Websites:
Books:
GETTING MORE OUT OF RESTORATIVE PRACTICE IN SCHOOLS
Practical Approaches to Improve School Wellbeing and Strengthen Community Engagement
Edited by Margaret Thorsborne, Nancy Riestenberg and Gillean McCluskey. Foreword by Fania Davis.(280pp)
Restorative Practice and Special Needs: A Practical Guide to Working Restoratively with Young People
Nick Burnett and Margaret Thorsborne. Foreword by Nancy Riestenberg (208pp)
THE PSYCHOLOGY OF EMOTION IN RESTORATIVE PRACTICE: How Affect Script Psychology Explains How and Why Restorative Practice Works
Edited by Vernon C. Kelly, Jr. and Margaret Thorsborne. Foreword by Andrew Becroft (272pp)
IMPLEMENTING RESTORATIVE PRACTICES IN SCHOOLS: A Practical Guide to Transforming School Communities
(Thorsborne M, Blood P, 224 pp)
Articles
Overcoming Resistance to Whole-School Uptake of Restorative Practices
The implementation of a restorative philosophy demands, in most educational institutions, a major shift in thinking and the realignment (even replacement) of beliefs about discipline, its purpose and practice. Moving from a punitive rule based discipline system to a system underpinned by relational values requires a change in the hearts and minds of practitioners, students, their parents and the wider community. Without understanding the enormity of this task a few good people in each school will be working very hard to make a difference, with limited impact. This paper examines what it takes to help shift the mindsets of people to work more relationally. It scopes the process of whole school change. We draw heavily on the work of Everett Rogers and his Diffusion of Innovation model of change along with other noted scholars in this area to assist schools understand the change process.
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The Challenge of Culture Change:
Embedding Restorative Practice in Schools
This paper seeks to broaden the perspectives of senior and middle management and restorative practitioners around what restorative practice in schools can look like; and to present some practical guidelines which represent a strategic approach to the implementationp of restorative practices, so that they stick that is, become sustainable.
It represents a work in progress and the authors encourage readers top engage with them in ongoing dialogue about the issues (we don’t know all the answers yet!) and share with us their butterfly (successes) and bullfrog (failures) stories, in meeting the challenges of developing a restorative culture within schools (Zehr, 2003). It should be noted that there is an overwhelming body of literature (Hargreaves, 1997, Fullan, 2000 etc) dealing with school reform, effective teaching, classroom and behaviour management practice and that this paper focuses on the implementation of restorative practice in schools. We would like to acknowledge the efforts of schools throughout Australia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom that have contributed to the development of a range restorative practices and the body of knowledge about what works and what doesn’t.
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School violence and Community Conferencing: The benefits of Restorative Justice
The massacre of students at the Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado, and copycat shootings in other US and Canadian schools have sent waves of alarm through school communities across the globe. While tough gun laws limit accessibility to the type of weapons used in those crimes here in Australia, school violence is increasingly a source of anxiety. There is no argument from this author that there is much to be done beyond the school gates to counter this harmful behaviour, and at the earliest point of intervention in the lives of our young people. Responding to such incidents in schools, though, is always a challenge. School responses to incidents of violence (including bullying), typically range from police involvement, suspension and/or exclusion, detention, to parent interviews, counselling and anger management programs. Community conferencing, first introduced to Queensland schools in 1994, is an extremely effective process for dealing with incidents of violence. Various models of conferencing are currently used in a range of jurisdictions such as police, justice, corrections, education and welfare across Australia, New Zealand, Canada, USA, UK, Europe and South Africa. This paper will briefly review the history of conferencing in Queensland schools and examine the reasons why the process is effective for dealing with such incidents . It will argue that the application of restorative justice processes at all levels in the school community for all matters offers hope for reducing the chance of such horrific trauma as the Littleton massacre happening here.
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Restorative Justice and School Discipline: Mutually Exclusive?
