Enacting Relational Leadership Through Restorative Practices

Abstract

A restorative approach to education emphasizes that educators play a critical role in building relationships amongst school stakeholders. This case study examined the four-year journey of leading a school to implement and sustain a restorative culture. A theoretical framework for restorative practices was established around relational leadership theory and dialogue, providing the foundation for this research. The research addressed the need for studying the leading of restorative culture change from a relational perspective, while highlighting the need for leadership to establish spaces, processes, attitudes, language, and questions for establishing effective dialogue to initiate the building and sustaining of effective relations. Although the restorative culture was described by some as “diluted” by the end of the initiative, it was evident that restorative practices remained integral to the daily educational practices as a result of the four-year initiative by school leadership to integrate restorative approaches into daily practices. Key words: relational leadership, restorative practices, school culture, dialogue Une approche reparatrice de l'education souligne que les educateurs jouent un role essentiel dans l'etablissement de relations entre les parties prenantes de l'ecole. Cette etude de cas examine le parcours de quatre ans de la direction d'une ecole pour mettre en œuvre et maintenir une culture reparatrice. Un cadre theorique pour les pratiques reparatrices a ete etabli autour de la theorie du leadership relationnel et du dialogue, ce qui constitue le fondement de cette recherche. La recherche a repondu au besoin d'etudier la gestion du changement de la culture reparatrice d'un point de vue relationnel, tout en soulignant la necessite pour le leadership d'etablir des espaces, des processus, des attitudes, un langage et des questions pour etablir un dialogue efficace afin d'initier la construction et le maintien de relations efficaces. Bien que la culture reparatrice ait ete decrite par certains comme "diluee" a la fin de l'initiative, il etait evident que les pratiques reparatrices restaient partie integrante des pratiques educatives quotidiennes suite a l'initiative de quatre ans de la direction de l'ecole pour integrer les approches reparatrices dans les pratiques quotidiennes. Mots-cles : leadership relationnel, pratiques reparatrices, culture scolaire, dialogue