A growing number of schools are adopting restorative justice (RJ) practices that de-emphasize exclusionary discipline and aim for racial equity. We examine student discipline as RJ programs matured in Meadowview Public Schools from 2008 to 2017. Our difference-in-difference estimates show that students in RJ schools experienced a profound decline…

Students, through teaching and learning, must reflect on what they do not know. It is only when they recognise what they know, and what they do not, that they will awaken to their own curiosity. The more they can open themselves to others and their epistemologies, the deeper their own self-reflection in relation to others. In this way, engendering…

In this article, I discuss how walking as mapping serves as a method for observing and disrupting spatial geopolitics, opening possibilities for alternative systems of living. I explore three theoretical perspectives--posthumanism, Indigenous and decolonializing theories of land, and Black geography--that, while distinct, nonetheless share some…

Special education researchers have a huge responsibility and opportunity to develop research designs that help practitioners in schools--particularly school teachers, leaders, counselors, social workers, and interventionists--develop research-based policies and practices that address and meet the increasingly complex needs of young people. In this…

The article explores the multifaceted process of creating the large-scale annual public puppetry event, The Barrydale Giant Puppet Parade, in the rural town of Barrydale, South Africa. It unpacks the complex layers of meaning and making arising through a co-creative puppetry project in a region of South Africa marked by poverty and the on-going…

The ways in which Africanisation and decolonisation in the South African academy have been framed and carried out have been called into question over the past several years, most notably in relation to modes of silencing and epistemic negation, which have been explicitly challenged through the student actions. In a similar vein, Canada's…

In 2014, through the University of the Free State's (UFS) Institute for Reconciliation and Social Justice (IRSJ), three South African universities partnered to collaborate on the pilot phase of a research project focused on understanding whether the Arts could enable social cohesion, as the 2012 National Development Plan (2030) had promoted. All…

Racially diverse schools are often presented as places where students can learn to challenge racist discourse and practice. Yet there are a variety of processes through which such schools reproduce the very hierarchies they are meant to dismantle. Drawing on 18 months of fieldwork in two racially diverse South African high schools, I add to the…

In an ethnographically designed study, guided by a critical community psychology framework, Black staff members at a historically White Afrikaans university campus conducted email conversations relating to issues of race, social justice and reconciliation. The conversations were initiated by the author (Black) who mainly used prompts found in the…

In today's increasingly polyglot classrooms, interpersonal and inter-group conflicts often arise out of mutual misunderstandings between different collections of students, some based on language or status differences but many more generated by emotionally charged misconceptions. As such, peer mediation and peaceful solutions to student arguments…

This is a case study of a conflict management intervention in two secondary schools in post-apartheid South Africa. The feature of the intervention that we examine is the use of play as an educational strategy. The literature attests that play can facilitate change by allowing learners freedom to change their behaviour and opportunities to explore…

As an ethnocentrically designed child welfare system grapples with how to best incorporate kinship care into its array of services, conflicts between kinship caregivers and the foster care system have arisen. Suggests that the application of mediation to these conflicts can serve as a step in social workers' efforts to provide culturally relevant…

Increasingly, Blacks are recognizing a need to debate civil rights and affirmative action, tolerate diversity of opinion, and acknowledge that there is no single right Black answer. Although Black scholars who oppose racial preference are still in the minority, their views are gaining currency. Some propose unusual solutions. (MSE)

Examined the endorsement of interpersonal conflict resolution tactics and links to personality and teacher-related school adjustment. Subjects were 162 African, Mexican, and European American sixth through eighth graders. Across all three ethnic groups and both sexes, negotiation was consistently rated the best choice for dealing with…

Reviews several explanations for "playing the dozens," a ritualized verbal contest carried out principally among Black males. Holds that the ritual is a survival technique that teaches young Black men to face up to an antagonistic society and to deal with conflicts. Provides examples of ritual insult from other cultures. (Author/GC)