A mindset is like a compass of personal beliefs; it orients our thinking and motivates our actions in given situations.  We have many mindsets in play helping us to think about and respond to familiar situations quickly without a great deal of cognitive thought.  We don’t often sit down and reflect on how our mindsets influence our behaviour but if we want to change them that’s exactly what we must do.  One of the most powerful aspects of mindsets is how quickly they can be shifted, and how powerful the consequences can be.

Take Carol Dweck’s work on fixed versus growth mindset for example.  Evidence of her work can be seen in many a school corridor and classroom; it provides a consistent language used to guide student metacognition and support learning growth.  Teachers the world over began to add a powerful three letter word to the end of student sentences, for example, if a student stated they were terrible at fractions or couldn’t simplify them a teacher would respond by saying “You don’t know how to simplify fractions YET’, with the intention of shifting a fixed mindset to one of growth.  As gimmicky as it may seem, the impact of language use on mindset cannot be underestimated.  As our language shifts, so to do our mindsets, and relational language is one of the pillars of Restorative Practice.

Schools implementing a restorative approach to relationship management are seeking to develop positive relationships and reframe conflict and wrongdoing through the lens of harm done to relationships and community.  Three foundations of Restorative Practice include:

• harm and needs – recognising that when things go wrong people and relationships/community have been harmed and have needs around that harm
• obligations – people are accountable for their actions and need to make things right
• engagement and participation – all stakeholders involved in the wrongdoing/incident have a right to be a part of the reparation

This approach can be a huge shift for schools, particularly those operating in a traditional or more punitive framework.  If our mindset influences our cognition and reactions, what is the impact of an educator’s discipline mindset?  How about the mindset they apply to their role as a teacher?  Let’s explore a common challenge in classrooms through the lens of a restorative and non-restorative mindset.  Luke is a student who typically finds numeracy concepts difficult to grasp, as such he often employs various avoidance strategies to escape feeling shameful about his lack of understanding.  He usually distracts others, is non-compliant and can sometimes express his shame as anger which is often directed at the teacher in the form of abusive language.  A teacher with a non-restorative mindset will take objection to the behaviour, deeming Luke to be a disrespectful student who often causes trouble.  This teacher may enforce a strict, zero-tolerance policy and eject Luke from the classroom, referring him to the leadership team to ‘deal with’.  A teacher with a restorative mindset, having identified Luke’s difficulties in numeracy in the course of their developing relationship, realises this subsequent display of poor behaviour is Luke’s mismanagement of affect shame.  This teacher would approach Luke discretely, without drawing attention, and begin to converse with Luke respectfully, at his level.  Perhaps it might sound like this, ‘Luke, I can see you are experiencing some distress right now.  I want to help you with that when you are ready, but you need to remain respectful in how you speak with me.  Is that something you can do?’ So, begins a restorative conversation whereby the teacher can work WITH Luke as opposed to doing something TO Luke, a basic premise of restorative work.  The difference in approaches to this situation was largely influenced by the mindset of the teacher regarding student behaviour and motivation.

So how exactly do the mindsets differ?  Take a look at the table below to see contrasting examples of restorative and non-restorative mindsets.

RESTORATIVE MINDSET	NON-RESTORATIVE MINDSET
People and relationships matter	Rules and unconditional respect matter
Strive to connect and relate to others from a place of mutual respect	Relate to others through a role (i.e. teacher/student)
Everyone is innately good and capable of change	Some people are innately bad and cannot change their behaviour
Collaborative decision making valued	Autocratic decision making valued
Feelings of students are fundamental to school climate and personal wellbeing	Programs and school structures are fundamental to school climate
When things go wrong, focus on harm caused to all	When things go wrong, focus on laying blame
Personal accountability and responsibility for actions is important	Punishing those that are to blame is important
Behaviour is communication	Behaviour is personal
Conflict and wrongdoing are framed as a learning moment	Conflict and wrongdoing are problems to be dealt with
Recognises relational approaches take time	Wants immediate results and compliance
Seeks to support others in behaviour change and provides structures for ongoing behaviour support	Demands behaviour change and escalates punitive consequences for further misconduct
Social and emotional capabilities need to be taught and reinforced	Social emotional capabilities are neurologically fixed
Recognises the impact of affect and emotion in human interaction and proceeds accordingly	Lacks understanding of affect and emotion

So how does one go about having a restorative mindset?  Well, here are three simple exercises you can do now to foster a restorative mindset:

1. Spend time building positive relationships

Relationships are fundamental to restorative work.  We need to know our students and find out what makes them tick.  This creates mutual trust and respect and they are more likely to cooperate and comply when its required.  List the teaching tools or strategies you use that build relationships with students.  Are they fun and energising?  Are you using them daily?  If you haven’t already, then be sure to download my free guide to using classroom circles here and start engaging in fun relationship building activities with your students.

2. Examine your current mindset regarding punishment and consequences

How you view punishment and consequences will motivate your actions towards others when they’ve done the wrong thing.  Even our subconscious thoughts are powerful, as an example, next time you listen to the news, try to focus on the immediate thoughts you have about the offenders mentioned.  Would you classify them as punitive or restorative? What you do really think about punitive discipline policies?  How do you view your role in relation to your students?  What is the outcome you hope for when you discipline your students?  What discipline procedures did you experience in school and how do you think they have impacted your current mindset?  Look into the research around punitive discipline, a fantastic resource is the work of Alfie Kohn https://www.alfiekohn.org/ .

3. Reframe individual students and their behaviour

Quite often students with challenging behaviours receive stigmatising labels which can follow them throughout their schooling.  These labels can influence how we treat students, particularly if we feel overwhelmed by their challenging behaviours.  Reframing students and their labels can go a long way in helping us work more restoratively with them.  Try this exercise, list the names of two or three students who display challenging behaviour.  Next to their names, record words or phrases you use to describe them. What do you notice about those descriptors?  Are they positive or negative?  Are they stigmatising? Do they describe the student as fixed characters or as someone who can change?  For every negative word or statement about the student, write a positive one, think deeply about individual student strengths and take note of when they display them.

It is imperative that schools and school leaders not only access adequate professional development in restorative strategies and skills but also address the power of mindsets so that the hard work that is implementing Restorative Practices isn’t undermined.  If you have a suggestion as to how to foster restorative mindsets then please share in the comments, thank you.