Consultation and Collaboration to Develop and Implement Restorative Practices in a Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Elementary School

ABSTRACT

Through an embedded single-case study design and qualitative methods, this article describes the school-wide implementation and preliminary results of a restorative practices (RP) program within a culturally and linguistically diverse (CLD) elementary school. Located in an urban area with high rates of crime, violence, and poverty, the three-year multisystemic project brought school psychology knowledge and skills to (a) use multicultural consultation and participatory methods to introduce, adapt, and support RP in a CLD school, (b) present findings related to teachers, parents, students, and school climate, and (c) increase youth, parent, and community engagement and voice. The authors developed a comprehensive, culturally relevant model through an interdisciplinary school-university-community partnership. They used multicultural consultee-centered consultation, including bilingual/bicultural practices and cultural brokers, and participatory culture-specific intervention methods to collaboratively design, implement, and evaluate outcomes for students, parents, teachers, and others.

Acknowledgments

This work would not have been possible without the dedicated families, teachers, students, and community who have worked to make this project a reality. We are grateful to The California Endowment and Steve Eldred for support of the larger Wellness and Restorative Practice Partnership. We deeply appreciate the individuals who, in addition to those who are coauthors, have stepped up to leadership roles within this project: Godwin Higa, Principal; Dana Brown, Youth Leadership lead; and Gerald Monk, Dorothy Zirkle, and Bridget Lambert, leads on various domains of the WRPP project; Nancy Serna, parent leader and Community Union President; Mark McGuffey and Ricardo Castillo, teachers; and SDSU graduate students and alumni Armando Godinez, Liliana Gonzalez, Jessica Gutierrez, Libni Lopez, Matt Marchetti, David Martinez, Evelyn Ontiveros, Christyna Prounh, Maria Rodriguez, Kieu Tang, Derek Wager, Bertha Zarate, and all those who contributed.

Notes

¹ The term single-case study refers to the qualitative method of case study research based on a single case (see Jones, Torres, & Arminio, 2014; Merriam, 2009; Yin, 2014). This is different from the single-subject case design used frequently in applied behavior analysis that is grounded in a more quantitative paradigm.

² This project was conducted as part of a larger multisystemic initiative, the Wellness and Restorative Practices Partnership that became the Trauma-Informed Community School Project, funded by The California Endowment. In the larger partnership, community and university organizations collaborated to build a healthy community, reduce violence, and improve school climate, safety, school attendance, youth development and leadership, health and wellness, and sense of community.

³ Team members included several Latinos and Latinas, as well as students of Vietnamese, Cambodian, Hmong, and bicultural heritage, some from families that were in poverty, had limited education, and/or were first-generation immigrants.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Colette L. Ingraham

Colette L. Ingraham, NCSP, PhD (School and Educational Psychology, University of California, Berkeley) is Professor of Counseling and School Psychology at San Diego State University. She specializes in multicultural and cross-cultural school consultation and systemic, MTSS school interventions, with focus on school climate, restorative practices, and trauma-informed services in underserved diverse and multi-lingual communities. She has served in leadership positions within APA, NASP, and TSP and currently is the Co-Chair of the NASP Consultee-Centered Consultation Interest Group.

Audrey Hokoda

Audrey Hokoda, PhD (Clinical Psychology, University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana) is Professor in the Child and Family Development Department at San Diego State University. She has been the Principal or Co-Principal Investigator for over 20 community grants focused on developing, implementing and evaluating youth violence prevention programs in San Diego County and in Mexico, and has published over 20 articles on teen relationship violence, bullying, and domestic violence, particularly in Latino and Asian populations.

Derek Moehlenbruck

Derek Moehlenbruck, EdS (School Psychology, San Diego State University) is currently working as a school psychologist in Oceanside Unified School District, Oceanside, CA. He has specialized training in restorative practices and restorative justice, and at the time of this project, was working one day a week as a school psychology intern at Cherokee Point Elementary school. He is a father and child advocate who believes in never giving up even on the most difficult relationships.

Monica Karafin

Monica Karafin, EdS (School Psychology, San Diego State University) is currently working as a school psychologist in San Diego Unified School District. At the time of this project, she was working at Cherokee Point Elementary school as a school psychology trainee.

Caroline Manzo

Caroline Manzo, EdS (School Psychology, San Diego State University) is currently working as a bilingual school psychologist in Valley Center–Pauma Unified School District, Valley Center, CA. She has specialized training in bilingual school psychology and restorative practices, working with bilingual students, parents, and military connected youth. At the time of this project, she was working one day a week as a school psychology trainee at Cherokee Point Elementary school.

Daniel Ramirez

Daniel Ramirez, EdS (school psychology, San Diego State University) is currently working as a school psychologist in the Jamul Dulzura Union School District, Jamul, CA. He has specialized training in bilingual school psychology and restorative practices, and at the time of this project, was working one day a week as a school psychology trainee at Cherokee Point Elementary school.

Note: The authors report that to the best of their knowledge neither they nor their affiliated institutions have financial or personal relationships or affiliations that could influence or bias the opinions, decisions, or work presented in this article.