Restorative Practice

I'm pretty certain that, even if you've been dwelling under a rock for the past few years, if you've been anywhere near an education setting, then you will have heard about Restorative Practices.

We all like to think that we are being fair and just when dealing with situations and individual students... That we've built these great relationships with learners and whānau alike... But if we are honest, there is always that one individual who doesn't fit the mould with what works for all the others. The one that we don't have the same relationship with.

I've been delving into restorative practices with a specific lens of late. I'm finding a specific individual tricky. They have come to us with a history of "stuff", some known... a lot unknown. I've been discussing their situation with our RTLB, who has pointed me in the direction of all of this.

Restorative Practice is a relational approach to school life grounded in beliefs about equality, dignity, mana and the potential of all people.

If I'm brutally honest, I'm not treating this individual with as much mana and respect as I should. I've been becoming frustrated at their lack of empathy for others... yet where has my empathy for her been?

A useful way of looking at how the restorative approach works within a school community is the Social Discipline Window (Figure 1). This model’s four quadrants identify four sets of attitudes and responses to behaviour.

The top left quadrant is high on structure and expectations but low on support and care. This results in a punitive and authoritarian approach in which actions are done to others.

The bottom right quadrant is high on support and care but low on structure and expectations, resulting in approaches that appear permissive and rescuing and that do things for others.

The bottom left quadrant is low on both expectations and care. It is inherently neglectful and does not do much at all.

The top right quadrant is high on both structure and support. This approach most often results in respectful problem solving, collaboration, ownership of issues, and restoration with others.

What next?

I need to try Restorative Circles. (Book 3)

Restorative Circles support all staff and students to develop and manage relationships and create opportunities for effective teaching and learning time. They are a semi-formal practice requiring some preparation. They provide teachers with a range of processes to build relationships with and between all people in a school community, maintain those relationships, and enhance positive communication.

Restorative Conferencing is a process that provides schools with ways to repair harm and restore relationships. It uses the stories of those involved in an incident and the people close to it (e.g. students, staff and whanau) to:

• explore what has happened and who has been affected
• hold those who have caused harm accountable for their actions
• provide support to those who have been harmed, and others involved.

Why is this important?

Schools have a critical role in forming future citizens, and when schools teach and model restorative ways of handling conflict and wrongdoing, they contribute significantly to the creation of a more peaceful, humane and democratic society