Bullying remains a prevalent issue across many school systems worldwide, posing critical concerns to students’ emotional well-being, academic participation and school’s social climate. As one of the forms of violence among peers during school years, it is widespread across many schools in Azerbaijan and there have been numerous instances of schoolchildren attempting suicide due to bullying. A few years ago, Elina Hajiyeva, a 14-year-old schoolgirl, became the victim of bullying, an incident that ignited widespread national anger and frustration over the ineffective measures in place to combat school bullying (Zeynalov, 2019; Clayton, 2019). To this day, there are no effective measures to prevent bullying in the public school systems of the country; the system mainly relies on punitive measures, such as, suspension or expulsion, to address the issue. 

To control student behavior, many schools rely on traditional disciplinary approaches commonly grounded in zero tolerance policies and exclusionary practices, such as office referrals, suspension or expulsion. These punitive regulatory framework practices are viewed as opposing to the democratic and participatory approaches in education (Anfara, 2013). As earlier studies point to the ineffectiveness of zero-tolerance policies and exclusionary practices, restorative justice in education (RJE) can be viewed as an alternative with responsive regulatory framework. It is a philosophical framework that centres on the principles of equity and justice, social engagement and takes proactive approach, prioritizes the repair of harm and the rebuilding of relationships rather than the exclusive focus on punitive measures of misbehavior (Morrison, 2012). Cameron and Thorsborne (1999) consider misconduct not merely as a breach of school rules and infringement against the institution, but more as an offense against people and relationships. Anfara (2013) claims that for harm repairing resulting from such violations, schools can practice participatory, deliberative democracy. This prospective research study is about to explore the insights of school principals in both urban and rural areas on the feasibility of implementing RJ practices within public school system of the country. 

Research Question: 

Overarching Research Question: What are the perceptions of school leaders across urban and rural schools about the implementation of restorative justice in education, particularly on bullying in schools?

More specific questions:

1. What are/would be the potential enablers for implementing RJE policies and practices in our schools?
2. What are/would be the potential disablers for implementing RJE policies and practices in our schools?

To answer our research questions, we used the qualitative research method and conducted four focus group interviews, with 17 principals in total. The thematic analysis method developed by Braun and Clarke (2006), was used to analyze the collected data.

The findings revealed disparities among the school principals' perspectives on the application of RJ in education. For almost all participants, RJ as a topic and practice was new and therefore, most of them were skeptical if the application of RJ in the public schools was realistic and would be successful in dealing with bullying. Some related their doubt to RJ as a practice being totally new to Azerbaijani schools and community while for others several cultural barriers existed to apply RJ. Although, they mostly identified and described the disablers, some had clear ideas of how to deal with them to initiate and apply RJ. Many mentioned the difficulties to bring the parties involved in bullying together. Some also mentioned the importance of working with parents to successfully apply RJ in their school contexts.

Anfara Jr, V. A., Evans, K. R., & Lester, J. N. (2013). Restorative justice in education: What we know so far. Middle School Journal, 44(5), 57-63. Braun, V., & Clarke, V. (2006). Using thematic analysis in psychology. Qualitative Research in Psychology, 3(2), 77-101. https://doi.org/10.1191/1478088706qp063oa Cameron, L., & Thorsborne, M. (2001). Restorative justice and school discipline: Mutually exclusive. Restorative justice and civil society, 180, 194. Clayton, A. (2019, April, 12). Azerbaijani girl’s death by suicide shocks nation. https://eurasianet.org/azerbaijani-girls-death-by-suicide-shocks-nation Morrison, B. E., & Vaandering, D. (2012). Restorative justice: Pedagogy, praxis, and discipline. Journal of school violence, 11(2), 138-155. Zeynalov, M. (2019, May 8). "Elina üçün susma”. Azərbaycanı sarsıdan intihar. https://www.bbc.com/azeri/azerbaijan-48192076