Restorative Justice and Practice in School Settings

Abstract

The proposed chapter will explore the complexities and challenges involved in navigating shifts toward restorative justice paradigms in post-primary (ages 12-18 years) school settings. It details a case study example of a community of practice (CoP) within an Irish second-level school. The dilemma that was presented was how to breathe life into restorative practice throughout the school - to establish and extend the use of restorative practices in classrooms. The chapter distills the tricky dilemmas and possibilities when seeking to build restorative cultures within a post-primary school setting and the necessary components to navigate the cultural and paradigmatic shift that is required. CoP meetings catalyzed the transformative potential of restorative practices to reframe embedded pedagogic cultures and afforded participant teachers the opportunity for ‘restorative learning.' Working in committed, dialogic ways, teachers came to recognize the complexity of young students' lives and create conditions for their voices to emerge in authentic ways.