Can Restorative Practice in Schools Make the Difference? A Critical Reflection from Scotland Restorative School Project

Abstract

At the turn of the 21st century, the world has begun to witness an escalation of indiscipline and school violence in our public schools. Some have blamed indiscipline on family disruption arising from the aftermath of industrial revolution to be the cause of progressive rise in violence in our school today (Chant, 1994). Adam Smith foresaw good reasons at the outset of the industrial revolution for nations to educate their populations; “The more they are instructed, the less liable they are to the delusions of enthusiasm and superstition,” he argued; “An instructed and intelligent people, besides, are always more decent and orderly than an ignorant and stupid one” (Kandel, 1933: 51), but little did he envisage the consequences the relationship between man and the factory will bring to family relationship, social order and school discipline.The context above underlines how the world of the factory impacts on our family values and those cultural capitals that integrate to bring about social cohesion and strong family life base on values, ethics and discipline. As a growing child in the seventies in Africa, the school system wasn’t much divorced from the home. Teachers’ duty of in- loco- parentis was an everyday experience in our lives as young adults, teachers could instil discipline at student’s home with parents approving, our mothers and sometimes, fathers after farm work, stayed at home to nurture their children and the children of other families. Today, the life of factories and industries has overstressed and disconnected relationships. Children and young adult as a result, have been left on their own with scarcity of space to be nurtured in a restoratively just manner. The lack of space for relationship therefore, has impacted on school discipline and classroom behaviour of young adults. The traditional adversarial antidotes known to government and school authorities have not in any way addressed the growing scale of indiscipline and school violence among youths in our public schools.

Keywords: Restorative Practice, School Discipline, Relationship