What
is Restorative Justice?
In
recent years there have been developments in the arena of Criminal
Justice prompting those dealing with youth crime in particular to review
their approach. Different strands are coming together from different
parts of the world, as described by Martin Wright in his book 'Restoring
Respect for Justice'. (Wright 1999) He highlights early victim/offender
mediation that grew from an initiative in Ontario, Canada and has now
spread from there, via the United States to Europe. He also makes
reference to 'conferencing' - a meeting of the extended families of both
victims and offenders, developed from the interaction of Western and
Indigenous peoples in New Zealand and Canada. A third strand involves a
theoretical study by John Braithwaite (Braithwaite 1989) who was
considering the impact of a 'reintegrative shaming process' in which
offenders have their behaviour disapproved of by those close to them but
who can nevertheless be supported in reparation and re-integration back
into the community. Different 'Restorative Justice Approaches' are being
developed around the world in response to local situations but as Wright
says:
'A family of theories is evolving. Different aspects and methods are
emphasised, but there is a common underlying philosophy; the Restorative
Justice Consortium (1999) has drawn up a definition and standards, and
guidelines for good practice have been drawn up in Britain and Germany
(Mediation UK, 1998; Serviceburo, 1998).'
My
inspiration for work in schools has come from a number of sources.
One of the first theorists in the field of Restorative Justice, Howard
Zehr, the Director of the first Victim/Offender Reconciliation Programme
in the United States, drew up a paradigm in which he compared
traditional retributive justice philosophy with restorative justice
values and ideas (1990). When I first discovered this I could see
immediate parallels with approaches to behaviour management in schools
and I re-wrote the paradigm with a schools focus.
Restorative
Justice in schools
|
OLD
PARADIGM
RETRIBUTIVE JUSTICE
|
NEW
PARADIGM
RESTORATIVE JUSTICE
|
|
Misdemeanour
defined as breaking the school rules
|
1
|
Misdemeanour
defined as adversely affecting others
|
|
Focus
on establishing blame or guilt, on the past (did he/she do
it?)
|
2
|
Focus
on problem-solving by expressing feelings and needs and how to
meet them in the future
|
|
Adversarial
relationship and process
|
3
|
Dialogue
and negotiation – everyone involved in communicating and
cooperating with each other
|
|
Imposition
of pain or unpleasantness to punish and deter/prevent
|
4
|
Restitution
as a means of restoring both/all parties, the goal being
reconciliation
|
|
Attention
to right rules, and adherence to due process
|
5
|
Attention
to right relationships and achievement of the desired outcome
|
|
Conflict
represented as impersonal and abstract: individual versus
school
|
6
|
Misdemeanours
recognised as interpersonal conflicts with some value for
learning
|
|
One
social injury replaced by another
|
7
|
Focus
on repair of social injury/damage
|
|
School
community as spectators, represented by member of staff
dealing with the situation
|
8
|
School
community involved in facilitating restoration
|
|
People
affected by misdemeanour not necessarily involved
|
9
|
Encouragement
of all concerned to be involved – empowerment
|
|
Miscreant
accountability defined in terms of receiving punishment
|
10
|
Miscreant
accountability defined as understanding the impact of the
action, seeing it as a consequence of choices and helping to
decide how to put things right
|
|
|
|
|
|
I
was also inspired, and continue to be so, by the vision of Marion
Liebmann, first director of Mediation UK, who wrote a chapter in the
first victim/offender mediation training manual to be produced in this
country (Quill and Wynne 1993). In this chapter she sketches her vision
for the future:
'Like an artist with a palette of colours, I will not restrict myself to
what is already available, or what is financially feasible. Rather I
will use my imagination to paint a picture of how things could be, given
the resources and commitment to achieve what is really needed. (…)
What could a system of restorative justice look like? The main feature
would be an emphasis on undoing harm done, of whatever kind, and on
looking to future behaviour.'
She then describes a new approach to parenting, to education of both old
and young and to provision in the community, which emphasised conflict
resolution and the restoration of relationship in the event of conflict
or inappropriate behaviour.
My
third point of departure was the Practice Standards mentioned by
Wright, developed by the Restorative Justice Consortium. Reading these
carefully I have again seen potential parallels between traditional
criminal justice approaches and attitudes to dealing with inappropriate
behaviour by adults in their capacity as either parents or teachers. The
revolutionary potential of these Practice Standards if applied to
authoritarian parenting and school discipline procedures is
breathtaking- and yet I became convinced that if these standards were to
be meaningful in the criminal justice field then attitudes would need to
change in the community first. Thinking in the long term this would mean
educating young people in dealing with challenging behaviour and
building meaningful relationships.
