Restorative Practice Meets Social Justice: Un-silencing the Voices of “At-Promise” Student Populations is a collection of pragmatic urban school experiences that focus on restorative approaches situated in the context of social justice. By adopting this approach, researchers and practitioners can connect and extend long-established lines of conceptual and empirical inquiry aimed at improving school practices and thereby gain insights that may otherwise be overlooked or assumed. This holds great promise for generating, refining, and testing theories of restorative practices in educational leadership and will help strengthen already vibrant lines of inquiry on social justice. The authors posit that a broader conceptualization of social and restorative justice adds to extant discourse about students who not only experience various types of daily oppression in US schools but also regularly live on the fringes of society. Chapters are written by a combination of researchers and practicing school leaders who believe in the power of healing and restoring relationships within school communities as opposed to traditional punitive structures. The dynamic approaches discussed throughout the book urge school leaders, teachers, school community members, and those who prepare administrators to look within and build bridges between themselves and the communities in which they serve.

The global economic meltdown has highlighted the interconnectedness of nations. This book seeks to provide an overview of topics, issues, and best practices related to defining social justice leadership given our increasingly global world. Refugees and immigrants from around the globe now inhabit schools and institutions of higher education across the nation and US students, teachers, and leaders are traversing international boarders both physically and virtually through international collaboration, technology, and exchange programs. Although there have been increased efforts and scholarship in support of diversity and multicultural awareness, these efforts have largely focused on the US. We acknowledge that many leadership theories are “domestic” in that they typically incorporate US perspectives or a single-culture description of effective leadership. This book provides a deeper understanding of diverse and multicultural perspectives as they relate to a world that is becoming increasingly interconnected economically, socially, and culturally. Particular attention is paid to providing specific strategies for social justice leaders working in PK-12 and/or higher education, and leadership preparation programs to promote effective leadership that reflects multicultural understanding of the diversity both within and outside the US. Within the context of leadership practice, internationalization offers new insights and ideas about leadership aims, processes, and competencies as a means for addressing equity concerns throughout PK-20 education.

This book is designed to help you navigate the challenges and joys of building and maintaining a healthy restorative ecosystem in your school, while providing concrete tools and real-world stories to guide you through the process. Traditional methods of discipline are commonly found to be ineffective, and this book shows how restorative justice can benefit schools in a huge variety of ways, such as decreasing the need for suspensions, increasing academic outcomes, and improving the health of your whole school community. Written by the founder and the education director of the National Center for Restorative Justice, each and every chapter is packed with expertise on everything from carrying out the stages of a restorative circle to understanding the importance of conflict. The authors pull no punches in showing that this work is not always easy, but their passion for restorative justice shines out of every page, demonstrating just how valuable this approach can be in bringing the absolute best out of your students and school.

This work helps in rethinking behaviour management in the whole school through the use of restorative justice methods. School conferences have proved remarkably successful in teaching students about their responsibilities and accountability to other people. This manual fulfils an important role by outlining the techniques to learn and apply when planning and facilitating conferences. It includes guidance on: analysing current school practice; deciding whether to hold a conference; preparing a conference; convening and facilitating a conference; and, follow-up after a conference. The book contains many key documents such as preparation checklist, conference script, typical agreement, evaluation sheet and case studies. It is suitable for ages 8-16.

The Handbook of Social Justice Interventions in Education features interventions in social justice within education and leadership, from early years to higher education and in mainstream and alternative, formal and informal settings. Researchers from across academic disciplines and different countries describe implementable social justice work underway in learning environments—organizations, programs, classrooms, communities, etc. Robust, dynamic, and emergent theory-informed applications in real-world places make known the applied knowledge base in social justice, and its empirical, ideological, and advocacy orientations. A multiplicity of social justice-oriented lenses, policies, strategies, and tools is represented in this Handbook, along with qualitative and quantitative methodologies. Alternative and conventional approaches alike advance knowledge and educational and social utility. To cover the field comprehensively the subject (i.e., social justice education and leadership) is subdivided into four sections. Part 1 (background) provides a general background of current social justice literature. Part II (schools) addresses interventions and explorations in preK-12 schools. Part III (education) covers undergraduate and graduate education and preservice teacher programs, classrooms, and curricula, in addition to teacher and student leadership in schools. Part IV (leadership) features educational leadership and higher education leadership domains, from organizational change efforts to preservice leader preparation programs, classrooms, etc. Part V (comparative) offers interventions and explorations of societies, cultures, and nations. Assembling this unique material in one place by a leading cast will enable readers easy access to the latest research-informed interventionist practices on a timely topic. They can build on this work that takes the promise of social justice to the next level for changing global learning environments and workplaces.

Restorative Justice Today: Applications of Restorative Interventions takes a hard look at the issues and concepts surrounding restorative justice and current restorative practices used in a broad range of areas today. In a time when the cost of prisons and jails is on the rise resulting in more offenders being kept out of the community, this timely and contemporary book exposes readers to a range of restorative practices that can be implemented. The authors, renowned experts in the area of restorative justice, provide information not found in other restorative justice texts.

The untold story of the root cause of America's education crisis--and the seemingly endless cycle of multigenerational poverty. It was only after years within the education reform movement that Natalie Wexler stumbled across a hidden explanation for our country's frustrating lack of progress when it comes to providing every child with a quality education. The problem wasn't one of the usual scapegoats: lazy teachers, shoddy facilities, lack of accountability. It was something no one was talking about: the elementary school curriculum's intense focus on decontextualized reading comprehension "skills" at the expense of actual knowledge. In the tradition of Dale Russakoff's The Prize and Dana Goldstein's The Teacher Wars, Wexler brings together history, research, and compelling characters to pull back the curtain on this fundamental flaw in our education system--one that fellow reformers, journalists, and policymakers have long overlooked, and of which the general public, including many parents, remains unaware. But The Knowledge Gap isn't just a story of what schools have gotten so wrong--it also follows innovative educators who are in the process of shedding their deeply ingrained habits, and describes the rewards that have come along: students who are not only excited to learn but are also acquiring the knowledge and vocabulary that will enable them to succeed. If we truly want to fix our education system and unlock the potential of our neediest children, we have no choice but to pay attention.