Restorative Justice Talking Circles Nurture Feelings of Connectedness

In 2003, I attended training on restorative justice in education.  The training was conducted in Minnesota through a grant.  I fell in love with the process of using restorative justice Circles in the classroom.  I first began using Circles in my advisory group at an alternative high school in 2003.  We conducted Circle by using a Talking Piece, a rock that had been gifted to me by a friend from the reservation.  When one of us held the Talking Piece it was our turn to speak, when we didn't hold the Talking Piece it was our turn to listen.  At first, my students were hesitant.  We started out with easy questions to answer about our weekends, our hobbies, and our favorite foods or movies.  As students began feeling more comfortable, I used readings of poems or quotes to begin our Circles.  The poems or quotes set the stage for more complex questions about struggles within our lives, things that we wanted to change, and our ideas about success.  My relationship with my students began to transform.  I knew much more about them and they knew more about me.  We all began to look forward to Circle and held it at least twice weekly, more often if a student was struggling or if something happened in school that we needed to talk about.  Circle enabled us to handle adverse situations more openly and honestly.  Our whole staff was trained on using Circles, including our administrative team.  Many teachers used Talking Circles in advisory.  Some chose not to.  Many students who heard about Circles from different advisory classes wanted to come and find out what it was about.

My colleagues, Angel and Randy, and I began using Circle during our summer school programs.  During this program, we spent one week in the classroom learning about Westward expansion, biology, camping skills and Native American history.  Then we would hit the road and travel by van from Minnesota to South Dakota and then Wyoming.  We held Circle each evening and we witnessed a diverse group of students begin to transform their ideas about each other, about school, about their teachers, and about themselves.  Masks fell away and students openly reflected on what they had learned that day, how the trip was changing them, and what struggles they were facing back home.  Over a three year period I conducted interviews with students who attended the program.  What students had to say about Circle was astounding.  One student said, "In Circle we could speak about anything.  When you had the rock, or the object in your hand, no one else could speak and everyone paid attention to you.  And, I don't know if it was a rule or anything, but I think it was just instinct for people to know not to go out and talk about people's issues behind their back or to anybody else.  So that just opened up a big door for everyone.  And everyone got to realize who they really are with Circle."  Another said, "Through Circle I learned the importance of togetherness."  (For more stories from our summer school program check out my book Re-engaging Disconnected Youth:  Transformative Learning through Restorative and Social Justice Education.)  Circle became a foundational element for my practice as a teacher.  It built feelings of connectedness time and again, no matter what background my students came from.

I moved to Wisconsin and began teaching at a traditional middle school.  I honestly wasn't sure how middle school students would handle Circle.  For the past three years, I have held Circle during my Homebase time and I have seen the same positive results.  Plus, my middle school students have taken ownership of the process, have trained other Homebase groups, and have participated in creating a video to tell other teachers about Circle.  One 8th grade student said in an interview, "In Circle, there's a safe place to talk and to actually be heard.  I don't get that anywhere else."  Another 8th grade boy said, "I feel like I'm a better listener now.  And it felt good to talk and to know that I wasn't being judged by anyone in our Circle."

I'll blog more about Circle, as I have been advocating for more teachers to begin using Talking Circles in their programs.  The students understand that there is something sacred in the process, they learn to listen and to share, and they feel more connected to their teacher and to each other.  They also learn that they can express emotions at school and that there is a safe space to work through struggles.  As a teacher, I have learned just as much as my students through the process.  I've learned how to really listen without nodding or smiling (all signals that I often use in my teaching), I've learned to be still during a busy day, I've learned that the minds of my students are complex and beautiful, I've learned that students from both urban areas and small towns, and both alternative and traditional, like to have space to express themselves without facing judgment.  It is a beautiful process.

When did you identify yourself as a multicultural educator?

