Exploring restorative practices: Teachers' experiences with early adolescents

Restorative practice aims to build relationships, prosocial skills, guide behaviour and promote conflict resolution resulting in transformative culture change within schools. Educators are increasingly acknowledging the significance of relational aspects of teaching and learning in schools, with restorative practice emerging as a leading approach. This systematic review aimed to synthesise the experiences of teachers using restorative practice with early adolescents in mainstream school settings. A comprehensive search strategy was employed to identify current qualitative and mixed-method studies between 2012 and 2022. Eight peer-reviewed studies that met the inclusion criteria were analysed. Five key themes relating to teachers’ experiences of implementing restorative practice were identified using a thematic analysis. This review underscores the need for a systemic change in schools if restorative practice is to be effectively implemented. This includes a focus on understanding the importance of relationships between teachers, students and school staff as a foundation for developing an environment conducive to implementing restorative practice. Adjusting attitudes and school expectations is required to facilitate a restorative culture which is heavily influenced by leadership support within schools. When attempting to embed a lasting structure to support implementation, it is recommended that schools also consider their particular context, the experience levels of their teachers, their policies and availability of support structures. Broadly speaking, a wider change within the education system is needed in terms of re-evaluating the role of the teacher and the goal of the curriculum in terms of prioritising a relational approach to teaching and learning over a results-focused mindset.