Narrative

In Systems Thinking in Professional and Personal Leadership feedback loops and double loop learning were presented as a construct to understand organizational behavior. In the artifact presented, I identified the implementation of PBIS tier one support for all students as a feedback loop at the school I worked. A feedback loop is self-reinforcing. Change in an organization is made when there is an intervention in the self-reinforcing loop is examined when it does not serve the organization’s needs. I identified that the implementation of PBIS is a self-reinforcing feedback loop that needs intervention. 

The school is lacking tier two and three supports for behavior and meaningful collaboration and buy-in with community. These predicaments lead to the same handful of students getting write ups and suspensions, possibly leading to expulsion. This creates in the school a feedback loop: increasing write-ups lead to increasing suspensions. Without a proper intervention to prevent behavior outside of the tier 1 behavioral supports implemented by the school, this feedback loop will continue until expulsion is reached and will reinforce the idea that some students cannot be reached or are uneducable. 

This reflects the ability to observe, construct, and apply knowledge to make a positive difference in the lives of the school community (CPED Principle Two) In this artifact, I have observed a problem, constructed a new way of seeing it and have proposed a way to apply this knowledge in the school community. Throughout this artifact, I discuss the possibility of utilizing Restorative Justice practices as an intervention into this self-reinforcing feedback loop. Restorative Justice is a practice that works to bring a community (in this case a learning community) to wholeness. This is exemplary of CPED principle three; provides opportunities for candidates to develop and demonstrate collaboration and communication skills to work with diverse communities and to build partnerships. Implementing Restorative Justice practices with the PBIS tier one implementation would provide a more just way to handle behavioral issues at the school and a way to justly interact with the learning community to include parents/guardians/families, teachers, staff, and students. 

Reflection 

This artifact was created in Summer 2024. Around this time, I had just finished deeply reflecting on my own processes as an educator examining who I was and could be as a scholarly practitioner. I had begun to question past and present experiences as a k12 teacher and how those experiences impacted me as a professional. I had just been hired at a charter school in Akron and was observing behavior in and outside of the classroom and how it was handled; I was not yet in charge of a classroom. In August 2024 I began teaching and what I observed in the spring semester has morphed into a greater problem. The behaviorist approach to discipline has become even more structured and embedded into the policies and procedures of the school and currently teachers are the ones blamed for not implementing it all the time and with fidelity. All the while teachers have a balancing act to perform between managing classroom behavior and teaching. And behavior is seen as the biggest problem by administration at the school. 

The research and learning that was put into the creation of this artifact spurred me to begin speaking up and advocating for students in a way I have not before. I have begun the process of presenting new behavioral interventions based on restorative justice. This includes pointing out that the system the way it is implemented is not working- but simply escalating students out of education.  Restorative Justice had also been a failed implementation just like this PBIS implementation in this particular school. Because of this Restorative Justice will probably not be tried again without evidence of its effectiveness. The same students are always getting into trouble, the same students are always rewarded, and interventions do not work to the satisfaction of the administration. Being in this situation, feeling pressure from administration to conform to this failed implementation of a behaviorist approach is discouraging.  

Identifying the problem of this feedback loop was a crucial step in my development as a scholarly practitioner in a learning organization. I was not only able to see and name the problem, but I was also able to begin to formulate solutions based on existing theories. Before this learning, I simply observed a system that was not working but participated. I knew that the way behavior was handled in k12 schools was excluding certain students from the opportunity of education. The system is unjust in its treatment of the black community, especially black male students. It is ineffective at dealing with behavioral issues for the twenty percent of students who see the majority of writeups and suspensions. The research I completed for this artifact into Restorative Justice gave an alternate way of approaching behavior in the K12 setting. 

I now see a path forward. Change comes from the inside of systems when organizations take a position of being open to learning from feedback instead of acting blindly through it. Through my discussions with administration and advocacy for students I am beginning to be the change I want to see. That change is happening inside my classroom as I use the setting to experiment with different alternatives to writing students up that use elements of Restorative Justice. Restorative circles and social emotional learning activities have been added to the routines in my classroom. What I am finding is that being responsive to the students’ needs with Restorative Justice is helping me to strike a balance between participating in escalating write ups and managing my own classroom’s behavior. Students misbehave. It is a constancy. Adult reactions of empathy and non-engagement in power struggles are the hallmark of developing effective behavior management. It is not and should not be about control, rather cooperation.   

The rigidity of the current system in place lacks the flexibility to treat each student as an individual. How I handle behavior is ever evolving. I have not reached classroom utopia yet. My attitude, action, and expression of research is constantly informing my choices in how I handle classroom management in a responsive way. Restorative practice is something I will continue to think about in how to approach social justice within this school and improve upon academic outcomes.