Introduction to Restorative Justice Training and Using Circles Effectively
I had the opportunity to attend a two day training called “Introduction to Restorative Justice Training and Using Circles Effectively”. It was through the San Diego County Office of Education facilitated by Anthony Cejas, with materials provided by the International Institute for Restorative Practices. The training not only provided numerous quality resources, but also an experience that benefitted my practice in many ways.
Experiential Training
The training was facilitated in a circle (rather than the typical desks or tables lined up to watch a presenter) to demonstrate how to use circles effectively with approximately 30-40 educators. Many attendees expressed anxiety and fear when they realized this was unlike the typical professional development trainings they were used to. However, facilitating the training in such a way was essential to understand how to practice this in our own schools and environments. Experiencing it was more beneficial than simply reading about it or listening to someone present: it allowed us to form relationships with each other, share knowledge and ideas, and fully engage in the training. Restorative practice is a hot topic in the field of education and it can often become misconstrued, thus, I say this to emphasize the importance of experiencing it.
Supporting Frameworks
In order to understand restorative practices, the training provided supporting frameworks:
Social Discipline Window
The social discipline window can be applied to many different settings. For example, parents, teachers, administrators, managers, social workers, etc. This model states that relying on punishment as a social regulator is less effective because it shames and stigmatizes those who make mistakes. However, the restorative approach re-integrates people back into the community and reduces the likelihood that they will reoffend.
Restorative Justice Typology
There are three primary stakeholders (victims, offenders, and communities of care) that must participate in the restorative process in order to meet the emotional needs of all parties. The degree of their involvement is respective to the degree of restoration.
Restorative Practices Continuum
The restorative practices continuum shows that there is a range of how situations can be handled: informal to formal methods. Affective statements and questions communicate people’s feelings and cause people to reflect on how their behavior has affected others. Impromptu conferences are more formal but don’t require the same preparation as formal conferences.
Nine Affects
The nine affects describe the importance of open communication of emotions. We want to maximize positive affect, minimize negative affect, but express all affect.
** see Resources section at bottom for examples
Compass of Shame
This framework takes a deeper look into shame. People do not have to do something wrong to feel shame, but just has to experience something that interrupts positive affect.
Fair Process
The fair process has three principles:
1. Engagement: Involving individuals in decisions that affect them by listening to their views and taking their opinions into account
2. Explanation: Explaining the reasoning behind the decision
3. Expectation clarity: Ensuring that everyone involved understands the decision and what is expected of them moving forward
Basic Restorative Processes
Restorative Conferences
A restorative conference is voluntary, thus no one is forced to attend. This is a structured meeting between all parties involved. It provides a space for open expression of emotions, understandings, apologies, and restoration.
Circles
Circles have a wider variety of purpose: conflict resolution, healing, support, decision making, information exchange, and relationship development. When facilitated properly, they can remove hierarchies and therefore power dynamics that may usually be present in certain environments. Circles may also use different formats: sequential, non-sequential, restorative justice, or a fish bowl. In some cases, using a talking piece is appropriate.
**see Resources section at bottom for examples
Room for Growth: Missing Pieces in Restorative Practices?
The following handout discusses the “racial gap” in referrals and suspensions.
While the statistics are looking a bit more positive, this fails to address the root of the issue. Restorative practices does offer ways to transform student-teacher relationships and equity in school discipline, however this cannot be done if the root issue is never addressed. In the given example, the gap narrowed, but it still exists: why? Despite the decrease, African American and Latino/a students are still referred 3.7x as much as white/Asian students in classrooms with high levels of restorative practice implementation. This shows that restorative practices alone is not working to achieve socially just school environments. So what should be done to achieve such a thing? A complex issue requires a complex solution, however, a good starting point is to confront one’s own biases. As educators, it’s important to pay attention to how we talk to (verbally and non-verbally), deal with, and form relationships with students.
Takeaways
- Healthy relationships are key (student-teacher, counselor-student, parent, counselor, teacher-teacher, student-admin, teacher-admin, etc.).
- Restorative practices can only be effective when ALL are on the same page and delivering the same message.
- At the same time, how restorative practices is implemented and used will look different at different schools. (i.e. some may favor certain supporting frameworks over others)
- Change is slow and requires a lot of work: find allies in your schools and start small!
SDSU School Counseling Graduate Student