My
enthusiasm for Restorative Justice in the school context has
developed partly because I saw links between Restorative approaches and
the conflict management skills with which I was already familiar and
which I believed to be important in the school context. However I was
also concerned by anecdotes I had been hearing about how thoughtless
remarks from members of a school community, old and young, could unravel
the good that a conference could achieve. I had already come to the
conclusion in my school work that neither Mediation nor Circle Time
could thrive as 'bolt-on's. The underlying principles and the skills
needed to be embraced by the whole school community. I began to suspect
that the same was true for Conferencing.
All three processes would appear to be applications of a philosophy that
needs to inform day to day interactions in a school community. I began
to coin the phrase 'Whole School Restorative Approach' (Hopkins 1999a;
Hopkins 1999b) This approach puts the maintenance of relationship at the
heart of all interactions between people in a school community,
especially in the event of conflict.
Braithwaite,
J. (1989). Crime, shame and reintegration. Cambridge, Cambridge
University Press.
Hopkins, B. (1999). "Restorative Approaches in the Community."
Mediation 15(3): 3-4.
Hopkins, B. (1999). "Restorative Justice in Schools."
unpublished.
Quill, D. and J. Wynne (1993). Victim and Offender Mediation Handbook.
London, Save the Children/West Yorkshire Probation Service.
Wright, M. (1999). Restoring Respect for Justice. Winchester, Waterside
Press.
Citizenship
in Action - Restorative Justice in Schools
Restorative
Justice is an innovative approach to offending behaviour, which
places relationships and healing the damage done to relationships at the
heart of a crime reduction policy. It is an approach that has the
support of the Home Office, and Youth Offending Teams are being
encouraged to consider restorative approaches when dealing with young
offenders. Research is suggesting that young people who have met face to
face with the people who have been affected by their criminal behaviour,
together with trained mediators, have tended to re-offend less. Victims
of criminal behaviour have also attested to the value of the process and
many have been able to move on and put the trauma behind them.
This
short article will describe our involvement in initiatives designed
to take the values and principles of Restorative Justice into schools.
The
experience in Great Britain
In some
instances the starting point for the school focus had been a concern
that certain schools were becoming involved in victim-offender mediation
and conferencing (mediation involving a wider group of people affected
by the offending behaviour) without appreciating the need for an
environment conducive to restoration, rehabilitation and re-integration.
The process of mediation and conferencing creates opportunities for
active listening, recognition of the others' situation, empowerment and,
often, apology and forgiveness. For real healing to take place, however,
there is an implicit suggestion that the wider community has a role to
play in supporting both victims and offenders to move on after the
mediation. There has been anecdotal evidence to suggest that sometimes
the safe and healing atmosphere of a conference or mediation has been
undermined by unthinking responses from students and teachers. An
important consideration then, is what skills the community might need to
be able to support this process of reparation.
Another
line of enquiry was inspired by a key idea in Restorative thinking -
the importance of repairing harm. Restorative Justice stresses the
importance of relationships over and above rules. It seeks at all times
to restore relationships between people in a community when these have
been damaged by inappropriate behaviour. The question arose as to
whether it is always possible to assume that damage has been done to
relationship. What if there was no relationship in the first place?
It
became clear that a truly Restorative Approach, putting relationship
at the centre of the community, needed to be working at both a
preventative and a reparative level. Things started to slot into place!
For several years Belinda had been working in schools developing Peer
Mediation projects, working with young people and a few key staff.
However she had come to the conclusion that such projects can only
flourish if the whole school takes ownership of the philosophy of
mediation and builds the practice and principles into their everyday
interactions at every level.
A
major influence on this work has been Kingston Friends Workshop
Group, which had devised a wonderful analogy for considering conflict
and conflict management. They suggest that the behaviours we see or hear
in a group in conflict (perhaps a classroom or staff room on a bad day!)
are merely the tip of this iceberg. Beneath the surface we can be fairly
certain that what needs addressing are issues of low self-esteem, poor
communication skills and lack of co-operation. A comfortable, harmonious
classroom or staff room, on the other hand, would be full of people with
high self-esteem, who communicated easily and effectively and who
enjoyed working together. Not an Iceberg but a Tropical Island! Belinda
had therefore began encouraging schools to develop Circle Time as a
starting point from which to develop an environment conducive to problem
solving and mediation, using the ' Iceberg to Tropical Island' model as
a basis for planning the programme. Her starting point had increasingly
been the adults in the school community, who need to be modelling the
ethos and skills of creative conflict management and restorative
practices. Without regular staff Circle Time student Circle Time is
difficult to sustain. Staff training has revealed many staffroom
icebergs and a willingness to work towards that tropical island.