I was sitting in a course I am taking for my ESL certification and was struck by the passions and stories present in my classroom.  Though the room was filled with mainly White teachers, I was in awe of the diversity of experiences present in the room as we shared our Cultural Identities posters.  Each and every person had very specific moments or reasons that they became committed to working with diversity and culture.  It made me ask the question, "At what point do teachers consider themselves multicultural educators or advocates?  Is it an evolution or one or two moments that cause a shift?"  Though a few individuals in the class where born into multicultural families, most of us were raised in very homogeneous White communities, yet I would guess that most of the teachers in the room considered themselves multicultural educators.  Banks and Banks (1995) describe multicultural education as "a field of study and an emerging discipline whose major aim is to create equal educational opportunities for students from diverse racial, ethnic, social-class, and cultural groups.  One of its important goals is to help all students acquire the knowledge, attitudes, and skills needed to function effectively in a pluralistic democratic society and to interact, negotiate, and communicate with people from diverse groups in order to create a civic and moral community that works for the common good"(p. xi).  At what point did I identify myself as a multicultural advocate?

Beginnings

My journey began as a child.  I was just visiting my tiny North Dakota town and I asked my mother, "When did I become interested in social justice and multicultural issues?"

She said, "When you were in 6th or 7th grade."

"How could you tell?"

"Well, you got really upset when you heard racial slurs used during lunches with extended family.  I guess I got really upset too and said that I wouldn't go to dinner if I had to hear that type of language.  So maybe I was a model for you on that."

I asked, "Did we talk about it?"

"Yeah."

"When did I start reading about these topics?"

Mom said, "Oh, by junior high and high school."

So for me, the interest and passion started at a young age.  I remember the clear racism displayed by elders within my family and the many times that I would have conversations about it with family and friends.  I saw racism as a clear form of injustice.

In college, I delved deeper into social justice issues taking many classes and surrounding myself with friends who would have deep discussions about race, class and gender.  But at that point, I didn't see myself as an advocate yet.  I felt that as a White girl from the prairie, I didn't have the "right" to speak out loudly about these issues. I was still trying to grapple with my own Whiteness.

Delving Deeper 

It was when I began teaching that I really began to push myself to learn more.  I began working with Hmong, Hispanic and African American youth and took classes and workshops on diverse cultures.  I wanted to be able to connect with my students and their families and wanted to learn all that I could from them.  I also heard Julie Landsman speak and read her book, A White Teacher Talks About Race.  In the book, Landsman honestly explores her journey as a White woman teaching a culturally diverse group of students.  Her words and courage inspired me to explore my own successes and mistakes in the classroom.  I began to journal about my experiences as well.  Because of this self-reflection I recognized my limited knowledge base and began taking classes on educational equity, multicultural education and human rights education.  I immediately noticed a difference in levels of student engagement when I began incorporating a wide and diverse group of authors, when I began teaching about oppression, and when I began really listening to my students share.  Our discussions were richer and more open and honest than ever before.  I also attended two years of Seeking Educational Equity and Diversity (SEED) courses on inclusive curriculum.  This program, founded by Peggy McIntosh pushes participants to investigate white privilege, classism, and inequity within curriculum and classrooms.  It was a profoundly positive experience for me and I recommend the adoption of this program to any district looking for quality teacher training.  With the background information on multicultural education, with the qualitative data provided by years of listening to my students speak about feeling pushed out of the traditional classroom, I was able to advocate for change within my district.  Sometimes the change came easily, but most often the change developed slowly and at great cost to those involved. I began to realize that fighting for educational equity and multicultural education was difficult work and that it took a toll on the people involved.  When people would say, "Pick your battles!", I would say, "How can I set one issue aside because it is impacting this student?"  I knew the face of the child involved, I had heard their story, and I couldn't just stand by and let injustice continue.  However, my loud voice was not always welcome.  Maneuvering the politics of change has not come easily for me and I am still learning how to time things correctly, when to break the "chain of command" that exists within school settings, and when to be silent and just listen.  Despite the challenges, I identify strongly with being a multicultural educator and will always be working to develop better curriculum and to advocate for change within educational systems.

