What Are The 5 R's Of Restorative Practices?
What Are the 5 R’s or Core Principles of Restorative Practices?
We’re often asked about the 5 R’s of Restorative Practices Training. Somewhere along the way, someone leaned into alliteration and made a list of RP core principles starting with ‘R’: Respect, Responsibility, Relationships, Reintegration, Repair, Relationship-building, etc.
These principles serve as an excellent foundation for understanding the restorative process, emphasizing the importance of fostering relationships, mutual respect, and personal responsibility during restorative interventions. They’re more like guiding values than specific practices. They’re inherent in the strategies, but they don’t provide guidance on what to do.
What’s even more important is that none of these R’s capture the foundational first step: the ability to calm yourself and help others calm down before deciding what comes next.
The Core Principles of Restorative Practices
At CSC, we focus on these fundamental components of the restorative process:
Engaging with High Support AND High Accountability
Fair Process for Decision-Making
Strategies to Express, Share, and Reflect
Explicit Practices to Build and Repair Relationships
Addressing harmful behavior through high support and high accountability is crucial for personal responsibility and community healing.
The skills that underpin using these components are the ability to Calm & Reflect along with embracing a Restorative Practices Mindset.
While core principles are important, systematizing them into actionable procedures is even more important to see these stick and become a part of people’s practice.
Adapted from the International Institute of Restorative Practices and Chicago Public Schools
Expanding on the Core Principles of Restorative Practices
Engaging with High Support AND High Accountability
Everyone can spot a “warm demander”– that really engaging teacher or leader or coach who is safe and supportive while also having high expectations and holding everyone accountable. Most of us have to work to achieve that balance; figuring out the things that push our buttons and make us more punitive or pull on our heartstrings and make us more permissive. Accepting responsibility for our actions is crucial in achieving this balance, as it fosters personal accountability and helps in repairing relationships within the community.
According to the International Institute for Restorative Practices, the Fundamental Hypothesis of Restorative Practices is that people 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. The Engagement Window provides a framework for doing things WITH others; where WITH means balancing High Accountability AND High Support. It’s a popular and powerful tool for assessing how we connect with our staff, students, or even our own children and figuring out the moments we’re more likely to be punitive or permissive.
Community members play a vital role in the restorative process by participating in discussions and conferences that address the harm caused, fostering accountability, and promoting healing within the community.
The Engagement Window
Adapted by Rachel and McCold
2. Fair Process Decision-Making
A way of making decisions WITH key stakeholders, Fair Process Decision-Making offers a 33-step process that is inclusive, but with a clear final decision-maker.
At a time when teachers feel particularly disengaged at work and students are more and more disgruntled, this process helps engage voices and build community and a sense of ownership.
When making decisions that will greatly impact others, leaders (a Principal with staff or a Teacher with their students) walk through 3 stages:
Engagement: invite input regarding the decision
Explanation: provide an explanation after they’ve made a decision
Expectation Clarity: lay out the new expectations based on that decision
3. Strategies to Express, Share, and Reflect
All day long, emotions drive the way we interact with others—whether we realize it or not. We all have that colleague or student where we’re stuck in an endless cycle of reacting to one another rather than truly responding or connecting.
The Restorative Practices training takes people through exercises to learn affect psychology and the Compass of Shame to better understand their own reactions and practice using strategies like Affective Statements to break the cycle. This section of our Restorative Practices training and coaching is another fan favorite.
4. Explicit Practices to Build and Repair Relationships
Most people will say they want to be better at building relationships and community and repairing relationships when things go sideways, but most people don’t have explicit ways of doing this. Restorative Practices has a continuum of practices to do just that: Affective Statements and Questions, Circles, Curbside Conversations, Formal Conferencing also known as Restorative Justice Conferencing, Peer Mediation, and more.
The International Institute of Restorative Practices emphasizes the fact that Restorative Practices are primarily a prevention strategy. The stronger your connection or community, the less likely you are to have breaks in relationships, especially those that can’t be repaired.
That said, the Restorative Questions are likely the best-known tool on the continuum.
How Do Restorative Questions Facilitate Conflict Resolution?
How Do Restorative Questions Facilitate Conflict Resolution?
One of the most critical aspects of Restorative Practices in educational settings is the use of restorative questions to guide reflection, sharing, empathy, accountability, and ultimately conflict resolution, after an incident. In most schools, a student’s unwanted behavior results in a disciplinary consequence, void of an opportunity to learn about how they’ve impacted others. But you know what’s even worse? The student or staff harmed rarely gets any opportunity to process what happened; to share how they felt or ask for what they need to make things right! The focus is almost exclusively on punishing the person who caused harm.
Introducing the Five Restorative Questions
The questions can be used in a few different ways, embedded into procedures that help guide the when, how, and who to make this practice viable during a busy school day. These questions emphasize the importance of personal responsibility, encouraging individuals to acknowledge their role in causing harm and reflect on their actions.
Restorative questions help individuals take responsibility for their actions, facilitating healing and repairing relationships.
The questions are provided on a card that slips right into your lanyard or pocket and they include questions to ask the person that caused harm as well as the person harmed. Sometimes, it’s not that black & white, and there’s a version for that situation too.
Questions To Respond to Challenging Behavior
What happened
What were you thinking at the time
What have you thought about since
Who has been affected by what you have done? In what way?
What do you think you need to do to make things right?
To Help Those Harmed by Other’s Actions
What did you think when you realized what had happened?
What impact has this incident had on you and others?
What has been the hardest thing for you?
What do you think needs to happen to make things right?
Restorative Questions are for adults too! Though often used to repair harm between students or between a teacher and student, these questions can also be used to mediate conflict between staff! Breaks happen in all relationships and it’s never too late to start communicating about the hard stuff with the people you work with every day.
Restorative Practices Training: Why It Matters to Your Staff to Get Trained by Fellow Educators Who Have Restorative Practices Experience and Expertise
Emphasizing the Value of Expert-Led Training
Why Is Expert Guidance Critical for Restorative Practices Training? Teachers are truly sick and tired of new initiatives and professional development. The reason they adore CSC’s training is two-fold:
The content resonates with them. They find it immediately relevant, thought-provoking, and useful.
They love hearing the stories we share about our work with Restorative Practices in schools; whether the mistakes and missteps or the meaningful wins. Restorative Practices are not just a toolkit but can be a transformative culture shift within the community if initiated in just the right way.
Expert-led training helps individuals regain self-respect by taking responsibility for their actions and engaging in the repair of relationships. Understanding each person's perspective is crucial in restorative practices, as it fosters respect and open communication, creating a safe environment for all parties to express their feelings and experiences.
Let Collaborative School Culture Guide Your Transition
At Collaborative School Culture, we understand the complexities and nuances involved in implementing Restorative Practices. With our comprehensive training programs, we can tailor to meet your specific needs. We’ll help you design a clear roadmap to integrate Restorative Practices effectively, ensuring a positive and lasting impact on your school culture. Reach out to us today to schedule a consultation and take the first step toward transforming your school community.
