Restorative Practices: Circles

Restorative Practices Training by Dana Creek

I attended and will be reviewing the Restorative Practices Training lead by Anthony Ceja. The
workshop took place on March 3^rd in our CSP662B class at San Diego State University.  Anthony Ceja is a certified trainer for restorative practices who works for the San Diego County Office of Education, providing trainings at different schools throughout San Diego County on how to incorporate restorative practices into their school environment, structure and discipline policies.  
I chose to review this training because last semester, in one of our first school counseling classes, we had a presentation from a school counselor at one of the practicum sites where she talked about her experience in the field and the particular interventions being used in her school; that intervention being Restorative Practices Circles.  She explained the basic principles behind RP and how it was being implemented in her school; using circles to create a safe school community where students can share their feelings and open-up to their peers without fear of repercussions such as bullying. As well they use circles to create healing within the school when an individual member of the community displays behaviors that harm the community at large, behaviors that would normally get kids sent to detention, suspended or even expelled.  Her words really spoke to me and I’ve been eagerly awaiting this workshop to learn more about Restorative Practices.

Restorative Practices:

Restorative Practices evolved from Restorative Justice Theory.  Restorative Justice Theory emphasizes the harm caused by the effect of criminal activity on individuals, relationships and communities as a whole.  Restorative Justice’s main application is in the criminal justice system. An important distinction between the two techniques is that Restorative Justice is a reactive practice responding when a crime is committed. Restorative Practices, on the other hand, combines reactive and proactive practices; responding to wrongdoings in the community, but also using proactive preventive techniques through community building.

The fundamental hypothesis of restorative practices is that human beings are happier, more cooperative and productive, and more likely to make positive changes in their behavior when those in positions of authority do things with them, rather than to them or for them.

Social Discipline Window:

The social discipline window is a key concept in understating restorative practices. It identifies four main practices used to control and maintain social norms and behaviors.  One side of the window measures control from high to low and the other side measures support from high to low. The restorative approach combines high levels of control and limit setting with high levels of support, encouragement and nurturing.  The restorative approach is the only method that works with the wrongdoer rather than to them or for them.  

Punitive/Authoritarian:

High Control & Low Support 

Neglectful:

Low control & Low Support 

Permissive:

High Support & Low Control

Restorative:

High Support & High Control 

Restorative Practices in Schools:
Over the past 10 years Restorative Practices has entered into the national education scene and emerged as a practice for schools to build community, strengthen relationships and create equity in discipline practices.  The Federal Government recently issued a statement recommending that schools revise their discipline policies to move away from zero-tolerance policies and move toward restorative polices and practices. As restorative practices is fairly new, research studies are currently be conducted across the nation, but there is evidence that shows restorative practices have reduced suspensions and office referrals and promises to narrow the racial gap in discipline referrals and incidents.

Pro-Tip: An important element in successfully implementing restorative practices in schools is transparency between adults and students.

While Restorative Practices has great promise in transforming and strengthening our school communities, it requires a commitment by school administrations and staff in maintaing the practice and supporting it's expansion as a school-wide initiative.  Despite these potential limitations and challenges to effectively implementing restorative practices in schools, there are many simple techniques that you can implement fairly easily at your school site! 

Restorative Practices Counseling Technique:

CIRCLES

Purpose/Goal:

Circles aims to create a safe and equitable environment where people can share their stories and emotions, openly and honestly. It can be used proactively to build community or reactively to address a wrongdoing. There are many different situations where circles can be used: conflict resolution, healing, support, decision making, information exchange and relationship development.

Circles has primarily been used in elementary schools, as “circle time” or “morning circle”. Recently, however, circles is being used more in secondary schools and higher education. 

How it Works:

• Circles starts by having students get into a, surprise!, Circle. This gets students out from behind their desks and other things that separate them and puts them in an open learning environment. 
• Circles usually includes a facilitator whose role is to guide, but not control the process, however a leader is not always necessary. Depending on the purpose and type the circle, there are a variety of different suggested questions.  Developing high-quality questioning prompts is important and will help to focus the circle. Be sure to pick questions that are appropriate the circle you are running. 
• Circles moves in a sequential way, only one person is allowed to speak at a time and when they are done the speaker position moves to the next person in the circle.  A talking piece is a great tool to identify who is currently speaking. When the speaker has finished they pass it to the next person and the recipient thanks them.  
• Circles is flexible, it can be done quickly, one turn around, or can last longer, multiple turns around the circle.
• Core Circle Guidelines:
• Respect the talking piece
• Speak & listen with respect
• Speak & listen from the heart
• Remain in the circle
• Honor privacy
• Types of Circles:
• Community-Building Circles
• Check-In or Check/Out Circles
• Restorative Circles

How YOU (or me) Could Use Circles:

• Community-building circles could be used in classrooms as a short, icebreaker-like activity at the start of every day or the beginning of a class period.  To do this I would ask teachers if I could come into their classroom for the first 5/10 minutes of the day to do a short activity with their students.  By rotating the class I go into each day I would avoid taking up too much class time in one particular class, minimizing the impact on the teachers class-time.

• Community-building and check-in circles could be used in small group counseling.  These circles would be a great tool for building relationships amongst students in the group and between the facilitator and students.

• Restorative circles could be used as a response to harmful incidents on campus such as fights, bullying, or racism.

References:
Ceja, A. (2016). Restorative justice practices [PowerPoint slides].

International Institute for Restorative Practices. (2014). Improving school climate: Evidence from schools implementing restorative practices. Retrieved from http://www.iirp.edu/pdf/IIRP-Improving-School-Climate.pdf

Social Discipline Window, retrieved from: http://www.iirp.edu/what-is-restorative-practices.php#social_discipline_window

Teaching Restorative Practices With Classroom Circles. Developed for SFUSD by Amos Clifford, Center for Restorative Process. Retrieved from: http://www.healthiersf.org/RestorativePractices/Resources/documents/RP%20Curriculum%20and%20Scripts%20and%20PowePoints/Classroom%20Curriculum/Teaching%20Restorative%20Practices%20in%20the%20Classroom%207%20lesson%20Curriculum.pdf