interviewed key personnel and students (including a focus group interview with students), collected literacy artifacts such as training manuals and materials used in schools and organizations. All interviews were transcribed and coded in two cycles. Interview transcriptions were also coded using discourse analysis building tasks and, more specifically, “relationships” building tasks that seek to understand the role of language in social relationships (Gee, 2014).

Results:
The author found that most of the student circle keepers (SCKs) in this one high school community were African American girls, who were invited to participate in this work as a way to provide an opportunity for them to be engaged in the school community. These African American SCKs considered their work to be central to the culture of the school with particular attention to the relationships between school personnel and African American students.

Author

• Maisha T. Winn, University of California, Davis