Humanizing classrooms within de-humanizing systems: restorative justice education in teacher education

Teacher education occupies a unique space within higher education: people are simultaneously fully students and fully teachers. Embodying this duality creates the opportunity for pre-service teachers to reflect, critically and compassionately, on educational relationships, identities, and practices. Yet, the reality is often very different; set within a system that upholds the status quo in the name of consistency and standards, teacher education classes often can be drained of both critique and compassion. This chapter examines two Australian teacher education courses—grounded in restorative and relational pedagogy—that sought to humanize the university classroom. We discuss the experiences of two educators involved in designing, leading, and teaching within the courses and utilize Ryan and Deci’s Self-Determination theory to analyze student feedback and assess the impact of the courses. Through humanizing practices, the courses assist pre-service teachers to navigate their individual needs for autonomy, competence, and relatedness and empower them to establish meaningful connections with peers and teachers as they co-create learning and teaching experiences. This relational restorative pedagogy helps to shape the perceptions of future teachers.