From
this basis the staff themselves can develop the model which will
work best for their own school. Restorative Justice is about dialogue,
about involving everyone in the process of finding ways forward, about
mutual respect. Circle Time provides the forum and indeed the structure,
for developing other kinds of circles - problem-solving circles,
mediation circles, conference circles, school councils and so on.
None
of this is new. Richard Cohen in his book 'Students resolving
Conflict' advocates establishing a positive ethos first and foremost,
then developing one-to-one problem solving skills and only then
considering interventions like mediation. Belinda's contribution has
been to link all this together with the ideas and practice of
Restorative Justice and call it a Whole School Restorative Approach.
Of
course there is also the radical aspect of Restorative philosophy
which asks us to look afresh at rule breaking and punishment. In his
stimulating and challenging book 'Restoring Respect for Justice' Martin
Wright writes:
'Restorative
Justice in the area of criminal justice is based on the idea that
the response to crime should be to put right the harm, as far as
possible and not, as hitherto, to inflict harm on the offender'.
In
the school context this might mean responding to inappropriate
behaviour by considering who has been affected and ensuring that any
response takes into account the relationship between those involved.
Those people familiar with mediation will recognise the importance of
dealing not only with the behaviours that have caused conflicts but also
addressing the underlying difficult emotions. Failure to do this leaves
resentment and the conflict is likely to erupt again, maybe in a
different form. This principle can apply in schools even when the
conflict is between adult and student or adult and adult. Furthermore,
as Martin Wright says:
'The
example set by those who punish is an anti-social one, it tells
people that you can use superior force to stop other people doing what
you don't want them to do.'
A
Restorative Approach then, endorses practices like negotiating
groundrules with all those affected by the rules- a common practice in
schools using Circle Time. It encourages mediation as a way of dealing
with conflicts. It promotes dialogue and negotiation, mutual respect and
empowerment. It provides a template for developing a truly democratic
school, encouraging active Citizenship skills in staff and students
alike. It suggests processes by which harm can be repaired, not soft
options to punishment, but processes which make people far more
accountable for their actions than punishment. Punishment without the
opportunity to hear from the people affected by an inappropriate action
can breed alienation and hostility. The 'wrongdoer' may feel unheard,
the people affected remain resentful or possibly complacent and the
tensions on all sided remain, to bubble up at a later date. A face to
face meeting, mediated by a neutral facilitator, might be tough, but
experience suggests that there is more chance of all sides feeling
greatly relieved by the chance to air their feelings, to explore ways
forward and sometimes to offer or accept apologies.
These
are radical ideas. They are inspiring ideas. They touch people's
hearts as well as their minds. Schools are excited by them. They want to
engage in the experiment of seeing what will happen if enough time and
support is given over to making them work. Belinda is about to embark on
some projects in the Thames Valley, for example, which could take at
least two years to be self-sustaining.
The
Northern Ireland experience
"Understanding
of conflict and non-violent ways of responding to it' is an
objective of Education Mutual Understanding (EMU, a cross curricular
theme in the curriculum in Northern Ireland. Peer Mediation was first
introduced into primary schools in 1993 as an EMU initiative of the then
Quaker Peace Education Project, an action research project at the Centre
for the Study of Conflict.
During
the next five years peer mediation programmes were undertaken in a
number of primary and secondary schools in different parts of Northern
Ireland. State school, Catholic schools, and Integrated schools were all
represented in these programmes. The outcomes of these programmes
illustrated a paradox. On the one hand, children were well able to
internalise, adapt and apply peer mediation skills both in terms of
providing formal mediations, and using them informally at home, and with
friends. But on the other, hand, Jerry Tyrrell's research team found
that very few schools were able to sustain the programmes, because the
environment was not necessarily sufficiently child-centred. Matching
Belinda's experience, they found that schools needed to reflect the same
values throughout its community
This
was brought home to Jerry, when after a demonstration of peer
mediation by a group of pupils, at a school which had been training
children for some time, a teacher said, "That's all very well, but
what about blame and punishment." The values of peer mediation,
which included empathy, inclusion, volunteering, being future focussed,
and above all involving the parties in the conflict in the solution, are
not necessarily those of the educational system.
In
this sense the Northern Irish experience is similar to the rest of
the UK, and as previously argued, schools have to create environments
which are conducive to these values, if programmes such as conferencing
or mediation are to flourish and grow.
The
politics and reality of Northern Ireland have a way of creating
baggage around even the freshest ideas. Justice is a contentious issue,
and restorative justice has been dragged into the policing debate,
because the restorative justice programmes in Republican/Nationalist
areas tend to be community based, whilst those in the Loyalist/Unionist
areas are police based.
