Restorative Justice in the English Language Arts Classroom (Paperback)

How do teachers educate responsibly in an age of mass incarceration? And why should English teachers in particular concern themselves with unequal treatment and opportunity and the school-to-prison pipeline?

The authors—teacher educators and a restorative justice practitioner—address these and other critical questions, examining the intersection of restorative justice (RJ) and education with a focus on RJ processes that promote inclusivity and ownership.

This book is a beginning guide for ELA teachers to address harm and inequities in the classroom, school, community, and nation. Viewing adolescent literacy, as outlined in Adolescent Literacy: An NCTE Policy Research Brief, through the lens of restorative justice will help teachers recognize just how integral practicing empathy and justice is to developing adolescent literacy.

The authors provide concrete, specific examples of how ELA teachers can think and plan curriculum using an RJ lens to address issues of student disconnection and alienation, adult and youth well-being in schools, and inequity and racial justice through writing, reading, speaking, and action.

About Principles in Practice
Books in the Principles in Practice imprint offer teachers concrete illustrations of effective classroom practices based in NCTE research briefs and policy statements.

Each book discusses the research on a specific topic, links the research to an NCTE brief or policy statement, and then demonstrates how those principles come alive in practice: by showcasing actual classroom practices that demonstrate the policies in action; by talking about research in practical, teacher-friendly language; and by offering teachers possibilities for rethinking their own practices in light of the ideas presented in the books.

Maisha T. Winn is Chancellor’s Leadership Professor at the University of California, Davis, and codirector (with Torry Winn) of UC Davis’s Transformative Justice in Education (TJE) Center. Her program of research examines the ways in which teachers and/or adult allies for youth in schools and in out-of-school contexts practice “justice” in the teaching of literacy. 

Winn was named an American Educational Research Association Fellow in 2016, received the William T. Grant Foundation Distinguished Fellowship in 2014, and received the American Educational Research Association Early Career Award in 2012. She has authored several books, including Writing in Rhythm: Spoken Word Poetry in Urban Schools (2007, published under “Fisher”), Black Literate Lives: Historical and Contemporary Perspectives (2009, published under “Fisher”), Girl Time: Literacy, Justice, and the School-to-Prison Pipeline (2011), and most recently Justice on Both Sides: Transforming Education through Restorative Justice (2018), and is coeditor of Humanizing Research: Decolonizing Qualitative Inquiry with Youth and Communities (with Django Paris). Winn is also the author of numerous articles in peer-reviewed journals, including Review of Research in Education; Anthropology and Education Quarterly; International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education; Race Ethnicity and Education; Research in the Teaching of English; Race and Social Problems; and Harvard Educational Review.

Hannah Graham is a curriculum consultant and professional development leader who works with schools and nonprofit organizations interested in enhancing classroom literacy instruction. A former secondary ELA teacher, Graham’s work focuses on advancing the power of educators and their students to transform classroom communities using reading and writing as central tools. She is currently director of professional learning for WebbAlign and a PhD candidate in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.