2/18 Reflection

“Culturally Relevant Pedagogy 2.0” points out the domains that good teachers cover: academic success, cultural competence, and sociopolitical consciousness. The author of the paper was interested in how African American students were motivated by their teachers, because in researching this topic she found that many people viewed African American students as “deficient”. The teaching students she followed also did not find adequate programs to fuel their passion for culturally relevant teaching, justice and equity. She then talks about a new idea, culturally sustaining pedagogy, which promotes a more fluid approach to culture. “Toward a Restorative English Education” talks about using literature and writing as a way to seek and create justice. It defines restorative justice as something that meets victims needs and healing harm that has been done. The author urges teachers to implement this idea in English education by implementing the circle process, which is where students can share their experiences of marginalization, collaborate and learn from each other. “Can Restorative Justice Save The Internet?” talks about this reddit page called r/christianity the guest speakers came up with to study how restorative justice could play out in online mediation. The only (somewhat) successful one they had was between a banned member and a moderator. They stated that this conversation could’ve gone better if they had training on mediation. They post the idea that social media platforms could use restorative justice practices when moderating posts. In the video on the maker movement, Buechley talks about “Make” and how their restrictive target audience (white males) makes their movement harmful and frustrating for people who are part of marginalized community. She points out that this might be because of the power and access this movement has and that this power and access, as it usually does in society, stays within the dominant group (white males).

“Culturally Relevant Pedagogy 2.0” stuck out to me because throughout my schooling I noticed that a lot of times when my school wanted to talk about culture, they would bring it in on only certain days (cultural holidays or culture nights), but they failed to incorporate culture into education on a daily basis. It is important for schools to show culture as something that always exists and affects someone’s life rather than something that should only be celebrated some days. I also appreciated the author noting the fluidity of culture especially between different generations. The only restorative justice practice I remember from my schooling is the i-message, which is what the students who were hurt by someone had to face the person and let them know why they were hurt. I do not remember this being effective, mostly because no one enforced it and often the “bully” would not care. I think restorative justice has to be taken to the next level in our education system like the ” Toward a Restorative English Education” article describes. I have been to a maker faire as a kid and was really inspired by it. I also work in a lab right now that promotes the maker movement for all kids. In fact, the population we work with currently is mostly non-white. It was very interesting to learn about the maker movement’s diversity trends generally and how we can change it.

Question: How do you encourage participation in restorative justice circles/discussions?