Teaching in the Restorative Window: Authenticity, Conviction, and Critical-Restorative Pedagogy in the Work of One Teacher-Leader

Abstract

In this article, Sarah M. Fine uses portraiture to explore the undertheorized question of what it means to teach in ways that align with the values of the restorative justice framework. The piece centers around the work of Nora, a veteran teacher-leader who explored this question in the context of her own classroom and, as a result, shifted her practice in significant ways, making it more deliberate in its attention to students' social-emotional needs, more project based in its design, and more critical in its stance. In turn, these shifts helped restore and transform students' relationships to the content under study, as well as to each other and to Nora. This portrait provides a richly textured picture of what it means to be—and become—a restorative teacher and suggests that there are powerful synergies between the restorative justice frame-work and the tradition of critical pedagogy.