school management member in your school grabbed only 50 a day , you ’ ve made a commitment to likely hundreds of thousands of empathy minilessons in a school year .
This is how we build empathic young people who can predict how their actions affect others . It doesn ’ t happen on Wednesday afternoons by making a poster . It happens when the cultural leaders change their words .
CONDUCT Chiefly , there are two areas of teacher conduct that can be transformed under the intention to adopt a truly restorative model .
The first relates to how we tackle conflict and results in teachers approaching the inevitable challenge of conflict with a healthier intention – that being to approach with curiosity rather than accusation .
Asking for brief – yes , brief – accounts of the conflict allows teachers to establish what I call a gist of the problem and to commence to repair the harm caused by it promptly . The alternative is to adopt a judicial approach where teachers are required to launch some extended version of Education CSI where forensic accounts are required in order for them to make an arbitrary judgement about consequences .
This past-based approach wastes a teacher ’ s most precious resource – their time . A nimble past-present-future philosophy saves time and leaves a teacher feeling like they facilitated repair and improvement , rather than having merely doled out a penalty .
Secondly , the notion of using circles in the classroom for checking-in , checking-out , preparing , responding and learning activates teachers as authority figures in the classroom . Importantly , however , the clever use of circles as architectural devices doesn ’ t establish that authority through power – “ You do as I say , because I ’ ve got the badge .” This would be an authoritarian methodology .
In a sound restorative model , the teacher ’ s authority is preserved through their circles and their practice , positioning them as an authoritative educator who works with her / his students rather than in opposition to them .
MINDSET This is perhaps where most schools have fallen down in their ambitions to use restorative practices to its fullest benefit . They tend to “ do ” some restorative stuff within a prevailing blame- or punishment-based model in certain circumstances . This creates confusion for all key stakeholders .
Restorative is something we become , not do . For teachers , this requires school leaders who provide the permission and support to authentically abandon attachment to the old ways of working and , indeed , to outcomes . After all , have you ever prepared for and taught a lesson brilliantly only to have the students turn it into a real stinker ? Of course you have . And we shouldn ’ t reflect on our work as being negative due to the outcome .
Really , we should be just viewing ourselves as being a little unlucky .
Restorative teaching is about obsessing over process , not outcome
The flip of this , then , is recalling a time when we taught really poorly and just happened to have students who let us get away with it . Reflecting on the positive outcome of that lesson would certainly lead to false pride .
Restorative teaching is about obsessing over process , not outcome , and relentlessly seeking to tilt the odds in the favour of our students and ourselves getting lucky more often .
And in the end , that ’ s why I love restorative practices . It ’ s a liberating force that frees me from any need to get a certain amount done , to hit a certain benchmark or to run anything perfectly in the company of imperfect and unfinished kids .
That ’ s not what quality teaching is all about .
Instead , I can focus on my teaching process with a determined attitude for continual self-improvement . Each microimprovement is an opportunity for my students to gain , including those students I ’ m yet to meet , and for me to feel the benefits of progress too .
Isn ’ t it time that you were liberated too ? ■
Adam Voigt is a former teacher and principal and the founder and CEO of Real Schools .
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