Wednesday, April 22, 2009

New Publication

I am honored to have my latest publication appear in the Journal for Peace and Justice Studies, alongside respected scholars and practitioners in the field. I encourage you to consider purchasing a copy of this edition of the journal. I believe the articles provide a current look into our work and thinking about restorative justice.

Announcing a SPECIAL ISSUE of the
Journal for Peace and Justice Studies
on
Restorative Justice

Featuring
JOYCE ZAVARICH
Revisioning Justice: The Justice Context for Understanding and
Operationalizing Restorative Justice
HOWARD ZEHR
The Intersection of Restorative Justice with Trauma Healing, Conflict Transformation and Peacebuilding
GORDON BAZEMORE
Getting and Keeping It Real: Less than Perfect Restorative Justice Intervention and the Value of Small Connections
TOM CAVANAGH
Creating a New Discourse of Peace in Schools: Restorative Justice in Education
TERRY O’CONNELL
The Origins of Restorative Conferencing
LAURA MIRSKY
Restorative Justice Practices of Native American Practitioners of the Southwestern United States
ABBEY J. PORTER
Restorative Conferencing in Thailand: A Resounding Success with Juvenile Crime

To Order this Single Issue
Name:__________________________________________________________________
Organizaiton:____________________________________________________________
Address:________________________________________________________________
City:_________________________________ State:_________ Zip:_________________
Vol. 18, No. 1-2 _____
Back Issues are $15 per volume.
Total number of issues:____ Total Amount: $________
U.S. FUNDS ONLY PLEASE
Please make all checks payable to The Journal for Peace and Justice Studies.
Return to: Managing Editor
The Journal for Peace and Justice Studies
Center for Peace & Justice Education
Villanova University, Sullivan Hall
800 Lancaster Avenue Villanova, PA 19085-1699 Thank you for your order!

Sunday, April 5, 2009

Responding to conflicts and problems nonviolently

In today's newspaper a write speculates as the reasons why so many mass killings are occurring. The writer largely blames problems related to the current financial crisis. I have wrestled with the same questions while conducting research over the past five years and have come to a different conclusion.
I do not claim that what I offer is the answer; rather, perhaps a contributing factor. I have found that when problems and conflicts arise in our schools teachers ignore them, respond with punishment, or send the person(s) involved off to an expert to solve the problem. These problems are seen to be disruptions to the learning rather than learning opportunities.
If these problems and conflicts are transformed into learning opportunities, then the capacity of teachers and students can be enhanced to respond nonviolently. If teachers and students behave as passive participants in the problems and conflicts, they they will not know how to respond nonviolently to these events when they occur later in life.
Restorative justice theory offers us a way to understand this new response to problems and conflict. Restorative practices offer us skills to use when responding to problems and conflict nonviolently.