Beyond Conflict Resolution: Restorative Practice in Philadelphia Schools
- Nia Eubanks-Dixon
- Nov 10
- 4 min read
In schools across Philadelphia, conflict is inevitable. Young people bring with them their experiences, emotions, and challenges, and sometimes these clash in classrooms, hallways, or playgrounds. For years, the traditional response to conflict has been punishment: detention, suspension, or expulsion. These approaches may stop a behavior temporarily, but they rarely address the root causes of harm.
Creative Praxis strongly believes there is another way. Instead of focusing solely on discipline, our restorative practices aim to transform the culture of schools themselves. By moving beyond conflict resolution training and into liberation-centered, restorative approaches, we create learning spaces where relationships thrive, harm is repaired, and young people are affirmed as whole human beings. This guide offers insights, tools, and reflections to help educators bring restorative practices into everyday school life.
Why Traditional Conflict Resolution Isn’t Enough
Conflict resolution training typically equips students or staff with strategies to negotiate and reach agreements when disagreements occur. While valuable, this approach often focuses only on the immediate problem. It is designed to “fix” a moment rather than shift the conditions that gave rise to the conflict in the first place.
Restorative practices, on the other hand, ask deeper questions: What harm was caused? Who was affected? What needs to happen to repair relationships and rebuild trust? These practices focus less on punishment and more on accountability, healing, and community. They not only resolve the conflict but also build stronger connections that prevent future harm.
Storytelling as a Strategy
At the heart of restorative practice is the simple yet powerful act of storytelling. When students, educators, and families share their experiences, they open the door to empathy and connection. Storytelling allows people to move beyond labels and behaviors into a deeper understanding of one another’s humanity.
In restorative spaces, stories create bridges where conflict once stood. They help participants recognize how harm impacts both individuals and communities, and they provide a pathway for accountability without shame. Unlike traditional discipline, which silences voices, storytelling affirms them.
This emphasis on narrative is what makes restorative practices so transformative. It goes beyond conflict resolution training by promoting authentic dialogue, building trust, and creating the conditions for genuine healing.
Techniques that Transform
Creative Praxis uses evidence-based strategies to help educators and students integrate restorative practices into daily school life. Some of the most impactful techniques include:
1. Restorative Circles
Circles provide safe spaces for open dialogue. Participants sit in a circle, guided by a facilitator, to share experiences, listen deeply, and build understanding.
2. Community Agreements
Rather than enforcing rules handed down by adults, students and educators co-create agreements about how they want to treat each other. This builds ownership and collective accountability.
3. Restorative Conversations
When harm occurs, structured conversations help those involved discuss the impact, share feelings, and agree on steps to repair relationships.
4. Preventive Practices
Restorative work is not only about responding to conflict. It also includes proactive practices such as regular check-ins or creative expression that build strong, connected communities where conflicts are less likely to escalate.
These approaches are central to our civic engagement workshops, where educators learn not only the theory but also practice facilitation skills they can bring directly into their classrooms.
Workshop Takeaways
When schools participate in Creative Praxis’ restorative liberation workshops, they walk away with more than strategies; they leave with a transformed vision of what education can be. Participants are likely to report:
A deeper understanding of how trauma and systemic inequities show up in student behavior
Practical tools to engage students in conversations about harm and accountability
Increased ability to build classrooms grounded in safety, dignity, and belonging
Renewed energy for teaching and connecting with young people
This is the power of integrating restorative liberation workshops in schools. It shifts the culture from one of punishment to one of care, from exclusion to inclusion, from compliance to liberation.
Why Philadelphia Schools Need This Now
Philadelphia schools, like many across the country, face challenges related to equity, trauma, and student engagement. Punitive discipline disproportionately affects Black and Brown students, fueling cycles of exclusion and disconnection.
By centering restorative practices, schools can begin to dismantle these inequities. Beyond the immediate benefits of reducing conflict, restorative approaches support long-term cultural change. They strengthen relationships among students, staff, and families, creating schools that are not only places of learning but also places of healing and liberation.
Conflict resolution training alone cannot achieve this shift. What is needed is a holistic, liberation-centered approach that integrates healing, art, and community-building into the fabric of school life.
Creative Praxis: A Pathway to Liberatory Learning
Creative Praxis believes that schools deserve more than quick fixes for conflict. They need practices that transform culture and sustain communities. Our restorative liberation workshops for schools in Philadelphia go beyond conflict resolution training by equipping educators with tools to create liberatory classrooms where harm can be repaired and relationships can grow stronger.
Through circles, community agreements, art infusion, and trauma-informed facilitation, we help schools move from discipline to connection, from punishment to possibility.
Contact us today to bring restorative practices into your school community and build spaces where young people thrive in dignity, safety, and liberation.
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