So
restorative justice has quite a high if confused profile, and
perhaps a public misconception of what it is and what it can achieve.
Nevertheless the children and the adults alike make the link between the
skills children use to address conflicts in the playground and those
needed in the Northern Ireland peace process. Empathy underpins peer
mediation and politicians have gone on record acknowledging that empathy
is a key skill in negotiation.
Conclusion
Those of us
engaged in promoting programmes in schools based on restorative
principles could point to anecdotal evidence that they have transformed
the teaching and learning environments in individual schools. The
reality is that for schools to take on such programmes in a sustainable
way changes are needed in the environment of the whole school. Teaching
is an undervalued, under appreciated, stressed profession, where the
arbitrary measure of academic achievement is considered more important
than life skills. The challenge for us is to harness the creativity,
passion, vision and vocation that drew teachers into the profession and
encourage them to reflect on their own practice.
We are feeling our way. We are all taking risks. We are learning
together. Watch this space!
Belinda Hopkins, Director, Transforming Conflict; Centre for
Restorative Justice in Education
Belinda@transformingconflict.org
Jerry
Tyrrell, Director, EMU Promoting Schools Project
emu@ulst.ac.uk
References
Cohen, Richard (1995) Students resolving Conflict
Glenview: GoodYear Books
Wright,
Martin (1999) Restoring Respect for Justice
Winchester: Waterside Press
Kingston
Friends Workshop Group (1996) Ways and Means Today
Tyrrell,
Jerry (2001) Peer Mediation - a process for primary schools (ed. Marian
Liebmann) London, Souvenir Press.

Restorative
Justice in a school context Restorative
Justice stresses the importance of relationships over and above
rules. It seeks at all times to restore the relationships between people
when these have been damaged by inappropriate or offending behaviour.
This has profound implications for any community that seeks to embrace
restorative principles - and none more so than the school community
where young people are learning to be effective and reflective citizens.
The
most well-documented applications of Restorative Justice in schools
to date are the processes which seek to repair undisputed harm -
Restorative Conferencing, Family Group Conferencing and Victim/Offender
Mediation. These are being used not only in cases of offending behaviour
but also with young people who are at risk of exclusion (or who have
been excluded) as a way of addressing the relationship issues and
residual tensions.
In
schools where Restorative Practices are being used practitioners are
discovering that other issues can be dealt with restoratively, and these
may involve conflict where there is no 'guilty party' or when both sides
are blaming the other. Mediation is often an appropriate response to
such situations, where neutral facilitators enable those in conflict to
listen to each other and find a mutually acceptable way forward.
An
increasingly widespread application of Mediation in schools is the
development of a Peer Mediation Service, usually run by young people
themselves who have been trained to mediate amongst their peers and deal
with conflicts that arise in the playground. Successful schemes are
running in Junior and Secondary schools around the UK and secondary aged
students have their own Young Mediators Network and run their own
conferences.
Such
schemes, however, are less successful if mediation is not an
approach also used by the adults in the school community. This is the
message of a Restorative Approach generally. It is important that
Restorative Justice is seen not simply as a response to extreme
behaviour but that the principles are in place in staffrooms, classrooms
and playgrounds every day.
It
would not make sense to deal with some situations using one set of
values and then deal with other situations using different values. Young
people are quick to spot hypocrisy and inconsistency. Justice is a very
important issue for them and they appreciate it if the rules by which
they are expected to live and work in the school community also apply to
adults.
Indeed a key restorative principle would be that the whole community
develop the rules together and are involved in finding ways forward when
these rules are broken - whoever breaks them.
The
processes mentioned above require certain skills of the facilitators
but are also more effective if participants are also practised in
certain key Restorative Skills which include:
Active
listening
Non-violent
communication
Anger
management
Conflict
transformation skills
Dealing with
difficult situations
Restorative
de-briefing and reflective practice
Restorative
Justice is predicated on
the notion that damage has been done to relationships by inappropriate
behaviour and that prior to an incident there were relationships that
have subsequently been damaged. This may not have been the case. In a
school community relationships and community need to be actively
developed and not taken for granted. This requires a set of Relational
skills and can be nurtured with certain relational processes.
