THE CHALLENGE OF CULTURE CHANGE: EMBEDDING RESTORATIVE PRACTICES IN SCHOOLS Based on presentation by Margaret Thorsborne Manchester, 2005 and

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THE CHALLENGE OF CULTURE CHANGEEMBEDDING
RESTORATIVEPRACTICES IN SCHOOLSBased on
presentation by Margaret ThorsborneManchester,
2005and
paper by Blood and Thorsborne - IIRP website
www.iirp.org (follow links to IIRP conference
papers Building a Global Alliance, Sydney,
2005)
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• Organisations with a traditional culture no
  longer produce anywhere close to the results
  required.and these cultures are extremely
  resilient.highly resistant to change
• Lee, 2004

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• Culture is the result of messages that are
  received about what is really valued. People
  align their behaviour to these messages in order
  to fit in. Changing culture requires a systematic
  and planned change to these messages, whose
  sources are behaviour, symbols and systems.
• Taylor, 2004

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MESSAGE MANAGEMENT

• Messages from behaviour
• The management team and those considered
  important are watched by others
• Messages from symbols
• Actions, decisions and situations visible to
  a large number of people - and to which they
  attribute meaning
• Messages from systems
• How your organisation rewards, measures,
  manages and communicates what is important
• Taylor, 2004

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TRANSFORMATIONAL CHANGE

• The most significant determinant of your
  organisations culture will be the leadership
  style of managers at all levels
• Lee, 2004

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TRANSFORMATIONAL PROCESS

• .will change mind-sets, target values and
  build a culture which can truly support new
  strategies and organisational aspirations.
• However it can only be driven by passionate and
  persistent leadership at the top.
• Therefore, transformational change begins with
  transforming the mind-sets of managers.
• Lee, 2004

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STAGES

1. Gaining Commitment
2. Developing a Shared Vision
3. Developing Responsive and Effective Practice
4. Developing a Whole School Approach
5. Professional Relationships

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MAKING A CASE FOR CHANGE

• Building the case for investing in cultural
  improvement requires a thorough understanding of
  the cost of the current culture
• Taylor, 2004

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FIVE FUNDAMENTAL LEADERSHIP PRACTICES

• Challenging the process
• Inspiring a shared vision
• Enabling others to act
• Modeling the way, and
• Encouraging the heart
• Kouzes Posner (1997)

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BUILDING A CASE FOR CHANGE

• Identifying the need
• (the cost of current practice)
• Qualitative data - wide dissatisfaction with the
  ineffectiveness of current practice -
  conversations in staff rooms and staff meetings,
  student and parent feedback, school reviews,
  union involvement
• Quantitative data -survey data e.g. bullying,
  student safety and well-being/mental health
  exclusion and suspension rates, detention rates,
  overuse of time-out facilities, student absences,
  staff absences, stress/sick leave, measures of
  student engagement/disengagement, academic
  results, retention figuresneed to unpack data
  for meaning

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ESTABLISHING BUY-IN

• Share school data and RJ research with senior and
  middle managers, student support services,
  governing bodies, parent bodies, local government
  and other agencies
• Engage senior levels in the department (at state,
  regional and district offices) professional
  bodies e.g. principals associations, unions
• Identify schools which are ready to take up
  organisational change - negotiate an MOU
  regarding obligations, accountabilities, support
  mechanisms
• Identify dedicated leadership team within the
  school to anchor the change program

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DEVELOPING A SHARED VISION

• Key people must be clear about the
  organisational goals - what the organisation
  will look like when they get there - and being
  very clear about what they want to measure and
  how that will happen and why it is important
• But more than anything, they must understand
  that this will mean, in all likelihood, a change
  in the culture - that is, how we do things
  around here or how we do everything around
  here

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PREFERRED OUTCOMES

• Shift towards positive relationship management
• Balance between prevention, intervention and
  crisis management
• Improvement in statistics (detention, time-out,
  suspensions, exclusions, absenteeism,)
  increased options for managing behaviour
• Staff who are struggling with discipline are
  identified early and supported in meaningful ways
• Quality and nature of the dialogue about kids is
  supportive

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PREFERRED OUTCOMES (CONTINUED)

• Case management approach to problem-solving
• Classroom teachers solve more issues themselves
• Students are self-regulating and better
  problem-solvers
• Survey data shows improvements over a variety of
  measures (e.g. safety, wellbeing, school
  connectedness, staff morale and stress levels,
  parent satisfaction)
• Greater engagement in curriculum, increased
  retention rates

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TRAINING, MAINTENANCE AND SUPPORT

• What model of training is to be used (given adult
  learning needs)?
• Who gets trained and in what order?
• Costs of training? Funding sources?
• Managing staff turnover and relief teachers, and
  induction for new students and their families
• Collegial support and supervision
• Ongoing CPD and access to latest research
• Increasing the range of options
• Networking

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MONITORING FOR QUALITY STANDARDS

• The acquisition of new skills requires coaching
  in a climate of encouragement, honest feedback
  and support particularly when we are shifting
  from ingrained traditional approaches.data
  collection, continuous improvement loop and
  professional dialogue

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MONITORING AND SUPPORTING BEST PRACTICE

• RP coordinator - staffing implications
• Integrity of practice amongst senior and middle
  managers
• Collegial support and resourcing for preparation,
  facilitation and debriefing for high level
  interventions e.g. conferences
• Supportive approach to supervision of Restorative
  Practice
• Access to latest research/reading
• Provision of high quality ongoing PD

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Hierarchy of Responses (proactive-reactive)
System and School Imperatives
Whole School (Big Picture) Preferred Outcomes
Behaviour Mgt Policy Review Development
Best Practice
Relational/Restorative Philosophy
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VERTICAL CONSISTENCY

• PHILOSOPHY
• POLICY
• PROCEDURES
• PRACTICE

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MANAGING THE TRANSITION

• Identify core group to lead
• Keep up the dialogue
• Take a long term strategic approach (3-5 years)
• Understand the tensions
• Work first with interested staff
• Leave old structures/processes in place in
  parallel
• Involve as many staff as possible in restorative
  processes
• Explain decisions, share improvements in data,
  stories
• Use a restorative approach for staff matters
• Walk the talk and hold steady in the face of
  criticism
• Participate in professional forums and networks

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TIMEFRAME INDICATORS OF CHANGE
12-18 months Changing dialogue. Pockets of practice. Improved statistics. Gaining Commitment. Increased options for managing behaviour.
12-24 months Altered dialogue processes. Alignment of policy procedure. Increased skill development. School community commitment.
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TIMEFRAME INDICATORS OF CHANGE (Continued)
24- 36 months Embedding of practice at all levels. Altered operating framework. Reviewing policy and procedure. Creative solutions emerge.
4-5 years Best Practice. Behaviour change embedded. Cultural change across school
community.
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WIDENING THE LENS

• By thinking more broadly
• within a whole school approach
• it becomes possible to see where else
  restorative philosophy can be applied

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PROFESSIONAL RELATIONSHIPS

• Promote openness, honesty, transparency and
  fairness
• Use Restorative Approaches for managing staff
  issues
• Challenge practice behaviour in a supportive
  way
• Engage whole staff and wider school community
• Management walking the talk

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DIFFUSION MODEL OF INNOVATION
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13
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3
Early Adopters
Early Majority
Late Majority
Innovators
Laggards
Rogers, 95