Poster #56 - Strategies for School-Based Practitioners: Promoting Social and Emotional Learning through Student-Led Restorative Interventions

• In Event: Poster Session 14

Abstract

Restorative practices (RP) and social emotional learning (SEL) have been envisioned as an integrative framework for school-based practitioners to engage students in the development of social problem solving (Ward-Seidel et al., 2022). However, little is known about how this integrative framework plays out in practice or the role of practitioners in facilitating this process. This poster describes two case examples of student-led restorative programs implemented in urban, Midwestern high schools and analyzes strategies used to promote SEL skill development.

The authors engaged in a practice reflection grounded in case study methodology (Baxter & Jack, 2008) to examine their own experiences coordinating peer mediation and peer conference programs. To begin, they wrote rich descriptions of the programs based on their recollections and review of program documents. Then, the authors individually coded their descriptions to identify where both programs promoted students’ SEL skills and then reached agreement using a consensus process. Finally, the authors developed categories for the practitioner strategies used. Iterative reflective dialogue allowed the authors to clarify and deepen their descriptions and analyses.

The student-led restorative programs had some important similarities and differences. Both programs were located in high schools serving students of color. In both cases, school-based practitioners trained and supported student leaders to engage participants in social problem solving by asking restorative questions about what happened, who was affected, and what was needed to make things right. The practitioners in both cases also provided student leaders with on-going SEL skill-building to support effective outcomes. A key difference between the programs was the types of issues each addressed. While peer mediators exclusively supported participants to peacefully resolve peer conflicts, peer conference facilitators supported participants in addressing teacher-student conflicts or the root causes of personal issues affecting their academics.

The school-based practitioners implemented strategies rooted in the integrative framework to achieve three interconnected goals. 1) Practitioners empowered student leaders by engaging them in the co-creation of guidelines for interaction, training them to use restorative questions, and providing strategies for student leaders to support participants to practice SEL skills. 2) Practitioners fostered brave spaces by engaging student leaders in relationship-building and restorative skill-building activities, supporting student leaders’ and participants’ use of conflict resolution and empathic communication skills, and implementing program structures that engaged student leaders’ and participants’ social awareness. 3) Student-led RP were made collaborative when school-based practitioners encouraged multiple stakeholders to engage their SEL competencies at the referral, mediation/conference, and follow-up stages of the process.

Overall, the case examples showcase school-based practitioners’ intentional integration of SEL and restorative skill development in a student-led restorative program, which contributed to the empowerment of high school students as agents of social problem solving. This study builds on previous studies that identified authentic student engagement as essential in developing adolescents’ SEL (Yeager, 2017) and restorative skills (Winn, 2018) by describing the strategies school-based practitioners used in an integrative framework. Student-led programs may be particularly important in giving voice to students of color whose voices have been historically marginalized in educational systems (Bertrand, 2018).

Authors

• Jean Sack, University of Illinois at Chicago
  Presenting Author

• Chastity L. Owens