Restoring School Climate: Teacher Perceptions of Relationships, Restorative Practices, and School Climate

• In Event: Marriott Roundtable Session 12
  In Roundtable Session: "It 'Works,' but Will It Work for Me?" Supporting Teachers' Restorative Practice

Abstract

Purpose

Exclusionary school discipline practices such as suspensions and expulsions have been drawing increasing criticism for being harsh, unnecessary, and detrimental to student outcomes (Balfanz, Byrnes, & Fox, 2014; Bottiani, Bradshaw, & Mendelson,2016). These practices are also negatively associated with positive perceptions of school climate (Gage,Larson, Sugai, & Chafouleas, 2016). The purpose of this paper is to explore teacher experiences and perceptions of restorative practices as an alternative to exclusionary discipline and a way to improve school climate.

Theory, Methods, and Data Sources

This paper is part of a larger study that employs grounded theory techniques and consists of more than 30 semi-structured interviews of a convenience sample of general and special education teachers, support staff members, administrators, and students in four New Orleans area charter schools. This paper, as part of the larger study, highlights and compares teacher experiences across these schools, all of which have been implementing restorative practices to varying degrees. Participants have experienced extreme exclusionary models of school discipline as well as restorative models.

Results

Findings show that an emphasis on building relationships can both facilitate, and be a result of, stronger implementation of restorative practices. On the other hand, while most teachers interviewed support the idea of restorative practices, such factors as staff turnover, lack of administrator support, lack of teacher experience and training, and an emphasis on testing, make strong classroom implementation and relationship-building difficult, thereby affecting perceptions of school climate. Staff retention measures, improved administrator support, and teacher trainings focused on restorative practices could result in better implementation and stronger relationships, in turn improving school climate. On the federal policy level, decreased emphasis on testing could allow teachers to spend more time on classroom implementation of restorative practices and relationship-building.

Significance

The significance of this paper rests in its emphasis on the voices of teachers who have had varied experiences with school discipline models, and therefore have insights that policy makers on all levels may lack. The grounded theory methodology of this study centers these voices rather than couching them in preconceived philosophies that might obscure the core messages.

Author

• Estilla S. Lightfoot, Tulane University