Teacher Consultation to Enhance Implementation of School-Based Restorative Justice

ABSTRACT

Restorative justice (RJ) is an alternative approach to school discipline that has been gaining recognition in the public and academic spheres as a way to engage students who misbehave in school. RJ has promise to address racial/ethnic, gender, and disability disproportionality in school discipline. One aspect of school-based RJ that has received almost no attention in the literature is the professional development and ongoing support of teachers in schools using RJ. This article provides a review of extant literature on school-based RJ, teacher training, and consultation methods. Integrating the empirical literature on school consultation and teacher professional development, we argue that schools should implement a multitiered model of professional development to build teacher competency in RJ, specifically including the use of targeted teacher consultation. The proposed model is complementary to an RJ framework, systematic, and capable of evaluation; future research is needed to evaluate its effectiveness in practice.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Ashley M. Mayworm

Ashley M. Mayworm, MEd is a doctoral candidate in the Counseling, Clinical, and School Psychology Program at the University of California, Santa Barbara. She has recently completed a psychology pre-doctoral internship at the Center for School Mental Health (CSMH) at the University of Maryland, Baltimore. She has accepted a position as a postdoctoral fellow at CSMH beginning August 2016.

Jill D. Sharkey

Jill D. Sharkey, PhD is faculty in the Department of Counseling, Clinical, and School Psychology at the University of California, Santa Barbara. She graduated from UCSB in 2003 with a PhD in Education and earned the distinction of Nationally Certified School Psychologist. She is heavily engaged in community-based research designed to understand ways school, juvenile justice, and mental health systems can engage and teach rather than exclude or punish children to help them lead healthy, productive lives.

Kayleigh L. Hunnicutt

Kayleigh L. Hunnicutt, MA, MEd is a doctoral candidate in the Counseling, Clinical, and School Psychology Program at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Her research focuses on school mental health, risk and resilience factors of adolescents, substance use, criminal justice involved populations, and alternatives methods of discipline for adolescent and adult populations.

K. Chris Schiedel

K. Chris Schiedel, MEd is a 2014 graduate of the Counseling, Clinical, and School Psychology Program at the University of California, Santa Barbara. He completed a school-based internship with the City of Burlington Public School District in Burlington, NJ in 2015. He became a Nationally Certified School Psychologist in 2016, and continues to work as a school psychologist in Burlington, NJ.

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.