Elementary School Teachers of Color and Implementation of Restorative Practices With Students With/Without Disabilities

• In Event: Forging Community Through Intersectional Disability Studies in Education

Abstract

Restorative justice can be defined as an approach that focuses retroactively on repairing the harm caused by an offending behavior, while still holding the offender responsible for their actions, but without the use of harsh, zero-tolerance disciplinary measures (Comier, 2002). Restorative justice practices in schools have been shown to improve classroom communities and reduce inappropriate disciplinary practices for students of color in secondary settings (Anyon et al., 2016; Gregory, Clawson, Davis, & Gerewitz, 2016; Vincent, Swain-Bradway, Tobin, & May, 2011). However, there is a lack of information on how such practices could be implemented with younger students, in elementary school classrooms.

Research Questions
Therefore, we posed the following questions:
What restorative practices do exemplary/experienced teachers of color use in their elementary classrooms?
How do these teachers implement restorative justice practices with their students with and without identified disabilities?

Framework
We draw from the framework of disability studies and critical race theory, known as DisCrit (Annamma, Connor, and Ferri, 2013). In particular, we focus on the ways in which race and ability intersect to inform the beliefs and perceptions of teachers, especially those who teach students with/without disabilities using restorative justice practices in elementary schools. Our use of DisCrit draws from a need to counter existing deficit narratives of children of color with/without dis/abilities.

Research Design
We used a qualitative design and selected a small set of elementary teachers of color working in the Bay Area, California. Participants were recruited using a social justice network, and social media groups. We selected three teachers who (a) worked as elementary school teachers, (b) had at least one student identified with a disability in their classroom, (c) self-identified as using restorative practices, and (d) self-identified as teachers of color. Each teacher completed three in-depth, in person interviews; six journal prompts; and an audio recording of restorative classroom practices from January to June 2019.

Sample Results (LC)
LC, a Latina special education 2nd grade teacher in a public elementary school, explained that her approach to restorative justice was about using it as a lens to help students understand the importance of classroom community. LC creates and maintains this community by “honoring and respecting [her students] and their observations” (Interview, 2).
It's funny how aware kids are about differences. One of my students, who, while we are reading a book, called “The Little Black Dog” says, "Why are all the animals black?" And I was like, "I don't... know." And he says, "And why are all the kids white?" And when I looked at it, I thought, well there's a little kid in a wheelchair, right, so it's inclusive, but ... it really was not. And we closed the book and read something else. I don't know, I guess I wanted to really honor the student, like “I can see your point.” And maybe it wasn't the intent of the author to exclude anyone, but I definitely saw what he meant. And I think about giving kids that respect and really honoring that.

Authors

• Saili S. Kulkarni, San Jose State University

• Melanie Chong, Vanderbilt University