A practitioner’s view of the impact of Community Conferencing in Queensland schools
In April 1994, the first school-based Community Conference in Queensland was conducted at Maroochydore State High School in an attempt to repair the harm of a serious assault after a school dance. The demand for conference facilitator training which emerged as word spread in the education community, clearly indicated that this process answered some urgent need within schools for an entirely different approach for dealing with such harmful incidents.
This paper will outline briefly the results of two separate studies conducted by Education Queensland involving the introduction of Community Conferencing into schools to deal with incidents of serious harm, as an additional tool in a broad spectrum of strategies which also included suspension and exclusion.
Experiences during the two years in which these studies were conducted have highlighted a range of implementation issues which have exposed tensions between existing philosophies and practices in managing behaviour and restorative interventions such as conferencing. The incorporation of the restorative justice approach via conferencing while in itself a very useful addition, had limited potential because of these tensions.
The theory, philosophy and practice of conferencing has demonstrated to practitioners the value of and necessity for a restorative philosophy in all aspects of school discipline by a) providing opportunities for insight and learning when behaviour is deemed unacceptable, b)providing opportunities for dialogue and reflection when behaviour threatens the social cohesion of the school community and c)identifying issues of harm to relationships and how to “make things right” through strengthening relationships. Education theory clearly articulates the importance of healthy relationships between all members of the school community to discipline and pedagogy. Restorative justice has much to offer in this respect.
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Community Conferencing: Responding to the Challenge of Drug Related Incidents in Schools and Community Settings
This paper will examine a range of issues surrounding the official responses by schools and other communities to incidents involving drugs and youth. Such issues include the damage to the emotional and social bonds within schools, families and their respective communities and the trauma that occurs in the wake of these incidents. Official sanctions to such incidents which often produce highly emotional reactions are sometimes less than helpful and create more damage and trauma. Neither do they produce the learnings for those affected (including the “offender”) for which they are supposedly conceived. What also needs to be addressed in our responses is the harm to those young people and to their relationships with the significant people in their lives.
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Beyond Punishment – Workplace Conferencing
An effective organisational response to incidents of workplace bullying
More and more organisations have policies and procedures to deal with difficult situations such as workplace bullying. While they may appear to be procedurally fair, rarely are they able to deal effectively with the emotional impact of the harmful behaviour and its aftermath. The Workplace Conference is a process designed to bring together those most affected by this destructive behaviour to come to some agreement about how repair the harm and how to go forward. This innovative approach to transforming conflict has its origins in the justice system as a means for dealing more effectively with offending behaviour and its impact on victims. It has been used more recently, and with great success, across a wide range of industries, government and non-government sectors, and large and small businesses. This paper will examine the philosophy, practice and theory of this extremely effective process.
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Other recommended reading
About change
Leading Change: John Kotter. Harvard Business Review Press. Boston 2012
My Iceberg is Melting: John Kotter and Dan Cohen. St Martin’s Press.New York. 2005
The Heart of Change: John Kotter and Holger Rathgeber
Leadership and the New Science: Discovering Order in a Chaotic World; Meg Wheatley: Berrett Koehler. 2006
Leadership Practices for Challenging Times: Steve Zuieback. Synectics. USA. 2012
The Thin Book of SOAR. Building Strengths-Based Strategy: Stavros and Hindrichs. Thin Book Publishing, 2009
Switch. Dan and Chip Heath. Broadway Books. New York. 2010.
About leadership
The Leadership Challenge: Kouzes and Posner. Jossey-Bass. San Francisco. 1995.
Fierce Conversations: Susan Scott. Piatkus. London. 2002
Fierce Leadership: Susan Scott. Broadway Business. New York 2009
Leadership Practices for Challenging Times: Steve Zuieback. Synectics. USA. 2012
Lead More, Manage Less: Christine Richmond. Silvereye. NSW. 2009
About restorative justice
Little Book of Restorative Justice: Howard Zehr . Good Books. Intercourse, 2002
Changing Lenses: New Focus for Crime and Justice: Howard Zehr. Herald Press.Virginia. 1991
Restorative Justice Today: Practical Applications. Katherine S van Wormer and Lorenn Walker eds. Sage Publications. Thousand Oaks, California, 2013
The psychology of Emotion in Restorative Practice. Eds Vick Kelly and Margaret Thorsborne. Jessica Kingsley Publishers, London 2014.