The skills include:
Active
Listening
Self-awareness
Emotional
literacy
Building
rapport
Patience
Objectivity
Developing and
maintaining self esteem
Appreciating
difference
Inclusive
practices
Expressing
feelings and needs
The
Relational processes and systems, which also develop the Active
Citizenship skills of the whole community, include:
Circle Time
for Staff (for staff development, team building and mutual support)
Circle Time
for Students (for developing self-esteem, communication skills and a
spirit of co-operation)
Healing
Circles
School Council
Peer-counselling
Peer mentoring
Buddying
Schemes
No-Blame
Approach to Bullying
A Self-Esteem
Policy for Staff and for students
A Whole School
Relationship Management Policy (as opposed to a 'Behaviour
Management' Policy that tends to focus on young people's behaviour)
Pieced
together, the Restorative and Relational processes and skills
described above make up the jigsaw of a Whole School Restorative
Approach. Every school will have its own priorities and will want to
build on existing good practice. Time and resources for training and
support will also be issues. For further information some useful links
to other websites are listed below:
Transforming
Conflict - A Centre for Restorative Justice in Education .This
organisation is developing its own website which will have information
about Restorative Issues in schools, details of courses , a bibliography
of useful books and a discussion forum. It will be fully online by June
2001.
www.transformingconflict.org
Mediation
UK. This is the umbrella organisation for community and
victim/offender mediation services around the UK. It also supports
mediators working in schools on Peer mediation projects.
www.mediationuk.org.uk

Active
applications of Restorative tools -
putting relationships at the heart of the process
Circle
Time for students
as part of the morning tutor time
as part of
PHSE / Citizenship programme
to be
integrated into curriculum time
Circle
Time for staff (teaching and non-teaching)
for staff
development
for
sharing difficulties in a spirit of open learning
for
supporting year teams, curriculum teams, lunchtime staff, etc.
Workplace mediation for discipline issues amongst staff
Mediation between parents and staff
Peer mediation for student conflict
School councils for developing active citizenship skills
Conferencing
as a
Circle Time approach to class conflict
as a tool
for dealing with inappropriate behaviour
for case
conferences
for
special-needs assessments involving parents, school staff and LEAs
These are some examples. Individual schools will design their own
action plan.
Belinda
Hopkins, January 2000

|
|
ESTABLISH
|
BY
DEVELOPING
|
AMONGST
|
USING
|
|
STAGE
ONE
|
A positive support ethos
A sense of collective responsibility for well-being of school
community
|
High self-esteem
Mutual respect
Emotional literacy
A culture of inclusion
Active
citizenship
Empathy
for others
|
Senior management team
Teaching
staff
Administrative,
peripatetic, support, catering, caretaking and lunchtime staff
Students
Parents
Governors
|
Circle
Time for all
PHSE
programme
Open-ended
conferencing
Mentoring/coaching
New
staff/induction
Negotiated
ground rules for all
Whole
School Council
|
|
STAGE
TWO
|
A
problem-solving approach to situations which are personally
challenging to self
|
Win-win
strategies
Negotiation
skills
Non-violent
communication
Empathy
for others
|
Circle
Time
PHSE
programme
Focused
IN-SET
Mediation
and conferencing training
Formal
Restorative debrief process after challenging situations (all
parties)
|
|
STAGE
THREE
|
Restorative
approaches to conflicts and challenges involving others
|
Mediation
skills
Conference
facilitation skills
Anger
management skills
Restorative
discipline policy
|
Appropriate
members of school community, and possibly everyone identified
above to some degree
|
Training
On-going practice and review
Ongoing
support from Mediation Service
Outside agency support
|

Restorative/Relational
Justice in Schools

Restorative
Justice in Schools - some practitioners from Nottingham and the Thames
Valley share their experiences
This article is inspired by a visit that I made recently to
Nottingham at the behest of the Restorative Justice in Schools project
organisers. Four of us met, Robin Tinker, Lynne Pickup, Debbie Hewer and
myself, in the comfortable setting of Lynne's house on a glorious sunny
day and we gave ourselves the luxury of a fairly free agenda, discussing
issues as they came up. We were all there to learn from each other's
experiences but my particular brief was to offer insights on how the
Nottingham project could develop further and involve more of the whole
school population.
Between
us we offered a variety of different approaches and experiences in
schools. Robin, Lynne and I share a background in teaching and although
we had differing philosophies whilst in the classroom, we now share a
commitment to Restorative Justice. Lynne made no secret of the fact that
her previous position on dealing with challenging behaviour was punitive
but that she had become an enthusiastic convert to restorative ways of
dealing with such issues now. My impression was that her experience must
speak loudly to sceptical members of the teaching profession whereas
someone like myself- always of a liberal, humanistic persuasion- might
well get dismissed by some as 'unrealistic'. Robin's long experience
working in challenging educational environments and his current advocacy
of Restorative Justice also stands as a testimony to the value of a
restorative framework in these settings.
