Culturally Restorative Instruction

Abstract

Although the findings from a 2018 Rand Corporation study reported that restorative practices positively influenced classroom and school-wide socio-emotional attainments, it, however, had little impact upon advancing the academic outcomes of learners of color. The source of this regression emerges through the feedback reported from teachers interviewed. Their feedback revealed that a “lack of time” constrained the development of restorative practices in the classroom. This occurs as the time needed to develop the community through restorative practices was made to compete against the time needed to deliver core academic instruction. As such, the conditions that influence the student's learning are isolated from the conditions that influence the teacher's teaching. This dichotomy routes the routine of planning, preparing, organizing, and executing restorative practices as happing either “TO” or “FOR” rather than “WITH” the delivery of core academic instruction and “THROUGH” epistemological inclinations of culturally-responsive teaching practices.