Walsh, Richard (2019) A narrative of how I improved my facilitation of Restorative Practice in order to enhance parents’ relationships with their children. Masters thesis, National University of Ireland Maynooth.
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Abstract
Restorative Practice is a philosophy and a set of skills focused on building, maintaining
and repairing relationships and managing conflict in a respectful, inclusive manner. The
aim of this study was twofold, firstly to determine if and how I can improve my
facilitation of Restorative Practice for parents and secondly if effectively teaching the
course content and facilitating parents’ development of Restorative Practice skills,
would enhance parents’ relationships with their children. Specifically, the research
question for this project is “How can I improve my facilitation of Restorative Practice
in order to enhance parents’ relationships with their children?”
The chosen methodology was action research. Full ethical approval was sought and was
granted by Froebel Department of Primary and Early Childhood Education Masters of
Education in NUI Maynooth. In order to encourage a common restorative approach
between home and school, together with a colleague, I co-facilitated two Restorative
Practice courses for two groups of parents. The courses formed the basis of this action
research project. In order to build a credible source of evidence, practical knowledge
from my reflective journal, parents’ daily diaries, correspondence from critical friends
and notes from validation group meetings was used as data. The Restorative Practice
courses taught the parents the values, skills and processes of Restorative Practice .
The key findings were, my claim that I have improved my facilitation of Restorative
Practice , I have become critically reflective in my teaching and I have noticed that this
critical mindset has now become a way of negotiation in my daily life. The parents
were given the opportunity to reflect on their own behaviour, analyse their values and
appraise themselves. According to their diaries they experienced a measure of personal
growth and a deepening self-awareness. Their relationships with their children were
enhanced. The evidence indicated that participation in the Restorative Practice course
resulted in the parents replacing social control in the home with social engagement.
Throughout this action research I have become more aware of my own core values, I
have found that they have influenced a change in my practice and that they have been
the standards by which I judge my effectiveness in facilitating Restorative Practice . I
have noted the following improvements in my practice: I have become a better listener
and I have become more conscious of the parents’ individual needs and more adaptive
to the needs of the group. I have learned how to facilitate Restorative Practice using
both a managed narrative and an inclusive dialogical approach.
Item Type: | Thesis (Masters) |
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Keywords: | Froebel; Department of Primary and Early Childhood Education; narrative; improved; facilitation; Restorative Practice; enhance; parents’ relationships; children; |
Academic Unit: | Faculty of Social Sciences > Froebel Department of Primary and Early Childhood Education |
Item ID: | 13706 |
Depositing User: | IR eTheses |
Date Deposited: | 30 Nov 2020 16:40 |
URI: | https://mu.eprints-hosting.org/id/eprint/13706 |
Use Licence: | This item is available under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial Share Alike Licence (CC BY-NC-SA). Details of this licence are available here |
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