Restorative Practices
Emotional Resilience is defined as the ability to adapt to stressful situations or crises – to function competently, powerfully and peacefully when dealing with conflict or adversity.
Resilience is not a quality that one does or does not possess; there are varying degrees to one’s ability to handle stress and conflict. Still, resilient people tend to share certain traits. These include:
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Perspective - the ability to learn from mistakes (rather than deny them), see obstacles as challenges, allow adversity to make one stronger, and find meaning in life’s challenges rather than becoming a victim to events.
- Responsibility - the ability to be responsible and thoughtful rather than impulsive.
- Support - While they tend to be strong individuals, resilient people know the value of social support and are able to surround themselves with supportive friends and family in difficult times. (Mills and Dombeck)
Restorative Practices provide a way for communities to promote resiliency, perspective, responsibility and healing while dealing with the repercussions of conflict. Restorative Practices is an emerging field of study that enables people to build and repair relationships and community. Drawing upon theory, research and practice from the fields of education, counseling, criminal justice, social work and organizational management, Restorative Practices help individuals, organizations and communities to build social capital (connections) and achieve social discipline and effectiveness through participatory learning and decision-making.
As a licensee of the International Institute for Restorative Practices (IIRP) , CorStone provides comprehensive training in restorative practices to school teachers and students in the US and overseas, helping them to build social capital, engage in quality relationships and deal proactively and effectively with wrongdoing and conflict.
The fundamental unifying hypothesis of restorative practices is simple: 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. This hypothesis maintains that the punitive and authoritarian to mode and the permissive and paternalistic for mode are not as effective as the restorative, participatory, engaging with mode (Wachtel and McCold, 2004).
In schools, restorative practice circles and groups provide opportunities for students to share their feelings, build relationships and problem-solve, and when there is wrongdoing, to play an active role in addressing the wrong and making things right (Riestenberg, 2002). The restorative practice framework is a process for forming effective relationships and a way of restoring them when they break down.
Restorative practices are gaining widespread prevalence in schools to support the social and emotional learning needs of students, resulting in positive classroom communities in which disruption is minimized and quality instructional time is maximized.
Numerous quantitative and qualitative studies have shown that using restorative practices in schools dramatically decreases the number of detentions, suspensions, disciplinary referrals, incidents of aggression and disruptive behavior. Schools routinely report a 30-60% drop in violent acts, serious incidents and disciplinary infractions after using restorative practices for one year (IIRP, 2009).
