Description
ABSTRACT
This article examines mentoring as a legitimate component in the process of restorative
justice through a qualitative methodological approach that provides context to the concept of
mentoring. The idea is to conceptualize the efficacy of mentoring as it pertains to students practicing
restoratively within the framework of school organizations and the policies implemented to address
disciplinary issues. In order to fully understand the ineffectiveness of punitive discipline such as the
overuse of extreme punishment, we must explore the possibility that the traditional system is
severely flawed, and that over time the current school punitive policies like zero tolerance only
perpetuates worse student behavior. What the mentoring occupational component provides is a
supportive addition to sequential restorative (provide an opportunity for community members to
come together to address harmful behavior in a process that explores harms and needs, obligations,
and necessary engagement) circles within the restorative forms of school discipline. Many of the
pitfalls that restorative justice faces as it establishes an identity in the overwhelming complexities of
public education centers around the long-term impact of its usefulness. The article explores a
conceptual model that provides a supportive approach to the restorative justice model of sequential
circles as a way to shift the discipline paradigm in urban public schools.
Keywords: Mentoring Occupational Component, Restorative Justice, Peer Jury, Net-Shallowing,
Mediation, Role-Modeling, Facilitated Mentoring, Social Control.
