Moving toward a just community: an intersectional feminist program model of looking at residential life policy violations

Abstract

The purpose of this research was to apply feminist frameworks for evaluating the Peer Review Council (PRC) at a university’s residential life program, which operates based on Restorative Justice Practice (RJP) for reinforcing the residence hall rules through a less punitive punishment system. Two semi-structured focus groups and two semi-interviews were used to collect the data from seven students who were members of the PRC. In addition, one focus group consisting of the two staff who have been working in this program. Six themes from the student focus groups and four themes from the staff focus group were surfaced. A platform called DEDOOSE Version 8.1.8 was used to help find the mentioned themes and analyze the collected data for this research. The following feminist frameworks: Women’s ways of knowing, feminist standpoint theory, the Gilligan theory of moral development, and intersectionality theory were studies. These theories were applied to examine the limitation of a program that does not recognize the intersectionality of its members, the influence of gender on communication styles and the moral judgments of PRC members on peer justice when making decisions about violations. The research concluded that to avoid unconscious bias, an intersectionality sensitivity training for the PRC members should be implemented. Furthermore, a direct assessment of PRC program should complement the perception analysis for evaluating the understanding of the RJP for peer-to-peer accountability.