Radical Listening: Transdisciplinarity,Restorative Justice and Change

This article explores transdisciplinarity within childhood studies at the intersection of restorative justice and counseling psychology. It is argued that at this juncture the nexus of radical listening may be uncovered. Radical listening, a term first coined by the critical pedagogue J.L. Kincheloe, is used here to aid in the project of both decolonizing restorative justice practices and deconstructing the hegemonic positioning of psychology in childhood studies through an intersectional understanding of childhood. This is a move toward complexity thinking and a valuing of Indigenous ways of knowing in response to the epistemicide of minoritized voices and the domination of White Western scholarship in childhood studies over the past century. Linkages established among transdisciplinarity, restorative justice, and counseling reorients the scholar/practitioner toward a nuanced understanding of a rights-based perspective and an appreciation of the intersections of social, political, and cultural worlds.