Campus Location

Dallas Campus (Online)

Date of Award

3-2021

Document Type

Dissertation

Department

Organizational Leadership

Degree Name

Doctor of Education

Committee Chair or Primary Advisor

Sandra Harris

Second Committee Member or Secondary Advisor

Jennifer Butcher

Third Committee Member or Committee Reader

Donna Smith

Abstract

The purpose of this qualitative case study was to identify restorative practice strategies than can be used to reduce disproportionality in school discipline in Texas schools. Exclusionary discipline practices have created disproportionality in school discipline. While zero-tolerance policies are no longer considered effective in addressing conflict in schools, many schools are implementing restorative practices as a promising alternative. Restorative practices have shown to contribute to positive school culture, specifically by improving student achievement, improving attendance, improving student-teacher relationships, and lowering discipline issues. Interviews using semistructured questions were used to conduct this study. In this qualitative case study, participants at suburban schools in Texas who had success with the implementation of restorative practices at their campuses within the last two to three years participated in this study. School stakeholders are personnel who are administrators, teachers, counselors, or school resource officers who were at the school prior to the implementation of restorative practices. Nine secondary professionals from middle school and high school campuses across Texas were interviewed. A purposeful snowball strategy was used to identify participants. The findings indicated that restorative strategies such as circles and parent engagement were beneficial to school implementation. The findings also revealed that proper training was necessary for all school stakeholders prior to implementation as well as on an on-going basis. Keywords: restorative practices, restorative circles, disproportionality, school discipline

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.

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