Our
current approaches differ too and this provided much food for
discussion. The Nottingham project has grown out of enthusiasm from the
Notts police, notably Dave Wakelin and Dave Padleigh, for using
Restorative Conferencing when dealing with youth offending. The schools
project began with offering conferencing in school settings with cases
of bullying and harassment and has now been extended to peer buddying.
Anecdotal evidence suggests that the people directly involved have
benefited from the process, the inappropriate behaviour has been reduced
and all sides have been able to move forward more positively.
In
some respects the Notts approach mirrors the approach in the Thames
Valley, where conferencing is being used to deal with inappropriate
behaviour in a school setting. In some notable cases police officers
working in schools - Drayton School in the Bretchill area of Banbury
being a good example- have identified the wider potential of Restorative
principles. It is perhaps fair to say that, to date, the restorative
conferencing experiences have been in isolated schools, compared to the
more formally constituted Notts project where six schools have been
involved and the project evaluated for the Home Office CRISP project.
(Crime Reduction in Schools)
My observation, in conversation with police officers involved in
school projects in the Thames Valley, is that more could be done to
coordinate their experiences, provide support, share their skills and
create a clearer picture of what is being achieved. I have not gained
the impression that there exists a Thames Valley Schools Project as such
although there is an attempt to coordinate better what is happening in
schools now.
Interestingly,
in both the Thames Valley and in Notts a similar story is emerging -
that whilst there is undoubted benefit to the individuals involved in
conferences most of the time, the school community as a whole remains
largely untouched by the process and the philosophy behind it. One of
the very first questions Robin and Lynne asked me was how they can make
a difference in the schools rather than just to individuals. It is
pertinent to ask why they should ask such a question. Why do they want
to make a difference in the school as a whole? One could argue that
providing those directly involved in an incident are satisfied, the rest
of the school community need not be bothered. But of course this is not
what Restorative Justice is about. For pragmatic reasons alone the
community in which the participants in a conference live and work need
to understand what has happened. Their reactions to those involved
following a conference will be crucial factors in the reintegration and
rehabilitation of both 'victims' and 'offenders'.
However
I would argue, and Robin, Lynne and Debbie agree, that there is much
more to Restorative Justice than dealing with serious inappropriate or
offending behaviour. All those who start using it in such cases can see
its potential for dealing with inappropriate behaviour at all levels and
also with conflict in general. (It is not for nothing that trained
conference facilitators are being asked to adapt the process in
neighbourhood conflicts where there are no specific victims and
offenders.) Indeed there is something odd about using a process which
emphasises restorative principles in one context whilst, in the same
school and perhaps even simultaneously in another room, more minor
conflicts and misdemeanours are being dealt with in a different, perhaps
more punitive, way. Hence the question Robin and Lynne posed - how can
we reach the teachers and the students?
This
is where my contribution may have some value because I have been
involved in developing a project which starts from the premise that we
are talking about a 'Whole School Approach'. It has to be said that the
project is in its early stages but the thinking and the development has
grown out of years of thinking and preparation Interestingly enough, the
position I have reached now, with a background in mediation and conflict
management in schools, mirrors the experience of Restorative Justice
school -based practitioners and it may be pertinent to reflect on that.
Things appear to be coming full circle.
Mediation
was first developed in this country, in the victim/offender context
,during the 1980's. This later led to the founding of an organisation
called FIRM in 1984 (Forum for Initiatives in Mediation and Reparation)
which has since become Mediation UK. Very soon afterwards the first
neighbourhood mediation schemes began to develop.
Meanwhile,
and at first apparently separately, initiatives were being developed in
schools to help children deal with conflict in a more creative way.
Ideas came over from the United States and various Peace Education
networks were formed around the country. Even at that time it was
perceived that radical changes might be needed in schools if the ideas
being discussed could take root in schools. Political factors governing
school policy also played a part and of course there came the backlash
against liberal teaching styles that reduced teachers' freedom to
develop more holistic approaches. I directly experienced these myself as
a teacher struggling with a commitment to democracy in the classroom in
the 80's and 90's.
Increasingly
people committed to developing conflict management skills in
children were drawn to peer mediation as a way of channelling the skills
development and some schools responded enthusiastically, seeing it as a
way of addressing the bullying and conflict which happened in the
playground. Mediation UK lent its support to these initiatives and
developed an education wing to its work. Over time however, experienced
peer mediation trainers have noticed that the schemes fail to survive
for long after the initial training if the school does not embrace the
values of mediation.
Young people soon notice if their conflicts are dealt with one way out
on the playground by their peers but another way by the adults. They
appreciate having their views respected by the mediators and notice all
the more if there is a lack of trust and respect from the teachers and
lunchtime staff.
