Restorative Justice in the Classroom: Liberating Students' Voices Through Relational Pedagogy

by Crystena A. H. Parker-Shandal

Overview

This book focuses on how teachers can transmit and practice values through classroom circles that attend to and empower all students’ voices. A growing number of teachers are using relational pedagogy, drawing on Indigenous circle practice, as a pedagogical tool. Done well, circles can build and sustain dialogue and peaceful relations. Done poorly, circles reflect and reinforce relations of power, which, if disregarded, can be damaging for participants whose voices are silenced or not sufficiently heard. Parker-Shandal’s consideration of teachers’ professional learning and training in restorative justice in education focuses on ethnographic, classroom-based research in diverse urban elementary schools. Her data include observations of classrooms, teacher surveys, and interviews with students, teachers, and principals. The book provides a detailed account of the lived experience of students and teachers as they engage with and experience the transformative power of constructive dialogueabout conflicts embedded in curriculum subject matter through restorative justice pedagogies.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9783031165924
Publisher:	Springer International Publishing
Publication date:	01/13/2023
Edition description:	1st ed. 2022
Pages:	292
Product dimensions:	5.83(w) x 8.27(h) x 0.00(d)

About the Author

Crystena A. H. Parker-Shandal is Associate Professor of Social Development Studies at Renison University College at the University of Waterloo, Canada. Her research on peacebuilding education in diverse multicultural classrooms with marginalized children shows how dialogic pedagogies facilitate inclusive spaces where all students have the opportunity to participate and have their voices heard. She is the author Peacebuilding, Citizenship, and Identity: Empowering Conflict and Dialogue in Multicultural Classrooms (2015) and co-editor of Finding Refuge In Canada (2021).

Table of Contents

1. Circles: A Pedagogical Praxis for Inclusion and Resistance.- 2. Transforming Justice in Diverse Classrooms.- 3. Building a Sustainable Practice: Restorative Training and Mentorship.- 4. Implementing Restorative Teaching in Five Elementary Schools.- 5. The Pedagogical Value of Conflict: Dialogue and Dissonance in Restorative Classrooms.- 6. Relational Connections in Classroom Curriculum: Power and Privilege in Diverging Perspectives.- 7. Classrooms of Control and Connection: Restorative Approaches to Building Community and Resolving Interpersonal Conflicts.- 8. Educating for Justice: Building Restorative Futures for Students to Thrive In.

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

“Parker’s book moves educators and administrators away from thinking about restorative justice solely as a disciplinary response and instead toward an understanding of restorative justice in education (RJE) and circles as ways to create just and equitable classrooms that encourage diverse perspectives and problem solving. Her sound theoretical framework coupled with real teachers’ implementation struggles and achievements offer us a vision of how circles and RJE can confound mandates to teach false narratives by elevating marginalized voices, promoting critical thinking and deep listening, and transforming conflict through circle and restorative dialogues.”
—Martha A. Brown, Author of Creating Restorative Schools: Setting Schools Up to Succeed (2018), USA

"This book is an important and timely offering to the field of RJE–adding to a growing conversation that positions anti-racism and relationships at the centre of RJE. Drawing on five years of ethnographic data, Crystena Parker-Shandal provides an intimate look at life within the classroom and RJE’s potential to either transform relationships and power structures or transmit oppressive status-quo values (and usually a mix in between). The circle discussions in the book bring the reader directly into the daily rhythm of a classroom, in all its awkward, uncomfortable, inspirational, and mundane glory. The reader relates to the teachers as they make decisions in the moment regarding how to respond to student comments, experiences and emotions; the reader also senses the incredible impact that such decisions can have on student relations and wellbeing. With sensitivity and respect, Crystena supports teachers through this book to better embody an anti-racist approach to RJE. This is definitely one for the next Restorative Book Club!”
—Kristin Elaine Reimer, Senior Lecturer, School of Education, Culture, and Society, Monash University, Australia, and author of Adult Intentions, Student Perceptions: How Restorative Justice is Used in Schools to Control and to Engage (2019)

“Parker-Shandal’s book invites the reader into a deep reflection of how circle dialogue can intervene effectively in challenging and perhaps balancing power dynamics in the classroom including the inherent power of adult educators in relation to children. Through her thoughtful and thorough analysis of research conducted during teacher training and classroom implementation of restorative practice, we are called to question how these processes are taught and how they can be implemented in various educational settings with educators who bring their own bias and experiences to their workplace. We come away with a new understanding of the complexity of conflict and community in school cultures as she guides us articulately to conclusions that will increase the effectiveness of restorative practice in schools to help all students feel that they genuinely have a voice inthe classroom circle.”
—Miriam Zachariah, Retired Principal, Toronto District School Board, Circle Keeper, Peacemaking Circle Trainer and Restorative Practice Trainer, Canada

“We are all from the human race and we all have emotions, experiences and backgrounds that might be different than others in the circles we sit. Parker-Shandal invites educators to be a part of the circle and not simply leaders of the circle, and gives us a deeper understanding of what can happen in the circle, a space to learn about others and about ourselves. Conflicts bring deeper understanding of others and provide us with a new perspective simply by listening and being present.”
—Lorrie Gallant, Cayuga Nation Six Nations of the Grand River Territory, Author, Illustrator, Educator and Artist