1.2 Restorative Justice

Restorative justice is an alternative to using punishment to manage off-culture behavior. Punishment-based approaches are what most teachers are familiar with and are guided by the idea that punishment is the best response to misbehavior. In practice this means identifying, prosecuting, and punishing the wrongdoer with the goal of enforcing behaviors that are safe and non-disruptive. When punishment does not work, misbehaving students may be suspended or expelled. When this occurs, there is little or no opportunity for learning.

The goal of implementing restorative practices in schools is to focus on restorative justice principles instead of punishment. The purpose is to build classroom communities that are supported by clear agreements, authentic communication, and specific tools to discuss issues and conflicts in a productive way. They provide specific strategies to bring together those that caused harm with those who are affected by misbehavior to engage in dialogue to address concerns, gain understanding, and come to an agreement about how to make things right.

As schools adopt and gain experience with implementing restorative practices, shifts in perspective take place.

What’s fundamental about restorative justice (practices) is a shift away from thinking about laws being broken, who broke the law, and how we punish the people who broke the laws. There’s a shift to: there was harm caused, or there’s a disagreement or dispute, there’s conflict, and how do we repair the harm, address the conflict, meet the needs, so that relationships and community can be repaired and restored. It’s a different orientation. It is a shift.”

Cheryl Graves, Community Justice for Youth Institute

The first shift acknowledges that troublesome behavior is normal, and when students behave in off-culture ways, they create opportunities to learn important social and emotional skills. What is important is not so much that they got into trouble in the first place, but what they learn along the way. Making things right is a powerful learning experience.

The second shift is a departure from the model in which an authority does an investigation and after taking a statement from the person that was harmed, decides guilt and assigns punishment. In restorative practices the authority figure acts more as a facilitator. The facilitator has an opportunity to engage both parties in a circle dialogue to discuss the problem and its impact. During this time ideas are explored and the group comes up with ways to make things right. Usually this means the student who caused the harm identifies specific actions that address the consequences of their choices. A restorative approach builds empathy and responsibility and helps to restore relationships.

The third shift moves the locus of responsibility for well-being of the community from the shoulders of the teachers to the students/community itself. Restorative practices challenge those who are in the circle dialogue to share information with each other and to come to agreements together.

 

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