Restorative Practices

Supporting children to love and learn restoratively

PRESENTED BY MICHAEL LINCOLN
28th April 2014
Aims:

To create an affective statement for a student

Understanding of dignity of student

Learning Intentions:

Introduce restorative practices

Explore Christian Anthropology
Participate in Theological Reflection
Develop understanding of restorative practices

Session One - Nurturing Dignity:

First role of a Catholic school is to nurture the dignity of all human beings
our students
Convictions
o All children are good
o Inappropriate behavior is symptomatic of other factors in their lives
o Isolation is a violation of dignity
o Relationship is the only response to inappropriate behavior
DISCUSSION: What is the basis of your beliefs about human dignity?
o Allowing people to be themselves, without judgment
o Positive self-esteem and self-confidence
o Provided it is not impacting on others
ANSWER: Quality of life and Presence of life
Genesis 1:
o Made in the Image of God
Blessing identifies the capacity to generate and nurture life.
Linking blessing to Sabbath celebrates all creation in the
generation and nurturing of all life and names it sacred.
Anything that can generate life is made in the image of God
Earth, seas, animals, plants, humans, etc
Genesis 2:
o The vocation of Human Creatures
To give back and contribute to society as a whole

 Larger than one self

Vocation till (ebed) and keep (shamar) = serve and preserve (better
translation) the garden
o Permission to eat freely
o Prohibition of not eating of the Tree of Knowledge
o This creates a relationship with human beings
o MEANING: Relationships being our primary task as a human being
o DISCUSSION: How do you honour your vocation? How do you diminish
your vocation?
School context knowing and acknowledging our students as
people and not solely a job. Being interested in their lives
inside, and outside, the classroom
So far
o Life is the basis of human dignity
o Human dignity is affirmed and nurtured in relationships
Genesis 3:
o Image that demonstrates the Tree of Knowledge, the Serpent, and
Adam and Eve
o

Created to be free
o Freedom carries rights and responsibilities, which are the relationships
we have with our students
o The issue here is love
o Three types of love
Eros

Mark
o

o
o

Phyllis
Agape
REFLECTION: How can your experience of freedom enhance or diminish
your dignity?
1:40-45
Jesus cleanses a leper
Prior to the diagnosis was in a full relationship with
people/community
Leprosy was called the living death
Illness was divine retribution
Jesus distress is at the mans and societys acceptance of his
punishment
Jesus touched him
The man is restored to relationship
Jesus healing ministry
This story is the bridging of the human and the divine, and forming a
relationship
Secondary message is of forgiveness, which returns the man to
relationships/community

Session Two - Restorative Practices and the Catholic School (Part One):

Image, symbol or metaphor for me at Samaritan College

o Graduate dopple hat
Young, still learning
Sometimes wise and offering advice/assistance
Warts n all Theory what do students take away from us?
o Who you are, your temperament, your experiences, values you hold
o Students see us first at school
Central responsibility is the formation of your students (in a Catholic school)
John 4: 1-42
o Johns realised eschatology
o Universal salvation (redemption)
o Discipleship
o Four movements in the story
Jesus and the Samaritan woman (Samaria/water)
Jesus and the Samaritan woman (husband)
Jesus and the Disciples
Jesus and the Villages (signs versus words)
o The encounter with Jesus brings the Samaritan villagers back to faith
it renews and restores their dignity
Jesus and the Samaritan woman Gods love and compassion is the
replacement/renewal of dignity
John Legend True Colours > relationships are central to all love

Session Two - The Psychology of Shame (Part Two):

Teaching Tricky Kids chase up in library

o Generally four key reasons for disruptive behaviour (compass of
shame)
Power
Attention seeking
Revenge
Inadequate
Understanding shame and humiliation
o We can only learn something positive from the painful emotion of
shame when we feel respected and accepted, particularly by those
who are pointing out our short comings
o Those who dont feel loved, or lack the ability to be loved, lack the
ability to feel shame
Aims of Restorative Practices
o Experience our shame
o Develop empathy
o Repair relationships
TED Talks Daniel Reisel (2013)
o Neurological cause of trauma and behavior in prisoners
The Affect System (Silvan Tomkins in Nathanson, 1992)
o The Nine Affects
Positive affects
Interest excitement
Enjoyment joy
Neutral affects
Surprise startle
Negative affects
Fear terror
Distress anguish
Anger rage
Disgust biological response to taste
Dissmell biological response to odour
Shame humiliation
o The instinctive drive of human beings is to maximise the two positive
effects and minimise the six negative affects
o Shame impedes the feelings of interest and enjoyment
o Affect Script Psychology
Affects are biological and unconscious
Feelings are the conscious awareness of an affect and are
biological
Emotions are feelings interacting with our personal story
emotions are biographical > conscious and unconscious
Affect > Stimuli > Response

