Restorative Practices in Schools

Restorative practices are a social science-based method of community-based conflict resolution that can be used in education. These practices seek to improve and repair relationships between people and the communities within which they function. The goal of restorative practices is to decrease negative behavior and provide acceptable recompense when it does occur. These practices also work with the whole community to improve social behavior and relationships, along with promoting inclusiveness and problem solving through positive methods of communication.

Overview

Addressing punishment for misconduct in the educational system is necessary because a school is a type of community. Students inevitably break rules and hurt others emotionally or physically. Detention and suspension are typical punishments, but they isolate students from their peers and from the learning environment. While these approaches may seem beneficial to teach consequences of actions, they do little to address or solve the underlying problem behind the negative behavior. Restorative practices are alternatives to traditional punishments and seek to address the broader issues behind student disobedience.

Restorative practices in the educational system evolved from social restorative justice practices used in criminal justice. Restorative justice practices seek to improve communication between victims and offenders. The practices also encourage people to take responsibility for their actions and provide consensual restitution to someone who has been wronged. Therefore, restorative justice practices are reactive to a person being harmed. However, restorative practices in the educational system aim to be more proactive. This means they seek to address an issue before it results in negative behavior. For example, restorative practices encourage students from different ethnic backgrounds to share experiences with each other before misunderstandings occur and possibly result in bullying or other inappropriate behavior that warrants reactive punishment.

Creating a supportive community for students when inevitable problems or issues arise is at the heart of implementing restorative practices in schools. Students need to feel they are important in the school-based community. When a person feels as if they are integral to a larger community that cares about them, the natural result is they show respect and demonstrate accountability within that community. The foundation of restorative practices echoes indigenous cultural practices that reinforced harmony and peace in tight-knit communities of peoples who relied on each other for physical sustenance and emotional support.

When negative behavior occurs in a school community, the restorative approach tries to immediately reintegrate the offender back into the community rather than isolate them with exclusionary discipline. This not only facilitates rehabilitation, but also helps the school community function together at its best with all members. Furthermore, school-based punishment often disproportionately affects minority students. Traditional means of punishment can stigmatize offenders and push them further into a pattern of wrong behavior. This reinforces stereotypical viewpoints. The restorative approach, by contrast, seeks to unite all members of a community to feel equally important to the broader function.

Restorative practices are based on several discipline and behavior management goals. Ultimately, they are founded on the idea of creating a safe place for reflective learning and making amends for harming another person, either physically or verbally. Students and staff are brought together in a school-based community, and communication is facilitated to engender respect and promote accountability for actions. The goal of using restorative practices in schools is to strengthen social and emotional skills of students to grow effective future leaders. Students learn to take ownership of behavior and demonstrate empathy and understanding. Restitution of wrongs and forgiveness are promoted when everyone is empowered to learn from mistakes and feel like important members of the school community.

Restorative practices are founded on three basic pillars. The first is harms and needs, meaning awareness that physical or emotional injury was caused, why it was caused, and how it affected other people. The second pillar is obligation. This involves the action of making things right to resolve the problem with anyone who was involved. Finally, the third pillar is engagement. All parties, including the broader community of parents and others associated with the school system, are included in the dialogue and healing process of understanding a negative behavior that has occurred or a potentially negative situation.

Some restorative practices are structured formal processes. These include planned student conferences or circles that encourage all members to share their viewpoints. Other practices are more informal and involve casual discussion or reflection on how one’s actions will affect others in the classroom. The idea behind the range of styles of practices is that they become a way of life for both students and educators in proactively managing conflict and building interpersonal relationships. By using a variety of restorative practices throughout the school day, educators and students are likely to be reminded of their responsibility to the harmonious working of the school community through formal and informal strategies.

In the event of a serious conflict involving harm, a formal restorative intervention may be necessary. This involves the guilty party and educators sitting down with others involved in the situation. During the intervention, the problem is identified, including who was harmed and why. Discussion of a practical remedy allows the offender to reflect on the impact of their actions and to have an opportunity to explain themselves, as well as a chance to make things right and be restored to good standing in the school community.

Restorative practices are by their nature participatory. Therefore, authority figures in schools must model respectful and collaborative behavior first. Students are more cooperative and willing to make positive changes when administrators and educators practice the tenets of restorative practices. Everyone in the school community, including parents and guardians, should participate in implementing and maintaining restorative practices.

It is helpful if one staff member who truly understands the process and agrees with the benefits serves as a coordinator of application of the program. In this way, students, other faculty, and parents have a contact person to help with the process. This coordinator can take the lead in creating a collaborative team, which ideally will include a diverse sampling of students, to analyze the disciplinary code of the school and work together to develop ideas of how best to implement the processes of restorative practices.

Implementation of restorative practices in a school cannot be done overnight; it is estimated to take three to five years to fully integrate the process. It must translate from an administrative level down to everyday practice in the classroom. Often, the transition takes place in stages, which helps students, staff, and parents acclimate to the changes and builds confidence in the benefits of the process as a gradual shift occurs.

Acceptance of a new way of dealing with negative behavior in a school often presents a challenge. Using an infraction by a student to present a teachable moment, rather than just providing a punishment for the negative action, is not always met with approval by all staff or parents. Many habits are ingrained in people and in society, and it takes time to demonstrate a better way to deal with students engaged in negative behavior.