To
some extent this dissonance can be mitigated if a school has taken
on board the practice and values of Circle Time - a process which
encourages mutual respect, active listening, non-judgemental acceptance
of differences, inclusion and problem-solving. Unfortunately this
excellent process is not always understood as precisely that - a process
which entails the use of many restorative skills and values - mutual
respect, empathy, active listening, impartiality, non-judgemental
acceptance of difference, win-win problem-solving. All too often it is
considered a time for 'sitting around and discussing problems' and the
personal growth and development aspects are ignored, not least by the
teacher for whom, to be fair, vulnerability is threatening without the
appropriate support from colleagues.
School
mediation work then, has reached a point where many practitioners
are accepting that more work needs to be done to effect whole school
change. This seems to parallel exactly what has been happening recently
in Restorative Justice Projects initiated by the police. The inspiration
for the projects has come from the conferencing process, originally
designed for dealing with victim/offender issues. The potential for use
in schools has been identified, the work has started and then
frustration has arisen because the whole school has not necessarily
understood or embraced the approach.
So
let me return to Robin and Lynne's question and my contribution. I
am involved ina two-year project in Oxfordshire, working in two
secondary schools, to see how Restorative Justice principles and
practices can impact on certain key issues in schools. The performance
indicators being looked at by the funders of the project - the Oxford
Y.O.T,(Youth Offending Team) the L.E.A.(Local Education Authority) and
the Thames Valley Police - include reduction in exclusion, raising of
attendance, raising of achievement , reduction in staff turnover and
absenteeism. I am also concerned with key qualitative indicators such
attitudinal and behavioural change as well as tangible changes in
management structures. I have made no secret of the fact that this is a
pioneering project and we are all learning as we go. Explicitly so - I
consider this an Action Research project with the involvement and the
collaboration of the school community. This is a vital aspect of the
project - it is an organisational change project underscored by
restorative values.
It
is early days to discuss the project in detail but I will relate the
thinking I have been doing back to the sunny day Robin, Lynne, Debbie
and I spent together and to the issues that were raised. I only mention
the Oxford project to put my thinking in context.
Approaching schools
Key questions for Robin and Lynne were how to approach a school
and how to engage key people. I have been reflecting on this and come to
the conclusion that we need to address this issue from a community
conferencing, problem-solving perspective and go into the experience
with our conference facilitators' hats on. In other words we do not have
an agenda of persuasion or coercion. Instead we listen actively to the
situation as painted by the people we are meeting, we support them to
identify their issues and problems, we create safety for them to express
their fears and concerns in their present situation, we encourage
exchange in the group about what they currently do well and then invite
them to identify ways forward. Last and not least we explain what we can
offer by way of support, whether this be training or consultancy in
addressing the implementation issues. In other words - we are modelling
restorative practices from the moment we make the first contact with the
school. Our process IS our 'product'.
Time
Another issue that Lynne raised was the issue of time. It is an
issue raised by the teachers time and again. When is there time to
receive training? When is there time to train young people? When is
there time to use the processes even when trained?
These are all very important questions. To some extent I think, as
trainer/consultants, we have to be careful not to 'rescue' here. How and
when the training will pan out is partly a problem for the schools
themselves. My experience in mediation training is that when a school
really wants it they make the time available but before they have taken
that decision, almost like a leap of faith, time is an insurmountable
barrier. So when people raise issues of time I try to listen to the
feelings behind the words. However, it is also true that there are
tremendous pressures on teachers time-wise. The Restorative Justice
community has a role to play at an LEA and even at a national level to
lobby for greater flexibility in the teaching timetable. If the
government supports the development of Restorative Justice, which I
believe it does, then there needs to be a commitment to creating
opportunities for it to happen in schools and this includes the
financial resources and the time for the initial training, the time for
strategic support and the time to sustain the projects.

Restorative
Justice in Schools - getting the essentials right
1)
It is ESSENTIAL that schools are familiar with Restorative Justice - the
processes, the skills and the philosophy that underpins it.
Many young people in school commit offences or are victims of an
offence. They and their teachers may well find themselves involved in a
Restorative Conference or Victim/Offender mediation in some capacity.
They need to understand the rationale behind this approach and what it
is trying to achieve.
2)
It is ESSENTIAL that schools recognise the role they have to play in the
restorative process and what happens afterwards.
Even if not directly involved in the Restorative Conference, all members
of the school community can play a role in the reintegration and
rehabilitation of the offenders - and can support the victims too, if
these are members of the school community.
