Restorative Practice for Families
Seminarpresented by
Kristy Elliott (B.Ed, MAPP)Why are schools adopting Restorative Practice?
Restorative Practice in schools is about managing the relationships across the school community with processes & techniques that help to build, maintain, deepen, & repair relationships. Building positive relationships among the people in schools (students, staff, parents, parents, carers) contributes greatly to positive student and community outcomes.
The purpose of restorative practice in schools is to
“Facilitate learning communities that nurture the capacity of people to engage with one another and their environment in a manner that supports and respects the inherent dignity and worth of all.” (Evans & Vaandering, 2016)
Schools embracing this philosophy prioritise building positive relationships, developing social-emotional capabilities, community wellbeing, creating supportive learning environments, and establishing fair, democratic systems.
How is Restorative Practice different to other approaches used in schools?
Traditional approaches to conflict and inappropriate behaviour in schools were typically concerned with enforcing rules and providing punishments to students who were identified as breaking the rules. Over the last two decades science (and firsthand experience in schools) has shown us that the traditional approach has failed to produce good outcomes for students or schools. In fact, focusing on rules and punishment tends to harm relationships, decrease student academic outcomes, and increase conflict. Restorative responses to conflict and inappropriate behaviour uses a different approach - an approach that values and honours relationships and the people within school communities and recognises that humans are imperfect, and students are consistently learning how to have better relationships with others.
A restorative approach brings together all the people who have been involved in the incident to explore what happened, heal the harm and set things right to the extent that they can be. The behaviour is confronted in terms of how it has affected the individuals within the community involved, such that social and emotional healing can take place. From a restorative perspective, both the person harmed and the person responsible for the harm, are of equal value. Both have needs, and both should be offered an opportunity to play their part in the restoration and repair of relationships.
Furthermore, when we approach conflict restoratively, we are modelling appropriate behaviour and social interaction (teaching acceptable behaviour) and providing an opportunity for the development of empathic responses towards others. Empathy development is enhanced when people can come together to talk about the impact of events in a safe and supportive environment. Empathic connections reduce the likelihood of conflict occurring – if I care about others, I am less likely to harm them.
Restorative Practice is informed by neuroscience. Our brains are hardwired to keep us safe and connected to others. Learning takes place in the cortex which can only be accessed when our brain is in a safe and connected state. This means that when students make mistakes that hurt others at school (or home or at sport), it is important that they feel safe and cared for by teachers and parents if we want them to understand the impact of their actions and learn how to do things differently.
Should schools provide consequences for inappropriate student behaviour?
Using a restorative approach is not a soft approach and does not exclude or minimise consequences, in fact quite the opposite is true. Being accountable, admitting your mistakes and fixing them up by making amends and perhaps saying sorry is not soft or easy, in fact it requires self-reflection and great courage. The restorative process empowers those that have experienced harm to speak about actions that would repair the harm for them (this may be different for every person). Consequences are neither predetermined nor imposed but are agreed upon and managed by those directly involved.
Restorative practices involve both natural and logical consequences.
Example a: a student who is unkind to other students may hurt their feelings, upset them, and may lose a friendship (natural consequences) A logical consequence is for the students to come together to resolve the conflict and it may also involve additional social learning for the student who was unkind.
Example b: a student kicks another student during a tense moment playing soccer. The student has physically harmed another student, they may be upset and hurt, they may require an ice pack, they may be angry with the student who kicked, and they may not choose to play with the student who kicked next time (natural consequences). Logical consequences in this scenario may include the student who kicked having some time off the
yard to work on the skill of frustration tolerance and a restorative chat may take place to problem solve and understand and repair the harm caused.
What does a restorative response look like in schools?
A restorative response to inappropriate or harmful behaviour in schools is a threephase process:
PREPARATION FACILITATION FOLLOW UP
Preparation involves finding out about the incident and who was involved and supporting them to have a restorative conversation Facilitation involves having a restorative conversation (see below). Follow up involves supporting students to repair the relationship and develop additional capabilities and skills required to improve behaviour and relationships.
A restorative conversation uses a series of questions designed to support people to move through a three-phase process:
PAST PRESENT FUTURE
In schools, restorative conversations are usually supported by teachers or other adults in the school and empower students to take responsibility to solve their own problems and gives a voice to those who have been impacted by the event.
The questions typically follow this format:
Past
• What happened and what was your part in it?
Present
• How have people been hurt or impacted by what happened?
Future
• What needs to happen to fix things up and set the relationship right?
• What support do people need to fix things up?
• How can we prevent this from happening again?
Using this approach has many benefits including allowing everyone to tell their story, developing understanding of, and empathy for, others, promoting responsibility and accountability, empowering students to problem solve, and teaching skills for managing relationships in life.
Restorative Practice is for entire communities – students, teachers and parents. However, it is not a one-size-fits-all approach, adaptations are required to meet the needs of individuals and decisions will need to be made as to whether it is the most appropriate approach for the people involved and the incident that occurred It provides a solid relational foundation to work with all people in our schools.
When we respond to conflict restoratively, we are modelling appropriate behaviour and social interaction (teaching positive behaviours) and providing an opportunity for the development of compassionate responses to others.
www.restorativepathways.com.au kristy@restorativepathways.com.au