About restorative practice in schools
Just Schools: Belinda Hopkins. Jessica Kingsley. London. 2004
Just Care: Belinda Hopkins. Jessica Kingsley. London. 2009
Restorative Practices in Schools. Rethinking Behaviour Management. Margaret Thorsborne and David Vinedgrad. Inyahead Press. Australia. 2003
Restorative Practices in Classrooms. Rethinking Behaviour Management. Margaret Thorsborne and David Vinedgrad. Inyahead Press. Australia. 2004
Restorative Practices and Bullying. Rethinking Behaviour Management. Margaret Thorsborne and David Vinedgrad. Inyahead Press. Australia. 2006
Restoring Safe School Communities: Brenda Morrison. Federation Press. NSW. 2007
Building and Restoring Respectful Relationships in Schools: Richard Hendry. Routledge. London.2009
Working Restoratively in Schools: Bill Hansberry. Inyahead Press. Victoria, 2009
A Guide to Workplace Conferencing: Margaret Thorsborne. Margaret Thorsborne and Associates, Buderim. 2012
Circle in the Square: Nancy Riestenberg. Living Justice Press. Minnesota. 2012
Restorative Justice Pocketbook: Thorsborne and Vinegrad. Teachers Pocketbooks. Hampshire. 2009
Working in Circles in Primary and Secondary Classrooms: Marg Armstrong and David Vinegrad. Inyahead Press. Australia. 2013
The Grab and Go Circle Time Kit: Jane Langely and Bill Hansberry, Inyahead Press. Australia. 2013
Implementing Restorative Practice in Schools: M Thorsborne and P Blood. Jessica Kingsley Publishers, London, 2013
About behaviour management
Responsive Pedagogy: Eds Margrain and Macfarlane. NZCER Press. Wellington 2011
Beyond Discipline. From Compliance to Community: Alfie Kohn. ASCD. Virginia. 2006
Punished by Rewards: Alfie Kohn. Houghton Mifflin. Boston. 1999
The Bully, the Bullied and the Bystander: Barbara Coloroso. HarperResource. USA. 2002
Teaching Tough Kids: Mark Le Messurier. Routledge, London. 2010
Journey Toward the Caring Classroom: Laurie Frank. Woodnbarnes. USA. 2004
Visible Learning for Teachers: Maximising Impact on Learning. John Hattie. Routledge, UK, 2012
Teach Like a Champion: Doug Lemov. Jossey-Bass. San Francisco. 2010
Social Emotional Literacy and Pedagogy
Circle Time for Emotional Literacy: Sue Roffey. Paul Chapman . 2006
Finnish Lessons: Pasi Sahlberg. Hawker Brownlow Education. Melbourne. 2012
A Framework for Understanding Poverty: Ruby Payne. Aha! Process Inc. USA. 1996
Working in Circles in Primary and Secondary Classrooms Marg Armstrong and David Vinegrad. Inyahead Press. Australia. 2013
The Grab and Go Circle Time Kit: Jane Langely and Bill Hansberry, Inyahead Press. Australia. 2013
About neuroscience and human development
The Brain that Changes Itself: Norman Doidge, MD. Scribe. Melbourne. 2008
Parenting for a Peaceful World: Robin Grille. Longueville Media. NSW.2005
A General Theory of Love: Lewis, Amini, Lannon. Vintage Books. New York 2001
Shame and Pride: Affect, Sex, and the Birth of Self : Don Nathanson. Norton and Company. New York. 1992
The Art of Intimacy and the Hidden Challenge of Shame: Vick Kelly, MD. Tomkins Press. USA. 2012
What Babies Say Before They Can Talk: Paul Holinger. Simon and Schuster. New York. 2003
The Social Animal. David Brooks. Random House. USA 2011