"You Can't Just Suspend Your Loved One": Restorative Practices and School, Family, and Community Relationships

• In Event: Drawing on Experience-Near Knowledge: Understanding School (Dis)Engagement Through Youth and Educator Voice

Abstract

Over the past several years, accumulating findings about the detrimental effects of exclusionary discipline have prompted calls for alternative approaches to discipline (U.S. Department of Justice, 2014; Schiff, 2013; Gonzalez, 2011). In parallel, the past few decades has seen a growing consensus in the research base around the factors that support student success (Aspen Institute, 2019; Jones & Kahn, 2017). Accordingly, there is increasing attention on adopting educational approaches, including approaches to discipline, that are rooted in strong, caring relationships, and address all of a young person’s needs (Osher, Bear, Sprague, & Doyle, 2010; Darling-Hammond et al., 2019). Restorative approaches to understanding and responding to student behavior may be effective models for improving trust, relationships, and a sense of connectedness amongst students and school personnel (Gregory et al., 2016; Acosta et al., 2019; Augustine, 2019). However, research on how schools are implementing restorative justice is scarce (Song & Swearer, 2016). While there is a rapidly emerging research base on the student level outcomes associated with restorative practice, less is known about the process of implementation and whether and how restorative approaches to discipline may impact broader ecological relationships between schools, families, and communities.

The current study adds to the knowledge base around the use of restorative practice in U.S. schools through the analysis of ten 45-60 minute interviews with school leaders engaged in implementing restorative practices. Specifically, this paper seeks to explore the experiences of public secondary school leaders in high adversity districts implementing restorative practices in their schools, consider the critical junctions in creating this disciplinary paradigm shift, and understand what successful implementation looks like in their school communities. Thematic analysis (Braun & Clarke, 2006) of the interviews revealed five key findings:

•Restorative practice depend on community and relationships
•Discipline should be about learning
•A shift in power dynamics
•Moving from a restorative to transformational justice
•Meaningful change takes time

This presentation represents an ongoing research-practice collaboration between former colleagues; a teacher and current doctoral student who created and led the current study, and an educational leader from an urban K-8 school on the West coast. We will review all findings from the study and specifically explore the findings of how restorative practice shifts the traditional power relationships of disciplinary systems, and moves towards what participants described as a transformational justice.

Through a telling of multiple stories from research and practice, the session will explore the potential of restorative practice to create a transformative shift in the traditional distribution of power and voice typically involved in school discipline. Further, drawing from the research findings as well as personal experience, we will discuss the ways that “doing” restorative practice may involve fundamental shifts in the relationships between schools, families, and community members. Our presentation will close with a discussion of implications and possible next steps in research, policy and practice.  

Authors

• Max Margolius, Boston University

• Jeff Embleton, ASCEND