Implementation

Resources for developing restorative processes in the school setting.

Denver Public Schools sings new tune on calming kids

by Burt Hubbard in DenverPost.com: ....For the past several years, North has been in the forefront of a new Denver Public Schools policy that emphasizes intervention and mediation to resolve fights and disruptions rather than out-of- school suspensions and expulsions. The session, geared toward letting students know their rights, was sponsored by Padres & Jovenes Unidos. The group's 2005 report charged that the district suspended too many students for nonviolent offenses and disproportionately targeted minorities. It helped lead to the policy changes. "It's important that every student know their rights," junior Brandon Garcia told the students after leading them in a Denver Broncos version of the wave.

Implementing restorative justice: A guide for schools

Recently, the Illinois Criminal Justice Authority released the guide Implementing Restorative Justice: A guide for Schools as part of a series of resources created to help with the statewide implementation of restorative justice for working with young offenders.

I love my job!

from Giles Charle's post on Restorative Justice at West Oakland Middle School: I am very happy with my job, even though I don't make very much money and I have no idea if it, or anything like it will exist next year. I do believe that Restorative Justice provides some crucial answers for us as we move towards our true potential as peaceful cooperative beings. With that said today was rough, I had more kids in lunch detention/thinkery then I new what to do with. Thanks to Mr. Brooks the co-principle of West Oakland Middle School (WOMS) we were able to sort out the students who understood what they did and were ready to take responsibility and head back to class from the kids who needed a little bit more reflection time before they would be ready.

Book Review: Discipline that restores

 

Black male conundrum

From Sarah Karp's article in Catalyst Chicago: In Chicago’s public schools, African-American males are suspended and expelled at a higher rate than any other student group. Yet educators are working to raise black male graduation rates, creating a classic case of policy and practice at odds.

Restorative Justice: Working with students

Part 2 of a series in the Badger Herald: While restorative justice programs are showing up across the country for many different state and federal criminals, the University of Colorado-Boulder and Skidmore College, among others, have decided to adopt such programs to introduce their students to non-traditional penalties.

Wachtel, Ted and Wachtel, Joshua and Costello, Bob and Wachtel, Ted. The Restorative Practices Handbook for Teachers, Disciplinarians and Administrators.

The Restorative Practices Handbook is a practical guide for educators interested in implementing restorative practices, an approach that proactively builds positive school communities while dramatically reducing discipline referrals, suspensions and expulsions. The handbook discusses the spectrum of restorative techniques, offers implementation guidelines, explains how and why the processes work, and relates real-world stories of restorative practices in action. (publisher's description)

Davey, Les and Preston, Nicola. An Introduction to Restorative Practices: Guidance and Implementation for Ages 11-18.

Built around an engaging story of an incident of wrongdoing and a restorative meeting held to address that incident, Part 1 of the workbook and guidance book is designed to introduce children and young people to the concept of restorative practices. Part 2 deepens this understanding by introducing key elements of restorative practices, including the Social Discipline Window, the Restorative Questions, Fair Process and Compass of Shame. The guidance book includes a resources CD and a 'Guide to Effective and Sustainable Implementation of Restorative Practices."

Crawford, Donna and Bodine, Richard. Conflict Resolution Education: A Guide to Implementing Programs in Schools, Youth-Serving Organizations, and Community and Juvenile Justice Settings; Program Report

The first chapter defines conflict as a natural condition and examines the origins of conflict, responses to conflict, and the outcomes of those responses. It presents the essential principles, foundation abilities, and problemsolving processes of conflict resolution; discusses the elements of a successful conflict resolution program; and introduces four approaches to implementing conflict resolution education. Each of the next four chapters discusses one of these four approaches and presents examples of programs that use the approach. One chapter describes an approach to conflict resolution education characterized by devoting a specific time to teaching the foundation abilities, principles, and one or more of the problemsolving processes of conflict resolution in a separate course or distinct curriculum. Another chapter describes an approach in which selected, trained individuals provide neutral third-party facilitation in conflict resolution. A chapter presents an approach that incorporates conflict resolution education into the core subject areas of the curriculum and into classroom management strategies, and another chapter presents a comprehensive whole-school methodology that builds on the previous approach. The next two chapters address conflict resolution education in settings other than traditional schools, including juvenile justice and community settings. The final three chapters address more overarching topics: conflict resolution research and evaluation; a developmental sequence of behavioral expectations in conflict resolution; and the process of developing, implementing, and sustaining a conflict resolution program. Abstract courtesy of National Criminal Justice Reference Service, www.ncjrs.org.

