An Ethnodrama Exploring Staff Members’ Perspectives on Building Community Partnerships to Support Youth in Restrictive Education Settings

This qualitative ethnodrama-based study explores the perspectives of four juvenile justice facility leaders on the role and impact of community partnerships in supporting justice-involved youth in restrictive settings. Despite existing literature on the benefits of community partnerships for youth, limited attention has been paid to their function within juvenile justice. Framed by an adaptation of Bakhtin’s theory of dialogue and presented through ethnodrama, this study centers the experiences and perspectives of staff members working in diverse juvenile facilities across the U.S. Participants’ reflections, gathered through asynchronous, open-ended written dialogue, emphasize how meaningful partnerships with schools, local organizations, and community-based agencies enhance educational opportunities, behavioral outcomes, and facility climates. Simultaneously, participants identify persistent challenges that limit such partnerships’ effectiveness and consistency. This study underscores the necessity of sustained, adaptive, and mutually respectful community engagement. By presenting staff voices in conversation, this work highlights how partnerships—when thoughtful and contextually aware—can foster hope, promote youth agency, and support both youth and staff within systems often marked by marginalization. This research contributes to the sparse scholarship focused on juvenile justice educators and offers implications for policy, practice, and partnership design that better serve youth in restrictive settings.