A four-year-old child is expelled from an Early Childhood Centre on charges of misconduct and misdemeanour. She goes to another School with a lengthy report on her behaviour.
The management of the School decides to ignore the report but concentrate on the competencies and strengths of the child. The School found that the child was ‘gifted but bored.’
In another instance, a child complains to her father that she was being bullied at School. He gets through to the bully, talks to him and solves the problem.
The above are among the case studies that Dr Valerie Margrain, Massey University College of Education Lecturer in Early Years Education and Teacher-Researcher Angus H Macfarlane have cited in their latest book, ‘Responsive Pedagogy: Engaging Restoratively with Challenging Behaviour’ released on October 21, 2011.
The Book explores techniques and research on restorative justice practice in schools and provides constructive ideas, tips and techniques to help parents and teachers to deal with challenging behaviour.
It helps teachers to address issues such as aggressive behaviour, lying and bullying without resorting to exclusion or expulsion.
The Book also enables parents to understand their children better and find out why they behave differently under certain circumstances.
Dr Margrain said restorative practice is a relatively new but growing area of interest in schools that try to find better ways to deal with difficult students.
“There has been a lot of work around restorative principles, doing things to set things right, accepting responsibility. Even the youngest of learners in early childhood education can grasp the principles of saying sorry and helping clean up a mess,” she said.
According to her, understanding the problem, not the student, would lead to re-building relationships.
“There are no set answers, but this book helps to provide information and tools that can work in different situations. At the end of the day, you want a change in behaviour and some accountability. There are multiple ways of achieving the objective,” Dr Margrain said.
“In the big picture, excluding students does not resolve anything. It just moves the problem somewhere else and it is increasingly difficult to find schools for excluded children. While it is important that victims have a voice and their concerns are dealt with, we also need to be part of a society that can find constructive approaches.”
Responsive Pedagogy: Engaging Restoratively with Challenging Behaviour
Authors: Dr Valerie Margrain and Professor Angus H Macfarlane
Publisher: The New Zealand Council for Educational Research
Price: $44.95 including GST Website: www.nzcer.org.nz
