Restorative Justice in U.S. Schools: Summary Findings from Interviews with Experts
Author: Guckenburg, Sarah
Date: 2015-10-00
Type: Reports - Evaluative
Subjects: Justice,Conflict Resolution,Program Implementation,Literature Reviews,Surveys,Elementary Schools,Secondary Schools,Semi Structured Interviews,Expertise,Focus Groups,Educational Practices,Program Effectiveness,Barriers,Discipline Policy,At Risk Students,Minority Group Students,Educational Environment,Student Participation,Social Development,Emotional Development

This report is part of a larger body of work by the WestEd Justice and Prevention Research Center focusing on restorative justice (RJ) as an alternative to traditional responses to student misbehavior in schools across the United States. This work seeks to document the current breadth of evidence on the subject, provide a more comprehensive picture of how RJ practices are implemented in schools, and lay the groundwork for future research, implementation, and policy. The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) funded WestEd beginning in 2013 to conduct research to identify current themes and issues about implementing and sustaining RJ in schools. To gather data on RJ practices and issues, WestEd conducted a comprehensive review of the literature, interviewed experts in the field of RJ (people recognized nationally for their expertise on RJ in schools), and surveyed and/or interviewed RJ practitioners currently working with or in U.S. schools. This report presents a summary of 43 interviews conducted with experts in RJ between January and October 2014. The authors initially identified these experts through a literature search of RJ in schools, supplemented by online searches. They used a snowball sampling technique to identify more experts by asking each individual interviewed for recommendations of other people in the field to contact. The authors then analyzed interview notes to identify and categorize common themes. Although RJ has been practiced in schools in other nations such as Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom, they focused this report on RJ in elementary and secondary schools in the United States. Most of the experts interviewed work in the United States. Four WestEd staff conducted the interviews by telephone; each interview lasted about one hour. Using a semistructured protocol, interviewers asked the experts about their background and experience, how they define RJ in their work, what successes and challenges they had experienced implementing RJ in schools, and what additional research is needed in the field. WestEd staff also conducted an informal focus group with 15 experts and practitioners of RJ in schools who were attending the University of Vermont's Annual Conference &quot;Restorative Justice, Responsive Regulation and Complex Problems&quot; in July 2014. The authors incorporated the focus group feedback into this report of interviews with experts. They present the main findings from the interviews under the following topic areas: (1) Current work related to restorative justice in schools; (2) Defining restorative justice in schools; (3) Key practices of restorative justice in schools; (4) Successes and challenges of implementing restorative justice in schools; and (5) Suggestions for future research on restorative justice in schools For each topic area we have included some relevant quotes from the interviews. The following are appended: (1) Experts Interviewed for This Report; and (2) Appendix B: Protocol for the Expert Interviews.