Weaving restorative justice into the fabric of school life helps build community, increase comfort with RJ practices and values, and grow capacity for healing-centered responses to harm. Participants spoke about the importance of making RJ a “ritual” by designating time and physical space for youth and adults to use restorative practices in day-to-day school life.
Read More...Many people described the frequent use of talking circles—in school-wide gatherings, classes, community celebrations, etc.—as a key way to get comfortable with sharing emotions and experiences. Through this personal sharing, members of the school community are able to learn more about each other, deepen relationships, and build a stronger sense of community. We heard about the particular power of having adults model vulnerability, self-reflection, and admitting mistakes, all of which can make students feel more comfortable opening up. River explained this ripple effect this can have, telling us “Youth view [adults] as sort of like a robot, like they’re perfect. And I think when they have authenticity and they appear human and non-perfect, that’s when you get a better and more stable bridge between both communities.” Even the non-hierarchical format of talking circles is a simple way to interrupt the power dynamics in schools, ensuring everyone has a chance to speak.
Restorative practices take getting used to, and we shouldn’t first be introduced to them in the middle of conflict or the aftermath of harm. Ritualizing restorative justice creates regular opportunities to build the relationships, communication skills, and trust (in people and the process!) that enable people to work through conflict and harm when it does occur. For instance, Khione told us how in her middle school, “We have [community building] circles that are used for more than just problems on Friday. And that gets new students used to the idea that there’s a circle that’s used to solve problems.” Critically, the basic experience of participating in a talking circle was seen by many as a key way to build buy-in among the entire school community: youth, staff, and families.
At the same time, participants spoke about many obstacles to this sort of routine and relationship building, including inconsistent staffing, funding, and policy directives, with staffing changes seen as especially disruptive by both staff and students.
Listen to Community Voices
Hear from students, parents, and educators about why it’s so important to make rituals & relationships, as we build restorative school cultures.
“[RJ] was kind of instilled in our curriculum, to be able to do a circle…. At first it was uncomfortable. To sit down and be like, this is how I feel, this is why I’m upset, or this is why I did this, or this is why what you did upset me or hurt me, and vice versa…. Our school is student-led, so all the teachers wanted us to be able to call a circle ourselves… So it was also building us up to that point where we were comfortable enough to be able to ask that to a teacher, another student. Over time, we all got a little bit more comfortable with it. Many, many of us got way more comfortable with it.”
“Before students went to their classes [every morning], we spent 15 minutes just doing community building, led by students… with the support of their advisors. There was a lot of student empowerment, but also a space of joy and celebration. It became a community ritual… This was such an important part of our restorative community because it helps students think of even circles… not as something where you go when you’ve done something wrong, but as something that you also come together to… just build community… But also a place where, when there was community-wide harm… we could address it.”
“Be consistent with using whatever practices you’re putting into place and just doing it. Every day, having rituals, so that students are seeing adults doing it and then students are seeing their peers do it. It’s really important to be consistent with whatever that policy or program looks like…. For students to have rituals and norms when they come into a space, so they know what to expect…. When you’re walking into a school building with your principal standing at the door waiting to greet you, doing that every day creates a sense of safety, a sense of knowing… I can count on this person being here for me…. Whatever we say we’re doing, we just need to do it consistently, so students know that we’re showing up for them.”
[Overhearing her child’s zoom class discussing a tragic event] “When I heard the teacher showing the video, my first response was like no! …I want my child to see [the video] at home… But when I silenced myself and was able to listen to this teacher, seeing how the approach was to my child…. I was like ‘Whoa, this school is amazing, that teacher really knows what he’s doing’… And I love the fact that towards the end, the teacher responded in a personal, emotional way. It wasn’t so much that the teacher was like ‘Okay class, X, Y Z happened, and you did a great job.’ No, the teacher made it a personal matter… saying, ‘I love you guys’… He showed gratitude and that he appreciated them for being who they are, and for their opinions and participation in the class.”
“I would advise [new students] to create bonds with people in our school, especially with a teacher or two so they may be able to talk to someone on all levels of the school, and they can realize that everyone has stuff in common. The fact that we already practice community building skills and use circle could be the outlet for them to begin on that journey of feeling welcomed and like family.”
