Social Justice in Schools

[Excerpt from my reflection journal for EPSE 585 Social and Emotional Development in Education course at UBC].

I find the topic of restorative or restitution-based approaches to discipline particularly interesting as I observe behavioural challenges in the school I currently work at and think about how we could do better. I hear stories from coworkers regularly about the problematic behaviour of students in the classrooms and around the school in general; ranging from truancy and death threats to physical fights and police incidents.  The challenge, from what I hear, is that there are very few consequences; students are sent out of the room or to the office from which they often peace out. 

As I reflect on this topic, I also think about the Special Education programs I’ve worked in over the years.  The programs designed for unexpected behaviour; where we’re in our own space with small staff to student ratios, our schedule is broken down into manageable time slots and lots of breaks are given. We have snacks for them and academic work is adapted or modified to meet their needs, we also talk about and address SEL topics on a daily basis.  Regular classrooms do not have this luxury, teachers are often alone with double the number of students.  When behaviour rises for us, we are set up to deal with it as a team, with strategies and with direct consequences. When behaviour rises for others, they often resort to sending the student outside or to the office so that they will stop disrupting the class. But what else are you to do?

Over my career, I have often heard the adage "behaviour is communication". I've heard this/been told this many times working with children with autism and appreciate this perspective when faced with challenging behaviours because it helps you not to take things personally. Glasser's Choice Theory takes this a step further because it helps one identify the basic need that underlies the behaviour, meaning that it should be easier to find a way to solve or soothe the problem/communication breakdown. For schools in low socioeconomic neighbourhoods with many families that have experienced poverty, addiction, abuse and trauma.  The people in this community have already felt a lot of isolation, pain and punishment for things that were out of their control (read: colonization and residential schools), can we really expect more isolation, pain and punishment to make a positive difference? Unfortunately, consequence has somehow been equated to punishment and obviously no-one wants that. So, how do we hold students accountable for their actions in a way that doesn’t punish them but steers them away from their anti-social/negative behaviours? I don’t have the answer yet but I like the concept of restorative justice as a place to start.

Restorative justice is defined as “a system of criminal justice which focuses on the rehabilitation of offenders through reconciliation with victims and the community at large”.  Where retribution is about punishment and focuses on the negative, reconciliation is about making amends; to me that sounds like a better world to live in.  In this regard, I like Morrison’s (2015) perspective on restorative justice, highlighting respect, responsibility and relationship as key components to be addressed alongside school’s traditional focus on reading, writing and arithmetic.

“The paradigm shift, from retribution to restoration, reframed our response to people in conflict with each other and institutions, through asking different questions: who has been harmed; what are their needs; whose obligations are these?”. - Morrison

When I think about this and about the challenges many schools face, I wonder how we may address student’s needs better and empower creative conflict resolution skills. Using models like Glasser’s may provide schools with a lens to work with students in a more intentional and constructive way rather than merely removing or isolating students further; how do we bring them in and not push them out?

References

Glasser's Choice Theory: https://wglasser.com/quickstart-guide-to-choice-theory/

Morrison, B.E. (2015). Restorative justice in education: changing lenses on education's three R’s. Restorative Justice, 3, 445 - 452.