Title:  Debating the power of restorative practices for the Higher Education sector.

With Dr Elaine Yerby, Dr Emma Davies and Rebecca Page-Tickell pfhea. In conversation with Dr Gabriella Buttarazzi, Centre of Excellence for Learning and Teaching at the University of East London

There is a strong evidence base of the need to recognise the powerful skills that lie behind conflict resolution. The importance of understanding the triggers and impact of stress on the working life and of the benefits of learning how to manage conflict in all its different guises. We discuss how, by moving towards restorative practices, we can train students and staff to use mediated dialogue to locate harm in ways that will enable the individual to take active accountability of the harms that they have caused. However, restorative practice travels beyond the allocation of blame and feelings of shame. The use of mediated dialogue enables individuals to appreciate their inherent agency to act in ways that empowers them to restore justice to their community. Restorative practice actively seeks dialogue, to rebuild the status of the individual and regain harmony and sense of belonging to the institution. In this discussion, restorative practices are posited as ‘teachable’ skills and framed as the empowerment tools that can enable Higher Education Institutions to move beyond current traditions that rely on rigid and strict investigational procedures and punitive disciplinaries that seek to blame and punish individuals