Drinking from the Firehose: Restorative Justice

In episodes 6 and 7 of Drinking from the Firehose, Dr. Angela Ward, the founder and CEO of 2Ward Equity Consulting, joins Ellen on the podcast to share about the history of restorative justice, Multi-Tiered Systems of Support, the effects of compliance measures vs. restorative community building, and more.

Audio Transcript

Download the full audio transcript for Episode 6 and Episode 7.

Ellen Willoughby:

So, welcome to this episode of Drinking From the Firehose, a podcast for school leaders. I am your host, Ellen Willoughby. On today’s podcast, our topic is restorative justice. Over the last few years, restorative justice or restorative practices has been buzzing in the education world, and we wanted to bring in an expert on the subject to share not only what it is but to learn about the practices and the impact restorative justice has on students, schools, and the community, and I am beyond excited to introduce my guest Dr. Angela Ward.

Angela Ward:

Thank you.

Ellen Willoughby:

So, Dr. Ward, you were the founder and CEO of Toward Equity Consulting, and you serve on national, regional, and local equity groups.

Angela Ward:

Yes.

Ellen Willoughby:

You also led this work with AISD. So we are excited to have you, and let’s just kick it off and have you share what is restorative justice?

Angela Ward:

So in my role with Austin Independent School District, what we did was frame restorative practices as a culturally responsive approach to the work that we do with students and families, and so we looked at … It was very important to me to understand the history behind something called restorative and what is that and with my background, I have a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice so that word justice really piqued my curiosity and knowing how school systems typically operate as an on-ramp to the criminal justice system, we didn’t want to reinvent … I guess not the word reinvent, we didn’t want to further solidify that reality in our schools, and so I really wanted to understand what is this thing they’re calling restorative justice. What does it mean, what does it look like, what does it sound like in our schools?

Angela Ward:

So what I uncovered was no, it didn’t start in the criminal justice system; it’s from practices that are thousands of years old. And restorative practices originate in indigenous communities and indigenous history, and they are practices that have been practiced for thousands of years, and they continue to be practiced by indigenous people who live amongst us. And so I wanted to make sure that by bringing this work to Austin Independent School District, we were really focused on as educators telling the truth about the work.

Ellen Willoughby:

Right, absolutely.

Angela Ward:

We framed it as culturally responsive because it’s important that we make people stop and think about the fact that this is something that has been co-opted by the criminal justice system and the social work fields very well. It’s been popularized in both, and often, you hear that it started in the criminal justice system –

Ellen Willoughby:

Yeah, that’s exactly what –

Angela Ward:

Which is not true.

Ellen Willoughby:

Oh, interesting.

Angela Ward:

So, as educators, we felt duty-bound to teach the true history of restorative practices. So, we look at them as practices that the indigenous communities used to maintain harmony in their communities. And they also used those practices to solve conflict and repair harm. But what’s popularized is, “Oh, this is an alternative to discipline.”

Ellen Willoughby:

Right.

Angela Ward:

No, it’s not an alternative to discipline. It is a way of being; it is a way of recognizing how each of us shows up in the world…

Download the full transcripts: Episode 6 and Episode 7.