It is widely recognized that school discipline disproportionately targets BIPOC students. Some studies have shown that Black students are four times as likely to be suspended for the same infraction as their White peers. Researchers have theorized many causes for these disparities, including implicit bias, lack of training and cultural, and zero tolerance policies. While it is necessary to recognize the causes of racial disparities in disciplinary practices, educational practitioners need actionable solutions. This workshop will foreground Dr. Muhammad Khalifa’s work on culturally responsive school leadership, and the methods and mindsets for disrupting racializing responses to student behaviors. Dr. Hilary Lustick will focus on restorative justice, sharing her research on the ways in which implementations of restorative justice have been shown to reproduce inequitable outcomes when key leadership strategies are missing. Participants will learn to recognize common disciplinary practices that exclude minoritized students from learning, identify alternative approaches that are inclusionary and culturally responsive, and leave with strategies that produce racially just, pragmatic, and actionable approaches to restorative justice.

Dr. Muhammad Khalifa is a professor of Educational Administration and the Executive Director of Urban and Rural Initiatives at The Ohio State University. His research examines how urban school leaders enact culturally responsive leadership and anti-oppressive schooling practices. He was previously a teacher and administrator in Detroit Public Schools, and he has also contributed to community-informed education projects in Africa, Latin America, and Asia in various capacities. Dr. Khalifa has written extensively on minoritized student identities in school, how schools can become liberatory spaces for youth, and how schools can begin to recognize and value community and ancestral knowledge in and around schools. He is the author of the top-selling book, Culturally Responsive School Leadership (Harvard Education Press, 2018). 

Dr. Hilary Lustick (she/her) is an assistant professor of qualitative methods and educational leadership at the University of Massachusetts, Lowell, School of Education. She is the author of multiple manuscripts and a forthcoming book on restorative justice implementation in public schools called Culturally Responsive Restorative Leadership: Necessary Dilemmas for Transforming School Culture. This book examines the dilemmas of restorative leadership in an accountability-based school system, with opportunities for reflection and planning for leaders and other practitioners. Hilary views restorative justice as a means of fostering stronger communication and trust among university students, administrators, and leaders. At UMass Lowell, she teaches graduate courses on qualitative inquiry, restorative justice, and school improvement.