Restorative Practices: Fostering Healthy Relationships and Promoting Positive Discipline in Schools

As educators partner with districts to move away from zero tolerance discipline policies and ramp up e orts to strengthen safe and supportive schools, address con ict, improve school climate, and build a positive school culture that students are connected to, many campuses are looking to implement alternative, restorative approaches.

This toolkit was developed to illustrate how restorative strategies can be seamlessly integrated into the classroom, curriculum, and culture of schools. It de nes what restorative practices are, explains why they are a transformational tool for fostering healthy relationships in schools and shows how they can be useful processes for students, educators, and learning communities.

This toolkit is intended for all educators who support the growth and health of students in schools. It is an introduction for those new to the concepts and will help support and enhance the work of teachers already implementing these practices in their classrooms. e toolkit includes digestible models, frameworks, and action steps for school-wide implementation, accompanied by guiding questions to support re ection for practitioners looking to make restorative methods part of the fabric of daily life in schools. It also recognizes the signi cant role all education professionals play in maintaining a school community that models respectful, trusting, and caring relationships.

Recommended Guidelines for Effective Conflict Resolution Education Programs

These Recommended Guidelines for Effective Conflict Resolution Education Programs, released in 2002, are the product of work begun by a committee of the Conflict Resolution Education Network (CREnet) and completed by the Association for Conflict Resolution (ACR). The Guidelines outline how elementary and secondary school teachers, administrators, conflict resolution education practitioners, and policy makers can measure progress toward effective conflict resolution education programs. By addressing core goals, components, content and qualities of effective school-based conflict resolution education programs, these Guidelines are intended to also help leaders to make decisions about the resources and strategies needed to support such educational programs in their schools.

Cooperative Problem-Solving : A Guide to Turning Conflicts into Agreements

This 56-page pdf is a guide designed for people who want to know how to resolve conflicts with other people in a way that leads to mutual agreements and stronger relationships. It was developed as a workbook for a workshop of the same title, but it can be used independently.

Based on the book Getting to Yes, the Guide addresses:
– Treating conflict as a natural resource
– How to attack problems while respecting people
– Raising an issue in a constructive manner
– Exploring opposing positions to discover shared interests
– Generating options to address all parties’ needs
– Crafting clear and healthy solutions
– Dealing with differing perceptions
– Managing emotions
– Insuring two-way communications
– Choosing when to use a cooperative approach
– Being a peacemaker while resolving conflicts

Youth Video Production Guide

This 4-part video guide was put together for United Religions Initiative (URI) Youth Ambassadors by URI Young Leaders Program Steering Committee member, Matthew Youde, from Wales, UK, who is also a filmmaker. He advises on how to produce a number of different videos, from video-diaries to news clips to interviews; how to plan and film different kinds of videos; and special tips for filming interviews.

Building empathy: Creating community

32-page pdf handbook created, “to help students explore new ways of interacting through a process of learning about — and learning to honor — one another’s individuality. Learning about peers humanizes people and helps them to identify with one another rather than ostracize or alienate. The activities below are designed to help individuals — particularly independent-minded pre-teens and teens — think of their classroom or school as a community and thereby experience solidarity with their peers.”

Making friends, being friends: Cooperative conversations for grades K-6

26-page pdf handbook which “show[s] K-6 teachers how Mix It Up themes can be woven into classroom discussions, issues, events, holidays, routines and academic content. Mix It Up is about talking with and connecting with those around you. The lessons center on group conversations combined with cooperative learning — termed “cooperative conversations” in this handbook. These conversations help children reach across social boundaries, get to know each other and gain respect for different viewpoints.”

Reaching across boundaries: Talk to create change

21-page pdf handbook which, “shows you how to conduct Mix It Up Dialogues. In the dialogues, participants will have honest discussions about social boundaries, and they will plan action projects that help cross those boundaries … Mix It Up Dialogues aren’t just about talking, however. They’re also about taking action — changing personal behaviors that may hurt or exclude others and engaging in collective projects to improve school climate.”