Restorative Discipline Practices as a Relational Approach to Building School Climate and Addressing Student Behavior

Format

Individual Presentation

First Presenter's Institution

University of Houston-Victoria

Second Presenter's Institution

Georgia Southern University

Third Presenter's Institution

NA

Fourth Presenter's Institution

NA

Fifth Presenter's Institution

NA

Location

Session 1 (Ballroom F)

Strand #1

Social & Emotional Skills

Strand #2

Safety & Violence Prevention

Relevance

Restorative Discipline fosters belonging over exclusion, social engagement over control, and meaningful accountability over punishment. Fostering these social and emotional skills within our school community addresses the Heart conference strand, and equipping the school community with strategies to effectively respond to challenging behavior addresses the Hands conference strand by making schools a safer place.

Brief Program Description

This session provides insight into the moral commitment schools have to their students, how Restorative Discipline Practices can assist in building a campus climate and culture that supports this commitment, and how to facilitate the circle process to cultivate positive relationships amongst the school community.

Summary

According to Boyes-Watson and Pranis (2015), schools are the single publicly funded social institution where children grow up in the company of adults. This unique circumstance provides schools with an opportunity to redress social inequality by serving as centers of stability, continuity, and community that care for our most fragile and challenging students.

According to Claassen and Claassen (2008), 10% of one’s life experience is dependent on what happens to them and 90% is based on how they respond. Everyone responds, in some way, when conflict arises. Often times, the response is unconscious and predictable, based on patterns learned in our daily life, and without an arsenal of effective strategies, teachers, school leaders, and students get caught up in an unmanaged cycle of conflict. Restorative Discipline Practices transforms the traditional school discipline structure into a process that invites accountability and responsibility for one’s own actions (Claassen & Claassen, 2015).

Restorative Justice, defined as “a process to involve, to the extent possible, those who have a stake in a specific offense and to collectively identify and address harms, needs, and obligations in order to heal and put things as right as possible” (Claassen & Claassen, 2008), serves as the foundation for Restorative Discipline in schools. Restorative Discipline fosters belonging over exclusion, social engagement over control, and meaningful accountability over punishment. Basic principles, values, and processes of Restorative Discipline Practices and interventions in school settings is necessary to build community and for responding to challenging, behavior through open dialogue, coming to an understanding, and creating opportunities to set things right.

This session provides insight into the moral commitment schools have to their students, how Restorative Discipline Practices can assist in building a campus climate and culture that supports this commitment, and how to facilitate the circle process to cultivate positive relationships amongst the school community.

Evidence

Restorative Justice dates back more than 1,100 years as an effective technique to foster caring relationships within a community of people. The indigenous people used the concepts and techniques outlined in Restorative Justice to teach accountability and responsibility for one's behavior. More recently, the concepts and practices of Restorative Justice have been adapted to provide a restorative and caring discipline structure for schools. There is a growing body of research to support this structure that fosters belonging over exclusion, social engagement over control, and meaningful accountability over punishment as an effective way to turn around some of the toughest schools in our nation.

Biographical Sketch

Dr. Summer Pannell has two decades of experience in public education as an educational leadership faculty member and P-12 administrator and teacher. During her tenure as principal, she received national recognition for her school closing achievement gaps and served on collaborative committees to develop statewide principal and teacher evaluation systems. Dr. Pannell currently serves as Associate Professor of Educational Leadership at the University of Houston-Victoria. Previously, she served as Coordinator of Field Experiences for both, superintendent and principal preparation programs, in Texas and in Georgia and as the Ed.S. in Educational Leadership program coordinator at Georgia Southern University. Dr. Pannell also serves as the Director of the National Leadership Development Consortium, a non-profit organization focused on the development and retention of school leaders, and as a consultant for The National Literacy Institute. Dr. Pannell earned a Ph.D. in Educational Leadership at the University of Mississippi and an M.Ed. in Curriculum & Instruction at Union University. Dr. Pannell holds superintendent, principal, and teacher certification in multiple states and is a certified Restorative Discipline Practices trainer of trainers.

Keyword Descriptors

restorative discipline, restorative justice, social emotional learning, leadership

Presentation Year

2020

Start Date

3-9-2020 10:30 AM

End Date

3-9-2020 11:45 AM

This document is currently not available here.

Share

COinS
 
Mar 9th, 10:30 AM Mar 9th, 11:45 AM

Restorative Discipline Practices as a Relational Approach to Building School Climate and Addressing Student Behavior

Session 1 (Ballroom F)

This session provides insight into the moral commitment schools have to their students, how Restorative Discipline Practices can assist in building a campus climate and culture that supports this commitment, and how to facilitate the circle process to cultivate positive relationships amongst the school community.