Possibly the other way around Stimuli first, the Affect as

a result of
The AFFECT shame is not the same as the emotion of being ashamed
The feeling shame is our conscious awareness that something has caused us
to stop being interested in or enjoying what we are doing
o Physiology of shame may include the loss of muscle in the neck and
shoulders, facial slumps, downcast eyes, breaking eye contact,
blushing
o Thats a shame opposite to enjoyment and excitement inability to
feel these emotions
The emotional response of being ashamed is directly linked to our biography
and depends on our previous life experiences

Session Three: Shamecontinued

Response to shame is an evaluation against a set of standards (personal or

social)
This will be determined by our biography
Guilt and Shame
o An evaluation of ones behaviour is a judgement about something we
have done. This will initiate a guilt response. A guilt response is
motivated by a concern for those affected by the behaviour. In turn,
this usually drives us to seek to correct our actions in some way
o An evaluation of self is a judgement of our worth as a human being,
which initiates a shame response
o Shame is painful and undesirable, meaning the attention will remain on
ones self as the individual looks for ways to discharge the shame
The Compass of Shame

Withdrawal
o Individual attempts to remove themselves from attention
Can be the quiet student who avoids social interaction in breaks
Extreme cases can be truancy and refusing to go to school
Attack Self
o Individual responds to shame by attacking self
Range from self-deprecating behaviour to masochism and selfdestructive behaviours
Can be the loser who makes themselves the butt of jokes
Avoidance
o Individual draws attention away from the defective aspect and
enhances another aspect, including physical appearance, possessions
or courage
May be the class clowns
Extreme cases can be high-risk behaviours including alcohol,
drugs, sex, thrill seeking
Attack Other
o Individual blames others or makes others feel even smaller
Range from harmless banter and nicknames
Extreme cases can be severe bullying and forms of violence
Compass of shame is driven by ego preservation
It is an attempt to discharge pain of shame and refocus on positive affects
A visit to the Compass of Shame will result in a discharge of shame

A life on the Compass of Shame will result in the formation of reoccurring

patterns of negative behaviours
Learning can be a risky business chances of failure can be high
o Therefore, as teachers, we have an enormous opportunity to develop
and share empathy with our students
Empathy
o Shifts the focus from self in two ways, either:
Draws the individuals attention away from self by eliciting
recognition of the negative experience of their behaviour on
another
By reassuring the individual that the shame affect is a common
experience that you have had and how you got around I with
the same action you undertook
STRATEGY: Place two students together who are struggling with
understanding some content. By relocating one student with shame to
another, you are being empathetic towards them and making them recognise
this

Session Three - Restorative Practices

When a conflict between people is not easily resolved usually shame is

playing out
Is controlled shaming
Restorative practices operates at two levels:
o Move shame to guilt
o Elicit empathy
Conducting Restorative Practice sessions
o Questions are designed to make people think
o They are neutral and non-judgemental
o They are about a persons behaviour
o They are open-ended, but require an answer
o They seek to build understanding
o They require reflection on the action
o They encourage the development of empathy
o They are INTENTIONALLY not punitive
Punishments are generally concerned with revenge
Consequences need to be related to the offence
Revenge versus Restore?

After the shock of being harmed or hurt by someone physically or

emotionally, what is your real response likely to be?
As educators, we need to consider out behaviour education
Dignity and Restorative Practices
o Anti-relational acts are mostly a sign that something is not right in
ones life. Generally they are an expression of shame
Affective Statements
o Affirm the person
o Identify the behaviour
o Explain the effect that behaviour has on others
o Describe the desired behaviour
o Generally used for 1:1 for low level behaviour
Example: Sally, I really like having you as my friend. When you
call me names, it hurt my feelings. Please dont call me names.
Example: Jack, you are really good at playing handball. When
you said I could not play with you, I felt sad and left out. I would
like to play handball with you.
o Affective statements start with a positive affirmation, then name the
behaviour, and then name the ideal way to fix this
Caution Adrenalin and Cortisol
o During a perceived threat, the adrenal glands immediately release
adrenalin
o If the threat is severe after a few minutes, the adrenals then release
cortisol
o Cortisol remains much longer in the brain than adrenalin, so the timing
of these affective statements needs to be considered
o Too much cortisol can damage the hippocampus central to learning
and memory
o See the graph below highlighting the time lapse and levels of each of
these hormones
o

Restorative Conversations

Script

X and y, thanks for agreeing to participate in this restorative

conversation
o The purpose of this conversation is to support the two of you to repair
your relationship
o I am going to ask you both some questions. It is important that only
one of you speaks and the other listens
o At the end I will write the agreement you two make. I will get you both
to sign it and I will keep it as a record of your agreement
EXAMPLE QUESTIONS
o Jack, can you tell Bill how you felt when he
o Bill, can you tell Jack what you were thinking when you
o Jack, what do you need from Bill to repair the hurt that has been done?
o Bill, Jack has asked that you. Can you do this?
o Jack, if Bill fails to honour this agreement, what do you think would be
a reasonable consequence?
o Bill, what do you think would be a reasonable consequence?
Summarise outcomes/draw conclusions about the conversation
Students both sign the agreement
Emphasis that you (the teacher) will be there to assist should the need arise
in the coming days/weeks for monitoring purposes
o