{"id":6590,"date":"2014-08-11T12:35:08","date_gmt":"2014-08-11T16:35:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/peacebuilder\/?p=6590"},"modified":"2014-08-11T12:35:08","modified_gmt":"2014-08-11T16:35:08","slug":"educators-get-first-restorative-justice-program-in-nation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/peacebuilder\/2014\/08\/educators-get-first-restorative-justice-program-in-nation\/","title":{"rendered":"Educators Get First Restorative Justice Program in Nation"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Yes!\"<\/a>
Fania Davis (right), executive director of Restorative Justice for Oakland Youth, with students from Ralph Bunche High School in Oakland, California. In 2005 Davis taught restorative justice at SPI. (YES! cover photo by Lane Hartwell, courtesy of Yes!)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Long a pioneer in the field of restorative justice, EMU will become the first in the country to offer restorative justice programs housed within a graduate education program. Beginning this fall, students in the MA in education program will be able to pursue an interdisciplinary concentration in restorative justice in education (RJE) by taking courses through the education department as well as EMU\u2019s Center for Justice and Peacebuilding.<\/p>\n

The education department will also begin offering a 15-hour graduate certificate in RJE for students who aren\u2019t pursuing a master\u2019s degree.<\/p>\n

\u201cRestorative justice offers a completely different model of addressing classroom discipline problems that focuses on building effective relationships both between teachers and students, and among students,\u201d said Kathy Evans<\/b>, an EMU education professor who has led the development of the new RJE programs.<\/p>\n

While the theories of restorative justice were originally developed as an alternative approach to criminal justice, they have increasingly been embraced by teachers looking for more creative ways to address classroom behavior and create better learning environments, said Evans, who anticipates wide interest in EMU\u2019s new programs.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople are hungry for good instruction about what restorative justice looks like in schools, and how they can be better prepared to be restorative justice educators,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

To make the RJE programs more accessible to students from out of the area, some courses will be offered online or in other alternative formats such as on weekends or as week-long, intensive summer courses.<\/p>\n

A successful example of restorative justice in schools was featured in a recent cover story in YES!<\/i> Magazine by Fania Davis<\/b>, a past instructor at EMU\u2019s Summer Peacebuilding Institute. The executive director of Restorative Justice for Oakland (Calif.) Youth, Davis writes that restorative justice programs in some schools have been so successful at reducing suspension rates \u2013 by 74% in one case \u2013 that the school board has endorsed use of restorative justice throughout the city school system.<\/p>\n

In January 2014, the federal departments of education and justice also threw their weight behind restorative justice in the country\u2019s schools. The agencies issued a joint letter telling teachers and administrators to address the disproportionate rates at which minority and economically disadvantaged students are suspended \u2013 suggesting, among other things, the use of restorative justice practices to address discipline problems and create healthy learning environments. With that mandate will come even more opportunity for graduates of EMU\u2019s new RJE concentration or certificate programs, Evans said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe new programs in restorative justice in education are an excellent example of the mission of our graduate programs, which is to meet needs in the world with our unique combination of expertise, perspective, and values,\u201d said graduate studies dean Jim Smucker<\/b>. \u201cThis concentration is a result of two graduate programs working together to offer something that is quite unique to the field of education, and something only EMU\u2019s combination of expertise and values can provide to the world.\u201d<\/p>\n

Over the next several years, faculty from the MA in education program and the Center for Justice and Peacebuilding will begin developing new courses, with the goal of eventually creating a full MA in RJE program, Evans added.<\/p>\n

For more information on the new programs, contact Evans at kathy.evans@emu.edu or 540-432-4590. \u2014 Andrew Jenner<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Long a pioneer in the field of restorative justice, EMU will become the first in the country to offer restorative justice programs housed within a… Read more about Educators Get First Restorative Justice Program in Nation<\/span><\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":148,"featured_media":6591,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1073],"tags":[1194,1214,1215,1213,557,1217,1216],"issues":[1172],"class_list":["post-6590","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-magazine","tag-cjp","tag-fania-davis","tag-jim-smucker","tag-kathy-evans","tag-restorative-justice","tag-restorative-justice-in-education","tag-yes-magazine","issues-spring-summer-2014"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/peacebuilder\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6590","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/peacebuilder\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/peacebuilder\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/peacebuilder\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/148"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/peacebuilder\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6590"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/peacebuilder\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6590\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6592,"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/peacebuilder\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6590\/revisions\/6592"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/peacebuilder\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6591"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/peacebuilder\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6590"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/peacebuilder\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6590"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/peacebuilder\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6590"},{"taxonomy":"issues","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/peacebuilder\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/issues?post=6590"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}