What are Restorative Practices in Education?
Restorative practices in education are a series of community building and conflict resolution strategies designed to help students build and repair relationships. Restorative activities such as community building circles, academic circles, and restorative conversations put relationships and student voice at the center of education. In opposition to punitive discipline measures, a restorative approach to conflict resolution prioritizes problem-solving and supportive accountability in repairing the harm that has been caused by the conflict. Through restorative practices, students who have made mistakes are supported in understanding the impact of their actions, making amends, and reentering the community, and students who have been wronged are listened to, validated, and supported in their healing journey.
Restorative practices have roots in many indigenous cultures including the local tribes of the Ojibwe and Dakota people on whose stolen lands our schools reside. As a district, we seek to engage in these practices in a manner that honors these tribes. We also seek to place justice and equity at the center of the work that we do through restorative practices as a means of holding ourselves accountable to the history of colonization and charting a more equitable path forward.
Why Use Restorative Practices?
Research shows that traditional exclusionary discipline practices such as suspension and expulsion do not make schools safer and come with a number of negative effects on students. These side effects include1:
- Academic difficulties
- Truancy
- Acting out
- Mental health challenges
- Dropping out
Additionally, research has shown that students of color and students with disabilities are often disproportionately subjected to exclusionary discipline practices2. In contrast to the negative effects of suspension and expulsion, restorative practices support a number of positive outcomes, including3:
- The development of healthy relationships
- Communication and conflict resolution skills
- Social-emotional learning
These impacts, taken together, result in a decrease in disciplinary disparities and an increase in academic performance and graduation rates.
Guiding Beliefs
Our commitment to restorative practices are guided by our communal investment in the seven core assumptions. The assumptions have roots in Indigenous teachings and other wisdom traditions. We share them here as written in Circle Forward by Carolyn Boyes-Watson and Kay Pranis.
Our Vision for Restorative Practices at Lionsgate Academy
Restorative practices at Lionsgate are based on three shared community values: build our community, own our community, and repair our community. We envision a school where restorative practices empower students to speak empathetically, listen from the heart, develop self-confidence, reflect on their actions and grow as individuals; we are working to create a community where students use these skills to build and repair lasting and meaningful relationships.
We envision a school climate where all students are valued and included, where individuals are not defined by their mistakes, where students are supported to solve their own problems, where wrong-doers, instead of worrying about getting in trouble, ask themselves How do I repair the harm I have caused and rejoin my community?
Our Whole School Approach
In order to thoroughly and meaningfully embed restorative practices into our district culture, every member of the Lionsgate community has a role to play. This image, shared by New Zealand Positive Behavior For Learning in their restorative practice initiative, illustrates the many ways restorative practices are used formally and informally throughout communities by all members. While some members will have more specialized training in supporting restorative conferences or restorative circles, all staff members are responsible for utilizing restorative approaches daily.
1American Psychological Association Zero Tolerance Task Force, Are Zero Tolerance Policies Effective in the Schools?: An Evidentiary Review and Recommendations, American Psychologist, 63 at 854 (Dec. 2008), available at http://www.apa.org/pubs/info/reports/zero-tolerance.pdf.
2Losen, D., & Gillespie, J. (2012). Opportunities Suspended: The Disparate Impact of Disciplinary Exclusion from School. UCLA Civil Rights Project. Retrieved at http://civilrightsproject.ucla. edu/resources/projects/center-for-civil-rights-remedies/school-to-prison-folder/federal-reports/ upcoming-ccrr-research/losen-gillespie-opportunity-suspended-ccrr-2012.pdf
3McMorris, Barbara J.; Beckman, Kara J.; Shea, Glynis; Eggert, Rachel C.; A Pilot Program Evaluation of the Family and Restorative Conference Program, 2. (May 24, 2013). Retrieved at http://www. legalrightscenter.org/RCP%20 Evaluation.Interim_Report_24May2013.pdf