Poster #84 - Restorative Justice Ideology Among Ghanaian High School Teachers: Examining Associations with Moral Reasoning and Religiosity

• In Event: 2-055 - Poster Session 06
  In Poster Session: PS 06 Section - Education, Schooling

Integrative Statement

Grappling with student misbehavior such as vandalism is a global challenge (Hemphill, Plenty, Herrenkohl, Toumbourou & Catalano, 2014). Disciplinary approaches such as suspension and expulsion aim to deter other students from misbehavior and create a conducive learning environment, but these approaches can be counterproductive (Kalimeris & Borrelli, 2013). An antidote is restorative justice (Payne & Welch, 2015; Teasley, 2014). Restorative justice processes converge stakeholders in an offense, and address harm to repair damaged relationships between victims, the community and the offender (who has accepted blame) (Jenkins, 2006, Zehr, 2002). Diverse faith-based teachings have influenced modern restorative justice practices (Dignan, 2005). An association exists between religiosity and the tendency towards moral idealism, which involves prioritizing others’ welfare and circumventing harm (Baumsteiger, Chenneville, & McGuire, 2013). The current study examined whether idealism and religiosity would make unique contributions to endorsement of restorative approaches and whether religiosity would moderate and/or mediate the association between idealism and restoration.
The study was conducted in the cosmopolitan and ethnically diverse capital city of Ghana, a developing West African country. Christianity is the dominant religion in Ghana (71.2%), followed by Islam (17.6 %), the African Traditional Religion (5.2 %), and other religions (5.3%). Teachers in public (government-owned) senior high schools are mostly University graduates with some teacher training experience. A total of 191 teachers (128 men, 63 women) of mean age 37.81 (SD=9.32) years were recruited from public Senior High Schools in Accra. Measures included the Restorative Justice Ideology Instrument (e.g. “I have a moral duty to help students to get back on track”; Roland, Rideout, Salinitri & Frey, 2012), the Ethics Position Questionnaire (e.g. “The existence of potential harm to others is always wrong, irrespective of the benefits to be gained” representing idealism and “Questions of what is ethical for everyone can never be resolved since what is moral or immoral is up to the individual” representing relativism; Forsyth, 1980), and the Santa Clara Strength of Religiosity Scale (e.g. “My faith impacts many of my decisions”; Plante & Boccaccini, 1997). Bivariate correlation revealed significant positive associations between both restoration and idealism, r(156)=.42, p<.01, and restoration and religiosity, r(162)=.13, p=.044. The association between religiosity and idealism was significant, r(156)=.22, p=.003. Relativism was not significantly associated with restoration. Through multiple regression, idealism uniquely contributed to the prediction of restoration (β=.35, p<.01) while religiosity did not (β=.05, p=.530). The moderating effect of religiosity on the association between idealism and restoration was tested. The interaction term was not significant (β=.11, p=.166) indicating that religiosity did not significantly moderate the association between idealism and restoration. Furthermore, religiosity failed to mediate the association between idealism and restoration (β=.04, p=.530). The findings of the study indicate that moral idealism is linked to a restorative ideology; essentially, idealist teachers appear to esteem the dignity of all students and disdain all harm, thus promoting reparation. Arguably, children could develop prosocial behavior and concern for others’ welfare under such tutelage, thus enhancing their social development.

Authors

• Feikoab Parimah, University of Ghana
  Non-Presenting Author

• Makafui Davour, University of Ghana
  Non-Presenting Author

• Mawuena Ivanna Badasu, Concordia University
  Presenting Author