Connections to Social Justice Standards: Justice, Action
Strategies:
1. Restorative Practices
2. Zero Indifference, Not Zero Tolerance
3. Classroom Community Facilitation
4. Schoolwide Community Facilitation
Behavior management grounded in social justice principles creates connections rather than divisions. Learning for Justice provides a toolkit for educators to promote these principles in “Reframing Classroom Management.”
Shifting to a more equity-based behavior management approach might look different in each classroom, but the following suggestions offer a good starting point:
- Understanding and distinguishing behavior. All behavior is communication aimed at meeting a need. While disruptive behavior may not be an appropriate way for a student to get their needs met, they engage in it because, on some level, it works for them. Determining the function of a behavior is essential in developing a response or intervention.
- Rethinking control and power dynamics. Reframing classroom facilitation requires an understanding of what is realistic to expect of a student. Our expectations should be based on what we know of their personal circumstances, the message their behavior sends and their developmental level. Research indicates that excessive control on the part of educators undermines student motivation and development and creates reluctant compliance instead of the excitement that comes from self-determination.
- Be proactive, not reactive. Proactive classroom culture calls for preventative steps, such as building relationships and fostering engagement, instead of reactive steps, like meting out punishment after misbehavior occurs. Simple strategies such as greeting students outside your classroom, for instance, can have profound effects on behavior. Many of the strategies in Critical Practices are examples of proactive practices that establish strong teacher-student relationships.
Restorative Practices
Restorative practices emphasize repairing harm and restoring relationships rather than simply punishing those who have engaged in misconduct. Restorative justice spans a wide variety of practices and strategies, including peacemaking circles, peer jury processes, mediation, conferencing and classroom discussions focused on building empathy.
To learn more about restorative practices, please check out the following LFJ resources:
- Transforming School Discipline (forthcoming from LFJ)
- “Healing Through Restoration and Transformation”
- “Toolkit: Restorative Circles”
- “Toolkit: The Foundations of Restorative Justice”
Information on additional resources, such as those from the International Institute for Restorative Practices, can be found in Appendix C: Online Supplement.
Note that without proper training and preparation, restorative justice can perpetuate harm between students. Implementing restorative justice practices is a specific skill that requires professional development and ongoing support.
Zero Indifference, Not Zero Tolerance
Evidence demonstrates that zero tolerance policies, though popular, do not make schools safer and fuel the school-to-prison pipeline. An alternative—recommended by organizations including the American Civil Liberties Union, GLSEN and the Respect for All Project—is taking a zero-indifference approach to bullying, harassment and other disciplinary issues.
Zero indifference means never letting disrespectful conduct go unaddressed; educators always name and respond to behaviors, but they do not implement automatic punishments. For recommendations for addressing biased language, see pages 18-23 in the LFJ guide Speak Up at School (the Leadership section of Critical Practices offers more information on our Speak Up resource).
Classroom Community Facilitation
One way to be proactive about social justice facilitation is to establish classroom roles for your students. Many daily tasks can be done by students, who, given the opportunity, may create new and interesting ways to approach them. Real-world lessons related to work and responsibility can be reinforced in a classroom. Students can apply for a position and be rewarded or promoted for a job well done; positions might also be distributed as a way to indicate that a student shows a particular kind of potential.
Classroom jobs can include passing out materials, documenting or taking notes, managing a classroom library, assigning team leaders for group work, serving as the technology assistant, or helping with a bulletin board. The job of peacemaker can work nicely in classrooms where students have been trained in conflict resolution.
Giving students ownership over daily classroom procedures, as Edutopia recommends in the article “New Class Roles: Building Environments of Cooperation,” can help shape a community in which social justice initiatives thrive. You may choose to incorporate an agreement around student roles and responsibilities to signify the value of student participation and facilitation in your braver space classroom community.
Schoolwide Community Facilitation
Students can not only participate in classroom facilitation but also play a role in schoolwide community facilitation. Schools that prioritize building relationships and community view students as human beings with agency. Therefore, if students are speaking out against the dress code policy, for example, administrators should provide space to listen to their concerns and work together to reconstruct the policy in a way that integrates those concerns. (LFJ has a number of resources about the underlying issues in dress codes and other policies; see Appendix C: Online Supplement.)
When students act out against school policies, it is often not due to an individual child’s misbehavior but rather because the culture of the school is overly rigid or claims to be race neutral and does not honor student identity. Giving students a seat at the table leads to school policies that are more adaptable and responsive to students of all backgrounds and abilities, which allows young people to feel seen, heard and valued at an institutional level.
