This study explored the perspectives and lived experiences of urban youth in relation to Restorative Practices at a free public charter school in Los Angeles, California. This qualitative study used a series of semi-structured interviews with four high school students. This adaptable design allowed for the nature of questions to evolve and shift…

Studies have documented the ubiquitous racial disparities in school discipline. However, knowledge of the unique and complex disciplinary experiences of Black girls, shared from their own voices, remains under-researched. To better understand the school policing and 'pushout' phenomenon for Black girls, this qualitative study examines data which…

The researcher examined the perceptions of students, teachers, and the administrator at an urban elementary school in a district in the southwestern region of the United States that has made a long-term investment in social-emotional learning and restorative practices. The researcher used qualitative research which included semi-structured…

Background: While demand for youth violence prevention programs increases, the ability of the school-day schedule to accommodate their time requirements has diminished. Viable school-based prevention programs must strike a balance between brevity and effectiveness. This article reports results from an effectiveness trial of a 12-session…

This case study was initiated to explore how 6 fourth-grade student mediators implemented an inner-city elementary school's violence prevention program based on peer mediation in the context of psychosocial theory. The participants were trained in conflict resolution to intervene with disputants who experienced unresolved disagreements. To…

Seven schools in an economically challenged area of an urban school district in central California implemented mentored peer mediation programs under the guidance of a university-K-12 partnership project, Mediator Mentors. Individual student outcomes for social-cognitive dispositions, perceptions of school climate, conflict strategy choices, and…

Communicative self-efficacy serves as an important link between discussing controversial issues and civic engagement because confidence in one's discourse skills is important to managing conflicting perspectives and developing solutions to community-based problems. Freely available to schools, "Word Generation" is a cross-content…

Drawing upon an ethnically and socio-economically diverse sample of 323 7th grade students from twelve urban schools within one school district, this mixed method study examined early adolescents' self-reported health risk behaviors as related to their conflict resolution strategies and their school's conflict resolution climate. Survey data…

This study explored restorative justice arising in the context of an academic high school course in which students learned restorative justice principles and strategies. Given that the literature provided limited guidance of restorative justice in this context, these novel circumstances presented a unique opportunity for study. The central…

The purpose of this study was to gather teacher and student perceptions of the educational benefits that emerge from providing diverse learning environments for students attending an inter-district magnet school. Research Questions were (1) In what ways do teachers and students report that the magnet school offers an ethnically diverse learning…

School systems often implement character education initiatives in reaction to a violent event. Following the school shootings that occurred in the 1990s, many school systems started to implement character education and violence prevention programs. Unfortunately, because the efforts were reactive, little thought was given to sustainability…

Describes a districtwide conflict-resolution program implemented in all New York City high schools during 1992-93. The program tries to empower students and staff by teaching them how to resolve conflicts nonviolently and use conflict as a vehicle for personal growth. During the first year, schools made substantial progress in handling…

Discusses research on political tolerance, noting that traditional civics curricula do little to promote tolerance, and that tolerance for diverse beliefs must be learned. The paper describes the development and teaching of a four-week curriculum for tolerance and reflects on the need for educators to foster greater tolerance among young people.…

Given the Internet's capacity to reach a wide audience and recent increases in violence-related episodes among our nation's youth, Internet-delivered, interactive conflict resolution programs may prove to be a powerful tool to prevent the growing phenomena of adolescent violence. In this study, we tested the efficacy of an Internet-delivered…

Presents a case study of efforts by teachers in a large urban school district in Wisconsin to address problems of student violence by using peace-education strategies, describing district-wide initiatives, summarizing curricular reforms at the elementary and secondary levels, and explaining how urban teachers are teaching alternative…