Restorative Justice Explained

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In her article "Librarians as Paradigm Shifters for Justice" Maisha T. Winn discusses the important role school librarians can play in promoting restorative justice within their school environments. As she explains in her book, Justice on Both Sides, restorative justice is "the purposeful attempt to disrupt cycles of injustice and inequality." Restoring justice in education is a process that applies to interactions such as discipline, but also to how school environments establish, or limit, opportunity, growth, equity, and respect for students. As Dr. Winn describes, educators can build capacity for this work through shifts in how they think, engage with, and teach young people, "establishing a mind-set or paradigm that views all children as valuable and worthy of affirming practices." The infographic above offers some interpretations of these shifts within school library practice.