“How do you show [students] who you are outside of that classroom space or that school? I feel like so many adults are so guarded and so students are like, ‘Mmmm I can’t trust you. I don’t know anything about you’…. But how do you create a space where it’s like we’re all learning and ‘I struggle with this as an adult, and what are you struggling with?’ ‘Oh, me too when I was your age,’ you know? All those little things make such a big difference in whether students feel safe enough to share with you. Or even be themselves… respected for who you are. Can I show up in the space as who I am? Or is this teacher one to judge me and yell at me?”
“[Before COVID] maybe 80% of the restorative work we were doing was repairing harm and conflict. Now [with remote and hybrid learning], the large focus is community building, connection building—which should be the foundation of restorative work anyway. But I think because of the nature of schools and how busy it is, it’s natural to kind of jump in and try to repair harm, or start from the end…. And now that we’ve had more opportunities to build community, I believe that’s contributed to less disciplinary and conflict things going on because… there’s more of a general level of respect. Setting the restorative process up and getting acquainted with circles and the values… It takes time. It’s not something that can just be jumped into and done for the sake of getting it done…. Actually taking the time to lay that foundation to establish those beginning steps of values and the guidelines, and then in the long run having it be much more meaningful and impactful… I’ve seen the effect when we don’t do that.”
Work through Contradictions
Vent Diagrams help us reflect on the challenges, complexities, and contradictions of doing this work, and figure out how we can keep moving forward. Here is one of the big tensions we heard from participants about making rituals & relationships in school communities.
RJ thrives with consistency
Schools face constant change
Talk with Your Community
What does this look like for you and the people in your life? Use these questions to explore ideas about rituals & relationships with others in your school and communities, laying the groundwork for community understanding and making change.
Explore. What do you think of when you hear the word “ritual”? What rituals have you seen in your community?
Share Experiences. Can you tell us about an experience you have had that could have benefitted from more time to build relationships or understandings?
Envision. Who in your community could benefit from time to regularly connect and communicate? Where and when could that take place?
Explore. What are the things you feel you need to do on a daily basis? Why are they important parts of your schedule or routine?
Share Experiences. Is there somebody in your life you would want to communicate with more regularly? What is your relationship like with that person, or what would more time to communicate with them allow you to do?
Envision. If you were tasked with leading a weekly space for community members to come together and reflect, what ideas or topics would you want to talk about?
Make It Happen
The young people, educators, and parents we spoke with shared incredible examples of how they are already making rituals & relationships in their schools, as well as visions of the world we must keep fighting for.… This is what RJ can look like, when it’s On Our Terms.
Build School Practice
Here are specific ideas about how school communities can build rituals & relationships.
- Integrate community-building circles into the routine for all students, staff, and families (via student advisory, staff meetings, family events, etc.) to foster the development of relationships and familiarity with restorative justice practices in a non-conflict setting.
- Use circle practice and modeling of vulnerability (by staff, students, parent leaders) to build trust and normalize talking about feelings, asking for help, and learning from mistakes throughout the school community.
- Center student-leadership in community-building efforts with other young people and in intergenerational spaces.
- Provide consistent communication to the whole school community publicizing upcoming community events, leadership opportunities, and the growth of RJ practice.
Raphie S: The school where [we] had more of an RJ foundation everywhere, we had a really strong advisory program, everyday first period and a real social emotional learning space. And all the advisories had two advisors, one person whose background was more youth development and the other who was an academic teacher, who were partnered to work with these same 20-25 students for their full four years. So the relationships formed were pretty substantive, usually over time. And we had a pretty strict no switching policy. And so people really had to learn how to live with each other because you couldn’t just switch up… Advisory met in circles and checked in every morning, and had a lot of really strong existing ritual that you did every day, regardless. And so when something really upsetting or traumatizing or disruptive would happen [in the school community], there was a lot of built-in space…. students knew that they were going to have a space to talk about it… at the beginning of the day. That was really powerful.
Demand Policy Change.
Here are some key policies needed to better support our schools in making rituals and relationships.
- Allocate specific time and funding to support community-building practices and programs (e.g., expand advisory to all schools, discretionary funding for community events, adult- and peer-led mentorship programs).
- Fund RJ-related staff in every school, including RJ coordinators, social workers, guidance counselors, and other support staff (e.g., paraprofessionals), with an emphasis on recruiting BIPoC staff who reflect the student population.
- Make RJ circle keeper training accessible to all DOE staff, as well as student and parent leaders in school communities or citywide positions.
Click here to learn more detail about these and other policy recommendations.