What is your story?  Did you always advocate for social justice education?  Do you recognize transformative events that happened along your journey?

All Children Want to Be Engaged in the World Around Them

It was a beautiful day at a local nursery.  My three-year-old daughter, Dakota, was enjoying the flowers, the huge sandbox, and the sunny day.  The owner of the nursery was just getting the small train ready to run and Dakota was drawn to it.  She walked over and struck up a conversation with the owner, a man in his fifties who was a scientist and botanist.  They began talking about the rocks that made up part of the display.  "This is igneous," the owner said.  "Oooh," said Dakota.  "It has been here for millions of years.  It's called a 'fire rock'."  "Was it made by volcanoes," asked Dakota.  "Yes," he chuckled.  "Was it here when the dinosaurs were here?"

They continued a conversation involving rocks for over 10 minutes.  It was amazing to watch a three-year-old totally engaged in a conversation and learning vocabulary far above her years.  She was into it.  She talked about it for days.

This moment only solidified my belief that children are born ready and willing to learn--and ready to be pushed to great intellectual heights.  So what happens to kids along the way?  Why are so many youth disconnected from learning in educational environments?

For Dakota, the day at the nursery was filled with some elements that I believe are missing from many educational systems.  First, she got to touch, smell, and explore a new world in nature.  Everything at the nursery was hands-on.  She would grab a perennial and say, "Mommy, what is this called.  Let's get this one."  Second, the learning was mixed with fun.  She knew that after choosing our flowers that she would get to play in the sandbox.  Third, it was an opportunity for social engagement.  She spoke with "new friends" that she met in the sandbox, spoke with the owner and other workers.  And fourth, she was given an opportunity to learn from an elder who was excited to share information with her.  I never want her to lose educational opportunities like this.  As a former alternative teacher, now teaching in a mainstream classroom, I see the lack of these opportunities and am committed to developing new ways to provide engaging, hands-on learning for youth.

This blog is dedicated to experiences like this that are found in traditional and alternative classrooms.  Through my work, I've found that disengaged students have a lot to say about why they became disengaged.  When working on the book "Re-enaging Disconnected Youth", I interviewed many alternative school students who said that they had disconnected with education and asked, "What first made you disconnect with school?"  Their answers were astounding.  Some remembered exact moments when a teacher's words or actions struck them deeply and caused them to turn away from the classroom. Some mentioned that school was "boring" and that they wanted to "move around" and interact with others more.  Still others said, "I just don't learn this way.  It doesn't fit my style."

Scholar, Johan Abbott states, "One of the most faulty pervasive assumptions in the Western education system is that actually children don't want to learn and that we have to force learning on them.  And that undermines the whole thing from beginning to end.  The assumption is that learning is quote 'an unnatural activity'.  Really from everything that we now understand, and we didn't need the new science to tell us this, our grandparents knew this, ancient people knew this.  We are an inquisitive species.  We loved to find things out.  We get bored to tears if people tell us too much.  And schools are full of telling because quote 'it's more economic'.  You can have thirty people sitting there in front of a teacher and they tell them a lot.  In fact, the secret to learning is not the lecture it's the conversation...so the faulty assumption is that children don't want to learn and actually that's the exact opposite.  So we have to create an educational system, which feeds the inquisitiveness of children." (Watch the video here.)

I've found that human rights education, multicultural education, hands-on learning, learning from nature, and work with restorative justice Talking Circles have helped dis-engaged students reconnect with school.  Future posts will contain information on each, lesson plan ideas, and interviews with other educators who are working diligently to provide new opportunities for learning.  Opportunities to learn authentically, passionately, and spontaneously.  There will also be opportunities for you to talk about your classrooms--what are you doing to re-engage disconnected students?  What moments "feed the inquisitiveness of children"?