Failure to understand the philosophy behind a restorative approach could
lead to damaging remarks and condemnatory attitudes that could undermine
the positive effects of a conference or mediation.
3)
It is ESSENTIAL to reduce the numbers of young people being excluded
from school. Restorative Conferences, Family Group Conferences and
subsequent measures based on Restorative Principles all play a part in
this.
New research suggests that permanent exclusion from school can trigger a
train of events that can lead to offending behaviour. If behaviour that
presently leads to exclusion can be dealt with restoratively this may
mean young people can stay in their school community and all concerned
benefit from the process.
Cf statistics OHP
4)
It is ESSENTIAL to explore alternatives to exclusion and to managing
behaviour along Restorative lines.
Teachers need skills and support to relate to disaffected young people
in a different way - Restorative Justice may have the philosophy and
principles that could lead to greater mutual respect and communication.
Very few Teacher Training courses prepare teachers for relating
effectively to students, for dealing with conflict and challenging
behaviour and for understanding emotional and behavioural difficulties.
5)
It is ESSENTIAL to explore alternatives to punishment. Punishment
doesn't work for many of those who are punished regularly and can be
counter-productive for the occasional minor misdemeanour - so why are
sanctions often used in schools?
Restorative Justice challenges the notion that punishment is effective
in changing behaviour. This must have fundamental implications for the
way teachers and parents address inappropriate behaviour with all young
people. If Restorative Justice were used in a school for serious
offences then it would be inconsistent to use a more punitive approach
for less serious misbehaviour. Justice is about being fair and
consistent.
Cf Howard Zehr's model OHP
6)
It is ESSENTIAL that young people learn to be accountable for their
actions and to take responsibility for the choices they make if they are
to be active and responsible citizens.
Restorative Justice is about encouraging offenders to be accountable for
their actions and to take responsibility for repairing the harm caused.
Schools and parents have a role to play in bringing up young people to
approach relationships in this way from a young age and to consider the
needs of others as well as their own.
7)
It is ESSENTIAL that schools recognise the importance of good
relationships in creating a climate for effective teaching and learning
and for the development and maintenance of a safe respectful community.
If we want young people to be accountable for their actions and to want
to repair damage to relationships in the event of a conflict then we
need to develop relationships in the first place. There needs to be
something there to repair! Relationship skills and emotional education
are part of Citizenship education.
8)
Restorative Justice in action is, ESSENTIALLY, Active Citizenship.
I use the words Relational Justice to describe the important baseline
for a community to build on. A school needs to be developing a strong
positive ethos amongst all its members, adults and students alike. It
needs to provide training in, and opportunities for, community building,
active listening, creative conflict management, emotional education and
developing empathy, understanding and tolerance towards diversity.
From this base grow Restorative practices such as Restorative
Conferencing and Mediation in the event of conflict and inappropriate
behaviour. All of these aspects are part of active citizenship and
participatory democracy in a school community.
The example of all the adults in a school is vital -senior management,
teachers, learning support assistants, administrative staff, governors,
parents, lunchtime staff etc - and they to need use these processes for
their own team building and conflict management. This is what I mean by
a Whole School Approach.

Restorative
Justice in Schools
Revised adaptation by Belinda Hopkins
of a paradigm devised by Howard Zehr
OLD
PARADIGM RETRIBUTIVE JUSTICE
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NEW
PARADIGMRESTORATIVE JUSTICE
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Wrongdoing
often defined as breaking the school rules/letting the school
down.
|
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Wrongdoing
defined as harm done to well being of one person or a group by
another or others.
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Focus
on establishing blame or guilt, on the past -what happened?
who did it?
|
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Focus
on problem solving by expressing feelings and needs and
exploring how to meet them in the future.
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Adversarial
relationship and process - wrongdoer in conflict with a person
in authority, who decides on penalty
|
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Dialogue
and negotiation - everyone involved in communicating and
cooperating with each other
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Imposition
of pain or unpleasantness to punish and deter/prevent
|
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Restitution
as a means of restoring both/all parties, the goal being
reconciliation and future responsibility.
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Wrongdoing
represented as impersonal and abstract: individual versus
school
|
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Wrongdoing
recognised as interpersonal conflicts with opportunities for
learning
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One
social injury replaced by another
|
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Focus
on repair of social injury/damage
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People
affected by wrongdoing not necessarily involved; victims'
needs often ignored; they can feel powerless. Matter dealt
with by those in authority.
|
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Encouragement
of all concerned to be involved - empowerment
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Accountability
of wrongdoer defined in terms of receiving punishment
|
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Accountability
defined as understanding the impact of one's actions, taking
responsibility, seeing it as a consequence of choices and
helping to decide how to put things right.
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