Claassen, Ron. An Introduction to 'Discipline that Restores'

Ron Claassen describes a restorative disciplinary program used in a school in California. The program, "Discipline that Restores" (DTR), was developed by Ron Claassen and his wife, Roxanne, to apply restorative justice principles in a school setting. A teacher in the school, Roxanne uses the program in her class of eighth graders, and they provide training for other teachers in the school. In this paper, Ron Claassen explains the principles of "Discipline that Restores," sketches a model he developed to illustrate four options for handling conflict, and recounts how another teacher uses a modification of victim-offender reconciliation to deal with conflicts between students and teachers.

Gutling, Bernd-Uwe and Semper, Anja. Mediation in schools "MeinS" (abstract).

The presenters will show how victim-offender mediation works in schools. They will discuss the training of school mediators and the rules for the mediation practice. They will show a video (11 minutes) developed with 13-year old children in a school in Oldenburg [Germany]. This video shows the different steps of the development of conflicts in schools and how they can be solved by means of mediation. Authors' abstract.

Kecskemeti, Maria. Restorative Conversations - Is changing ways of speaking enough to change relationships, discipline systems and school cultures?

Ways of speaking that call for achieving greater control by teachers over students as a response to problems and that require students to be more docile in the management of their behaviours are among the most readily available relationship and behaviour management practices that are used in schools. Though most schools try to foster a climate of inclusion on a policy level, there are many schools that struggle to make their discipline and behaviour management system work. In this paper I propose that ideas from positioning theory have potential for supporting the development of restorative behaviour management practices. I argue that such ideas should first be applied to the many daily conversations that teachers and students have with each other. I will show, through excerpts from conversations, how calling on positioning theory could produce ways of speaking that are restorative of relationships. I suggest that such ways of speaking can not only enrich the repertoire of restorative practices but they can form the basis of behaviour management strategies and discipline systems that are based on respect and foster a culture of inclusion. Abstract courtesy of the Centre for Justice and Peace Development, Massey University, http://justpeace.massey.ac.nz.

Hopkins, Belinda. Just Schools: A Whole School Approach to Restorative Justice

By 'justice' Belinda Hopkins means fairness, and the restorative approach that she describes is based on respecting the individuality of everyone in a school - adults as well as children - although the reader is slightly thrown off the scent by Guy Masters' foreword on using restorative methods in the criminal justice system. Hopkins, a former teacher, describes how to start a restorative programme in a school. Part II, 'Restorative skills and processes', outlines how to become a 'listening school', with suggested techniques for encouraging children to work out their rights and responsibilities. The restorative approaches to bullying will be of interest to many people. She believes in mediation as a process of transforming relationships and attitudes. She describes five basic steps, obviously writing from her own experience. Throughout she stresses the importance of a whole-school approach, and she acknowledges the need for a careful balance between blaming the victim and recognizing that his or her behaviour sometimes provokes an attack. There is a section on circles, which can also be used by governors, staff and others in resolving conflicts. The last part is about implementation and sustainability, and grasps the nettle by questioning whether rewards and punishments are the best way of managing relationships. Howard Zehr's paradigms of retributive and restorative justice are adapted to make them relevant for schools. After a discussion of consistency and voluntariness , Hopkins gives more guidance on five stages for making a start, recognizing that the aim should not be merely 'negative peacemaking' to make children behave, but to show them conflict management skills. Schools should be not merely re-structured, bur re-cultured, and the restorative method introduced in teacher training. Finally, some of the text diagrams are helpfully reprinted in reproducible form.

Egan, Meredith. A Story of Restorative Justice Values and Principles in a School Setting

This paper consists of a resource tool for students, parents, and school staff to explore restorative justice values and principles in a school setting. It was used in a workshop for high school students in Mission, British Columbia, to wrestle with conflict, friendship, and authority. In the paper Meredith Egan presents a fictitious scenario concerning two students on a date to the school prom and a teacher/chaperone when the young couple arrive at the dance. Though the school board had enacted a "zero tolerance" policy to inhibit the use of alcohol by students, the two students had drunk some alcohol just before coming to the dance. The teacher/chaperone and the students must deal with the problem arising from the school board policy, the students' actions, and the relationships between the teacher, the students, and even the students' families.