Practice, Practice, Practice: Living Restoratively
This is a blog by our Restorative Justice Trainer and Service Coordinator, Mark Hamill.
In most, if not all, Restorative Justice facilitation training that I have led, feedback from participants has called for more skills practice. Whilst I believe that skills practice should be a central part of all facilitation training, I also think that it shouldn’t be at the expense of giving participants the time and space to fully appreciate the values that underpin RJ practice. ‘Mindset needs to precede skillset’, as I heard Dr. Terence Bevington say in a recent online forum on relational and restorative practice in schools. I applied this same principle in my previous career as a teacher educator, prioritizing the students’ personal development over their professional development. Those who embraced this approach usually remained longer in the profession than those who were only interested in acquiring ‘tips for teaching’. This inner work helped to develop the resilience and sense of purpose needed to survive and thrive in teaching.
Like teaching, being a restorative practitioner is both a vocation and a lifestyle. Rightly, teachers are expected to behave outside the classroom in a manner that is consistent with standards of behaviour within it. Inconsistency in this regard can lead to a disciplinary process.
Currently, the same expectations do not and, for practical and ethical reasons, cannot legally apply to RJ practitioners. However, I would suggest that a practitioner who regularly shouts at their children or picks arguments with their neighbours effectively undermines their own professional credibility.
Outside of their working hours, RJ practitioners, at whatever stage of their professional development, can remain consistent to their vocation and practice their skills by choosing to live restoratively. Adapted from Howard Zehr’s seminal book that first articulated the concept that we know now as Restorative Justice, this 10 point guide to living restoratively is both practical and challenging.
Human conflict is inevitable and ubiquitous but our response is not predestined. Each day provides ample opportunity for aspiring and experienced RJ practitioners to refine their restorative skills. There is no need for them to hold off until their next Restorative Justice training session.
