Question Three

Bullying

Restorative justice methods for addressing social problems include the method of shared concern, the no blame approach, restitution, community conferencing and the formal apology. Restorative justice approaches use the incident of misbehavior as an educative opportunity for repairing the harm and fostering more socially responsible relationships and behaviors that take others perspectives into account. This is achieved through carefully structured opportunities for individuals to understand the impact of their actions, recognize their social responsibilities and make amends to those who have been affected by their actions. The young person is also assisted to reintegrate successfully into the school community.
The Restorative justice approach requires these factors to be in place first: _
• The support of the victimized person who needs to have identified that he/she is being bullied and is confident that the approach advocated will work_
• Preliminary investigation to clearly understand the issues before the process is implemented
• Staff guidelines and professional development to build understanding, skills and confidence in using the strategies
• Support within the school community for the approach
• Agreement that the goal is to solve the problem rather than to interrogate, punish, blame or label individuals
• Respectful facilitation of the process by trained people
• Follow up monitoring of the agreement.

In a incident where I were to come across a student who is being pushed, name called and excluded form the social group the process I would undertake would be as follows:
1. Become active in the situation by making my presence known to the individuals involved. I would do so in as calm and strong a manner as possible in bringing order and control back into the situation.
2. I would then move all the children involved away from the place of the incident. This is done in order to change the emotional context/attachment to the place of incident and to provide a change in content the place and space of the incident. The area I would take them two would be one that was remove from other students like an empty classroom. I would avoid using a detention room or office unless it would help in bringing the children back under control. I would then explain what I saw to them in a non-accusative way and encourage honesty to make them understand that it is their behavior that needs to be redirected not them as individuals. I would then explain to them how their behavior could create a positive creative or a negative and destructive environment around themselves that will reflect back towards them, like the scenario they are now in. I would then ask for another teacher to supervise them while I went to check on the bullied child
3. Whilst the apparent perpetrators were being talked to I would conduct an interview with the apparent victim reassuring him/her that a lawful process was now being undertaken to help and stop the situation.
4. After this initial interview I would conduct another interview with the perpetrators to hear their story. I would again emphasize what I saw and that it was enough for me to become upset enough to investigate emphasizing honesty and clarity in what they say so I can gain an objective perspective of the situation. I have usually found this to be effective, as the children in the end really want the issue to be resolved. Usually a process of open cross-examination occurs as they group contradicts and correct themselves.
5. I would then relay the scenario back to the victim to see if it is correct and ask if there was anything else he/she might like to add.
6. After this stage i would begin to talk to the students involved about how the victim feels then place them in his/her position “imagine if”. Within this interview I would also ask them what the victim does to provoke the behavior in order to fully understand why it is that this child is being singled out as in my experience there is usually something that the bullied student is doing to evoke such a response.
7. After this interview I would ask the group to come up with a way to repay the victim for the harm done. I would encourage a scenario where the group does not just give a superficial restorative gesture. A scenario that would have them each individually spend time with the student , to partner up for an activity would be one way. During these sessions I would carefully observe the interaction between the bullied child and the ohter class mate to see how the victim could be setting up negative behaviour for themselves. If it was a situation where the victim was also a perpetrator I could them resolve to create a process of self-reflection for that student.

This approach is much like the shared method of concern.

Method of shared concern_
_This method (developed by Pikas, 1989) enables the trained teacher or counselor to establish shared concerns and encourage shared solutions to the problem. The method includes initial individual meetings with perpetrators as well as a final meeting of all parties. This is the method of shared concern sequence:
1 Gather preliminary to understand the problem.
2 Meet each of the perpetrators individually to encourage acknowledgment of the situation and to develop constructive responses and a plan to change the behavior.
3 Meet the person being bullied or harassed.
4. Meet perpetrators individually to review progress of their agreement.
5 Following positive signs of change hold a meeting of all perpetrators to reinforce the changes made and prepare for the next meeting.
6 Hold a final combined meeting of all involved as a public demonstration that the behaviors have ceased.

Instead of 'bullying the bullies', this strategy establishes a shared concern and a process of logical consequence in determining reparation.



References

Bullying No Way website @ http://www.bullyingnoway.com.au/)