| Students from refugee contexts coming to Canada often do not have the necessary foundations to be placed into mainstream classes successfully. Limited formal education and trauma prevent students from integrating into mainstream Canadian classrooms and closing the achievement gap with their peers. Restorative Teaching Practices for Students from Refugee Contexts challenge common practices of teaching and instead offer a more democratic way that engages all stake-holders in classroom decision making. Restorative teaching practices that include teatime, morning pages, and home visits present an alternate curriculum that meets the needs of refugee students more effectively. This study builds on research in multiliteracies, reciprocity of perspectives, ecological (and bioecological) theories of human development, and restorative education. Through an autoethnographic study, I take on the role of investigating my own practice to ask: how can I learn to teach and live well with my students from refugee contexts and how do restorative teaching practices (morning pages, teatime, and home visits) affect my teaching? My conclusions demonstrate that Restorative Teaching Practices for Students from Refugee Contexts have helped me and perhaps others to build positive relationships, and recognise and begin to address the diverse and profound needs of the teaching self and learners in the high school classroom. |