Applications

The restorative practices process may be applied in many ways in a school-based community. Mindfulness techniques are simple exercises that can be used to help students get in touch with how they react to their emotions. By using these techniques students can learn to focus their attention and mitigate hurt feelings or anger to reduce potential conflict before it escalates. Staff coordinators can guide students through breathing exercises, stretches, and other movements that require concentration to increase mindfulness. Many schools choose to incorporate mindfulness exercises first thing in the morning during homeroom or to mix them in throughout the day between lessons. Educators can draw on a variety of online resources in developing a restorative practices program.

Affective statements and questions help students make a connection between actions and feelings. These help students identify their emotions, teach empathy, and address potential behavior issues before they become a serious problem. An example of this technique is having students fill in the blank of sentences such as, “I feel ‗‗‗‗‗‗‗ when someone says something untrue about me.” Another example is, “I need ‗‗‗‗‗‗‗ when I am not feeling like talking to others.” Affective questions are similar and help direct students to think about things from another person’s perspective. This could include examples such as, “How do you think Bobby felt when you cut in line in front of him at recess?” Educators can also use these statements or questions to prompt students to analyze the effects of their actions. For example, a teacher could ask, “How do you think I felt when you talked while I was reading aloud to the class?”

In addition to more formal affective statements and questions, simple spontaneous questions when a student is displaying early signs of negative behavior can be used to discern more about a student’s feelings. Restorative practices encourage open communication and dialogue at every level. A teacher can take a student aside and ask how they are feeling and if they are having a good day. Simply checking in with a student’s emotions and experiences may go far into developing a relationship and helping that student connect on a deeper level with the school community.

Restorative circles are used to allow students a safe opportunity to understand each other’s feelings, explore challenges, and develop empathy and impulse control. Students sit in a circle while a staff facilitator guides the discussion with prompting questions and gentle reminders about acceptable circle behavior. All students are encouraged to participate by freely sharing their stories and voicing their perspectives, while listening to others in turn. Order is kept by the designated speaker holding a symbolic object to show it is their turn to speak. This is modeled after Native American communities that have used a talking stick to show which person is to speak while everyone else listens respectfully.

Circles do not always have to feature serious discussions about behavior and emotions. Some circles can serve the purpose of getting students to express themselves and build social connections by getting to know each other better. For example, a facilitator might prompt everyone to take a turn to pick an animal that they feel reflects their current mood and then describe why they made that choice. This time can also be used to incorporate a short informal lesson on social or emotional skills.

Small group conferencing is a process used to create empowerment and encourage friendly discourse. Conferencing also builds social skills and self-confidence through an informal get-together, such as gathering a few students during recess or lunchtime to interact casually. A staff coordinator may provide some initial guidance, but students are allowed to converse freely. Many times, facilitators find that students use these meetups to make new friends or strengthen existing relationships. Conferencing may occur spontaneously or be a regular feature of the school schedule.

Classroom respect agreements or norm setting can be used to collaborate the creation of accepted behavior. Respect agreements and norms focus on values, such as kindness, honesty, or trust, rather than a list of rules. Students identify values that are important to them personally and then translate them into action statements of how they can be applied at school. For example, an action statement might be, “Ask before borrowing something belonging to someone else because it shows you respect them and their possessions.” Students create, modify, and agree to a master list. This helps students to feel engaged, respected, and part of the classroom community.

When harm has occurred, a responsive circle or restorative conversation conference may be necessary. These are formal meetings, either in a circle or a one-on-one setting, facilitated by a staff member to frankly address the problem that has occurred. The offending student and others involved participate in a dialogue. The student who caused harm will have a chance to explain what happened, describe what they were thinking or feeling, and listen to how their actions have affected others. This also provides the victims and others in the community an opportunity to express themselves and propose a remedy to the situation. This technique promotes open communication, empathy, and emotional growth. It also encourages restitution and forgiveness.

Students often need to be guided to offer and accept an apology. Since conflict in interpersonal relationships is a fact of life, development of these skills is useful. During formal or informal discussions, students can be taught how to offer and accept an apology. The offender should state one’s awareness of the negative behavior and how it affected the person or group. If a victim is ready to accept the apology, they should clearly state that they understand the offender is truly sorry. A conversation about how things can be made right to repair any damage can also be facilitated by a staff member during this conversation.

Re-entry circles are useful when traditional exclusionary disciplinary measures are used along with restorative practices, such as if a student faces disciplinary action and must be suspended from school. A re-entry circle or restorative welcome can provide the emotional support to reintegrate the student back into the school community. A facilitator can guide the student and those affected by the student’s behavior into a meaningful and healthy discussion about returning to school after the period of punishment has ended. Along with other students, the re-entry practice can include parents, teachers, and administration members. The structure is similar to other circles with the use of a talking piece and guided relationship-building dialogue. In addition, time can be provided for everyone to identify their needs and create a support plan for the student.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, many schools closed their doors and instead held virtual classes. Restorative practices were also held virtually and provided students with an outlet during that difficult and confusing time. Though physical conflicts were generally not an issue due to schools being closed and social-distancing, restorative practices and groups still met virtually to address the emotional needs of student populations.

About the Author

Jocelyn Hutchinson is a freelance writer with more than ten years of experience in the educational publishing business. She is also a consultant and educator specializing in English as a second language for professionals globally.

Bibliography

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