Experiential Learning and Restorative Justice
The game “Shovel Face” gives students the opportunity to practice the facilitation skill of asking follow-up questions on the spot and builds empathy for how it feels to be the responsible or harmed party in a restorative justice process. Students experience the vulnerability of being asked to talk about a major life experience in a circle of people and gain a first-hand understanding of what is required to feel safe, respected, and heard in that space.
Once, while playing “Shovel Face” with a group of adults, a participant responded to the initial question of “What has been the greatest learning experience of your life and what did you learn?” with a story about breaking the law as a teenager. The follow-up questions her classmate asked prompted her to reflect on the factors in her life that contributed to the behavior. She described her school and family experiences and shared about being arrested and her defiant response to the punitive sanctions she received. In the debrief following the activity, she explained how telling her story during the game gave her a better perspective on how difficult participating in restorative justice is for responsible parties, how much the process asks of them, and how that understanding would influence her as a facilitator. Other participants dialogued about how hearing her reflections helped them better understand some of the factors that lead to crime and why punishment often makes things worse.
The learning from this game was deep because it emerged organically from an authentic experience. Rather than being told that participating in restorative justice is a difficult and vulnerable experience for responsible parties and that a person’s life circumstances contribute to the decision to commit a crime, the participants had the opportunity to experience that learning together, while practicing an important facilitation skill.
—Lindsey Pointer
A key characteristic of restorative pedagogy is an experiential mode of teaching. It is important that students not only learn about restorative practices, values, and principles, but also experience them directly. The field of experiential learning is well-developed and offers a wealth of insight for the enhancement of restorative pedagogy. The principles of experiential learning include equally valuing the voices, perspectives, and experiences of all present and encouraging students to apply the learning to their lives. Many of the central values and principles of experiential learning are in clear alignment with restorative ideals, making the integration of experiential approaches into the teaching of restorative practices a clear choice. This experience of working together, valuing each other, and learning from each other can translate into big-picture changes outside the classroom.
An Introduction to Experiential Learning
Experiential learning is learning through doing. As John Luckner and Reldan Nadler describe, “It is a process through which individuals construct knowledge, acquire skills, and enhance values from direct experience.”1 Facilitated experiential learning generally involves a few distinct phases. Students engage in an activity, reflect on the activity, derive useful insights from that analysis, and then incorporate the new learning into their understanding and behavior. Games and activities provide a highly effective mode of experiential learning that can be less intimidating to learners than other more direct experiential teaching methods such as role-plays.
The benefits of experiential learning are numerous. Increasing the involvement of learners leads to an increase in interest and ownership of what is being learned. It also encourages students to take responsibility for their own learning and behavior, rather than assigning that responsibility to a teacher or other outside person. This way of learning also encourages a more complete integration of what has been learned with the learner’s perception of self, thoughts, and actions moving forward.
In experiential exercises such as games, the role of the teacher more closely resembles the role of a facilitator who creates a space for the experience and helps to facilitate a meaningful, reflective discussion following the activity.2 The instructor is no longer the “expert” imparting her knowledge to students. She is instead a facilitator who participates in the learning experience. This allows for a more even distribution of power and voice between teacher and students, bringing the classroom further into alignment with restorative values.
In her role as facilitator, the instructor is responsible for creating and maintaining a respectful space for the learning activity. She structures the experience of the game, sets boundaries, and supports learners. Learning takes place largely through a debrief of the game or activity that supports reflection, analysis, and synthesis. The debrief also allows the instructor to assess the needs of the students and make appropriate modifications to subsequent games and activities.
As an experiential learning method, games and activities rely on the wisdom of the group to make learning happen, just as restorative processes rely on the wisdom of the circle. Learners are involved in posing questions, being curious, being creative, drawing connections, and constructing meaning. They are co-creators of the learning experience. The instructor sets up an activity and holds the space for the learners’ engagement but is not in control of the exact outcome. That is up to the students.
One of the challenges in experiential learning is knowing how far to push participants out of their comfort zone. It can be difficult to know what game or activity will present the right level of challenge for the group. The teacher must be intentional and pick experiences that are right at the edge of unfamiliar territory for a group’s comfort level. There will be feelings of discomfort or risk. At this edge space, learners can go for it and have an experience of success or a breakthrough. Finding this “edge” by reading the group and maintaining an appropriate level of challenge throughout a class or training is yet another skill that must be carefully honed by those teaching restorative practices.
A supremely important characteristic of learning experientially is that it is fun. Playfulness and laughter create an invitation for active involvement, building a sense of togetherness and community that aids the learning process and aligns with restorative values. Through incorporating fun, energy is high, attention is focused, and the drive to learn is enhanced through sheer enjoyment of the process.
In part because of this high level of engagement and involvement, experiential learning creates a highly relational classroom environment. Relationship-building helps to establish trust between students and cultivate a more connected learning community. This focus on relationships is fundamental to restorative approaches. Games contribute to creating a fun, safe, and relaxed atmosphere, which aids in relationship building.
Examples of Experiential Learning in Restorative Practices Classrooms
Experiential teaching methods have already been implemented in a range of restorative justice learning contexts with great success. This commitment to integrating experiential learning activities grounded in restorative values and priorities has been made in schools, university classrooms, and restorative justice education programs in prisons, among others.
There are a few experiential and relational exercises that are commonly used to teach in a way that aligns with restorative values, the most common of which is the circle. An entire lesson may be structured with the circle framework, giving students the opportunity to reflect on their learning in the circle and providing the teacher with valuable feedback about the students’ current needs. The circle also prevents dominant students from monopolizing the conversation and ensures equal opportunity to speak and listen.
Pair and group work is also often used to encourage open dialogue between learners. This can serve to build relationships within the class and provide space for learners to share their own experiences with the material and how it applies to their lives. This group work often includes opportunities to apply material to case studies in order to gain a real-life understanding of restorative justice. This may be done through role-plays of the restorative justice process. Some restorative justice classes have even given students real facilitation roles in their communities, providing students with the experience of effecting positive change through a community restorative justice process, followed by the opportunity to reflect on the real-life impact of the process in the classroom.4
Students are also often encouraged to engage in self-reflection and implementation within their own communities. Barbara Carson and Darrol Bussler report asking students to identify and examine their own values as they relate to justice, design new means for implementing restorative approaches in troubled areas, and practice restorative processes in their communities.5 Kristi Holsinger notes that one outcome of the restorative justice course she delivered to a combined group of traditional college students and incarcerated youth was that students learned how to apply the principles of restorative justice to their personal lives and discovered new ways to deal with the conflicts and problems they face.6 Students’ development of self-awareness enhances the liberating potential of education by allowing them to understand their own reactions, biases, and contexts.
Games are often used in restorative justice educational spaces as a way to break the ice and build relationships and trust prior to beginning a lesson or circle process. While they are certainly effective ice-breakers, their use as a restorative teaching method need not end there. Games may also be used as an experiential learning exercise to deepen students’ understanding of restorative justice and develop specific skills related to facilitating and participating in restorative processes. The element of play enhances the experiential aspect of the learning environment by encouraging students to take risks and learn from mistakes while also building community.