Restorative-Practices

 

School sites that are interested in Restorative Practices as a School-Wide Initiative please contact:
PICO Director and Restorative Practices Trainer: Jose Campos (951) 360-4175

Introduction to Restorative Practices

 

What are Restorative Practices?

Restorative Practice is a framework that centers around positive relationships for community building and restoring relationships when harm has occurred. Inspired by the philosophy of Restorative Justice, Restorative Practices include repairing harm done to relationships over assigning blame and dispensing punishment (Eber, 2014). Unlike Restorative Justice, Restorative Practices is not merely a disciplinary approach to wrongdoing, but it is compatible with education in that it supports a prevention and intervention approach.

Students are provided with an opportunity to actively engage in taking responsibility for learning. These practices constitute a paradigm shift away from a solely punitive disciplinary structure to acknowledging the harm done to relationships and how to make things right. The core values of Restorative Practices are creating, sustaining, and restoring relationships for a positive school climate and culture.

Defining Restorative Practices

This paper discusses the terms and concepts of restorative practices as defined and used by the International Institute of Restorative Practices. The purpose is to provide educators with a consistent set of terminology and to create a unified framework.

Restorative Practices: Fostering Healthy Relationships & Promoting Positive Discipline in Schools​
A guide for educators to learn what restorative practices are, why they are needed, and how to begin the process of bringing restorative practices to schools.

The Continuum of Restorative Practices Packet
This packet from the Orange County Department of Education includes documents for Affective Statements, Affective Questions, Circles, Formal Restorative Conference, and Integrating RP within the PBIS-MTSS Framework. Each document provides a brief overview and definition of each practice.

Affective Statements/Questions (One Pager) from SFUSD provides a guideline on what constitutes affective language and gives examples of how to start an affective statement.

The Importance of Relationships

In a meta-analysis of more than 100 studies (Marzano, 2003), Marzano found that the quality of teacher-student relationships is the key for all other aspects of classroom management. Teachers who had high-quality relationships with their students had 31 percent fewer discipline problems, rule violations, and related problems over a year's time than did teachers who did not have high-quality relationships with their students. The most effective teacher-student relationships are characterized by specific teacher behaviors: exhibiting appropriate levels of dominance, cooperation, and being aware of high-needs students.
Source: Education Leadership, September 2003, V. 61, No. 1, Building Classroom Relationships, Pages 6-13
John Hattie's research of over 800 meta-analyses validates the importance of teacher-student relationships on student achievement. Source: Hattie, J. (2009). Visible Learning: A Synthesis of Over 800 Meta-Analyses On Achievement. Routledge.

 

Further, research on adverse childhood experiences and trauma highlights the importance of support systems and relationships to help mitigate the negative on child health and student achievement.

The Social Discipline Window