“What Are We Restoring?” Black Teachers on Restorative Discipline

Abstract

School leaders seeking to implement restorative justice discipline practices in diverse urban schools have a series of subtle and crucial decisions to make that are omitted in the literature on alternatives to suspension. The current chapter examines one group of Black teachers from a larger study of schools using restorative practices. In interviews and observations, these teachers demonstrated Du Bois’s theory of Double Consciousness; they recognized both the institutional dynamics of the school’s discipline policy and the ways in which enactment of that policy ultimately replicated traditional racial inequality. They repeatedly challenged restorative theory and practices in terms of their relevance to students whose everyday reality involved police violence, community violence, and impoverished living conditions. While praising its potential as a foundation for communication and trust building, they perceived its implementation as a way to restore obedience for the student and restore order in the school. While stemming from one group of teachers in one school setting, my findings beg important questions for school leaders, researchers, and policymakers concerned with school discipline reform.

Citation

Lustick, H. (2017), "“What Are We Restoring?” Black Teachers on Restorative Discipline", The School to Prison Pipeline: The Role of Culture and Discipline in School (Advances in Race and Ethnicity in Education, Vol. 4), Emerald Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 113-134. https://doi.org/10.1108/S2051-231720160000004007