Defining Restorative Practices

In this position statement, the 'Restorative Practice Pilot' evaluation team, based at Moray House School of Education, University of Edinburgh, explore in some detail what is meant by Restorative Practices.

The term ‘Restorative Practices’ is used in education to mean restoring good relationships when there has been conflict or harm; and developing school ethos, policies and procedures that reduce the possibilities of such conflict and harm. It is an approach that acknowledges that schooling is an increasingly complex task, with increasingly wider demands on schools in a diverse and complex world and that teachers’ work can be challenging and stressful.

People in schools (pupils, teachers, managers, classroom assistants, janitors, dinner staff, educational psychologists, parents… -) bring varied and sometimes conflicting values, experiences and expectations. Government, local authorities and parents can make differing demands of schools so schools have to manage these and promote effective and improved learning while also providing supportive pastoral care. Restorative Practices can address these differences and be supportive to all those involved; for example they can be experienced as helpful by both staff and pupils.

Restorative Practices can been seen, not so much as an entirely new approach for innovation stressed schools, but one which does offer a framework within which existing good practice can build and develop. This approach is complementary to other recent initiatives such as Staged Intervention, emotional literacy/empathy development and also to solution focussed or person centred planning approaches; it adds a new dimension to thinking and practice for Inclusion.

Restorative Practices involve a set of principles, strategies and skills. The underpinning principles include:
• the importance of fostering social relationships in a school community of mutual engagement
• responsibility and accountability for one’s own actions and their impact on others
• respect for other people, their views and feelings
• empathy with the feelings of others affected by own actions
• fairness
• commitment to equitable process • active involvement of everyone in school with decisions about their own lives
• issues of conflict returned to the participants rather than behaviour pathologised
• a willingness to create opportunities for reflective change in pupils and staff”?

Restorative Practices emphasise the human wish to feel safe, to belong, to be respected and to understand and have positive relationships with others. They acknowledge the potential of social and experiential learning approaches that enable pupils (and staff) to understand, and learn to manage, their own behaviour. They recognise the fundamental importance in schools of both effective support and clear control and boundaries. This is often illustrated by the model of the social discipline window (see link on the right to download this article, including the daigram) that suggests that adults using restorative approaches can offer both control and support with children.

Restorative Practices can be employed at different levels in school:
• as preventive and promoting positive relationships within the whole school
community; as responsive and repairing when difficulties arise;
• and as part of support and intervention for more long-term and persistent difficulties.

So Restorative Practices can be seen on a continuum from whole school approaches to those used in more challenging situations or with individual pupils. They include:
• Restorative ethos building
• Curriculum focus on relationship development
• Restorative language
• Restorative Conversations
• Checking in Circles
• Problem solving circles
• Mediation and peer mediation
• Restorative meetings or conferences
• Restorative management of exclusion /reintegration

Restorative Practices can offer a range of significant benefits for schools. For the whole school:
• positive relationships
• constructive climate/ethos
• prevention of conflict and harm

When difficulties arise:
• conflict effectively resolved
• learning and progress out of difficulty
• relationships maintained

When serious difficulties arise: • sanctions are supported by processes of learning and reconciliation
• conflict resolved and harm repaired
• relationships restored or terminated in a positive manner

School staff will need opportunities to discuss/reflect on these principles/ideas. Many staff in school will already use some of the techniques but will require the opportunity to be further trained and develop their skills.

How is this different from Restorative Justice in the community? Restorative justice approaches are used with children and young people who have offended. They focus on offenders and individual actions by using restorative cautioning and/or conferencing. They do not have the broader preventive focus of educational approaches. They are developed by professionals who work exclusively with such young people, whereas, in education, the whole school community might be involved.

The Scottish educational approach to Restorative Practice is broadly focussed, encompassing prevention, response and intervention and, possibly, reparation. There is an emphasis on the whole school community - Restorative Practices are seen to be for all staff and pupils not just for those who have broken the rules or caused harm. This is wider than the approach of Restorative Justice. The Scottish approach has begun to be developed in three pilot education authorities, funded by the Scottish Executive. They also funded a formative evaluation of this. This commitment by the Executive is different from England where pilot work has been funded often through the Youth Justice Board. Recent evaluation of this English work suggested that national government commitment would be important for future success.

If we accept that schools are complex institutions then there will always be competing ideas, tension and personal disagreements. Restorative Practices offer ways to manage these fairly and positively, to prevent conflict and harm but still allow for the expression of difference. There is an emphasis on local ownership of the development and of the responsibility of those involved to learn the skills and develop the practices.