“Every kid’s worth saving. Every kid’s worth investing in.” Restorative practice in New Zealand schools: the challenges and successes.

<p><strong>This research is situated within New Zealand’s political context of rising tough-on-crime rhetoric and zero-tolerance responses to young people’s misbehaviour. A punitive approach continues to be used in New Zealand schools despite awareness of its ineffectiveness and findings that school attendance may be the most powerful protection against the school-to-prison pipeline. Restorative practice has been presented as an alternative to exclusionary punishment in schools. It can facilitate school attendance by reducing rates of exclusionary punishment such as stand-downs and exclusions. Despite positive results and feedback following the introduction of restorative practice into some New Zealand schools, limited research has investigated its effectiveness since 2016 (Simons & Shanly, 2023). This is surprising given that just prior to 2016, restorative practice was formally promoted and resourced in New Zealand schools, which should warrant ongoing evaluation (Simons & Shanly, 2023). This research was guided by two key questions: (1) what challenges or successes are being experienced by schools implementing restorative practices? And (2) what barriers or enablers do school staff face in the successful implementation of restorative practices? Eleven semi-structured, qualitative interviews with twelve teachers, school counsellors and restorative practice experts investigated their experiences enacting restorative practice in both a proactive and reactive capacity. Participants were asked about their experiences working with young people and the issues and opportunities they face within their schools. This research found that punitive attitudes can act as barriers to effective restorative practice, but that these attitudes can be changed. A Māori cultural perspective was explored, with an unexpected finding of the stance that “from a te ao Māori perspective, that’s what we do anyway.” A list of successful training approaches was shared, and it was found that a key barrier is insufficient time allocation and resourcing. The findings are evidence of the negative impacts of punitive approaches, and an argument in support of increased research into and resourcing towards restorative practice in schools.</strong></p>