Most responses to the problem of bullying can be placed in one of two categories: immediate intervention or longer-term prevention. School communities are becoming increasingly aware of the need for longer-term preventative responses that minimise the amount of bullying behaviour in schools. This trend is important, and should be encouraged. School communities will nevertheless continue to require some formal intervention process(es) to respond to incidents of bullying.
Ideally, a formal response to bullying behaviour should give those who have most caused harm:
A formal response to bullying behaviour should give those who have been most harmed:
A formal response that delivered these outcomes would be more than a reactive intervention. By involving the whole community of affected people, by providing them with unparalleled opportunities for learning about the causes and costs of the incident, and by allowing them to develop a constructive cure, this general approach could have a longer-term preventative effect.
Over the last ten years or so, a process has been developed that delivers all these outcomes. It has been trialed in Australasia and North America. Its generic term is the community conference. In the school setting, it is commonly also called a School Community Forum.
(See D.B. Moore Pride, Shame and Empathy among Peers: Community conferencing as transformative justice in education in K. Rigby, and P. Slee (eds) Children's Peer Relations, London: Routledge, 1998).
What is a School Community Forum?
A School Community Forum (SCF) is a meeting of people within a school community who are in conflict. That conflict may have arisen from a single incident of undisputed harm, a general pattern of undisputedly harmful behaviour - such as bullying - or a history of poorly resolved disputes. The SCF brings together those most directly affected. They are supported by family and friends. Collectively, we call this group of people the affected community.
The SCF provides an opportunity for members of this affected community to understand what caused the conflict among themselves, others and the wider school community. The SCF provides the affected community with an opportunity to determine how they can best repair the harm, learn from the experience and prevent a recurrence of destructive behaviour.
Who attends a School Community Forum?
A School Community Forum usually involves the following people:
What happens during a School Community Forum?
All participants are given an opportunity, in a specific sequence, to recount what happened at the time and what has happened since. The harm that has been caused is emotional even when it is also physical. It is important that everyone present has the opportunity to hear everyone else speak. In this way, the community can develop a clearer and fuller understanding of the harm caused by the incident(s). Only when people have a clear and full picture of that harm can they begin to consider how best to repair it, and how best to prevent a recurrence. Options for repairing past and present harm, and for preventing future harm, are recorded in a written agreement. This agreement is signed by key participants, who retain a copy.
What are the outcomes of a School Community Forum?
The immediate outcome of a School Community Forum is the School Community Forum Agreement. Terms of the agreement may include anything from an apology and assurances that the behaviour will not occur again, through repayment of money (where appropriate), to repair of any physical damage to property, reparative work within the school community and/or an undertaking to seek appropriate support. The outcomes are limited only by the groups imagination, its ability to ensure that the terms of the agreement will be complied with, and its understanding that it is in everyones interest to minimise further harm.
How long does a School Community Forum last?
The duration of a School Community Forum will depend on the circumstances and complexity of the incident or pattern of behaviour. It will also depend on the number of people affected and on their willingness to participate. The time taken to prepare the Forum will also be influenced by these factors. A typical SCF might involve a dozen people. On average, the SCF itself will last for an hour-and-a-half to two hours.
What are the advantages of this approach?
A School Community Forum provides those most affected with a safe environment in which to talk about how they have been affected. The SCF provides those most responsible for harm with an opportunity to understand how others have been affected, and an opportunity to take responsibility, rather than walking away from the community of people who have been harmed. Family members and other supporters also get an opportunity to talk about what happened to them, and what has happened since.
The SCF allows those who have caused harm to work together with those who have been harmed to determine how best to make things better. In the process of working together, communities are strengthened, rather than being torn apart. Every participant in the SCF learns from the experience. People are given the opportunity to be accepted back into their community.
In other words, where harmful behaviour has brought people into conflict, the SCF provides a special opportunity. The SCF does not simply increase conflict. This is what happens when a decision is made about who is right and who is wrong, and when punishment is simply imposed on the wrongdoer(s). Nor does the SCF avoid conflict. This is what happens if it is decided that the situation is simply too complex to deal with, or if it is decided that everyone is to blame, so nothing is to be done, or if some parties to the conflict are simply removed from the school community. Instead, the SCF provides those affected with an opportunity to transform the conflict. By paying adequate attention to what has happened in the past, and what is happening in the present, the affected community can start to build themselves a better future.
Transformative Justice Australia (TJA) has developed a Community Conference (School Community Forum) Facilitators Workshop. The workshop has met with international acclaim. It leaves educators with the skills necessary to convene a successful SCF, and to apply more generally the principles of conflict transformation in their work. Community Conferencing/School Community Forum programs are expanding in Australia, in several Canadian provinces and US states.
School staff speak for themselves in recent feedback to the Department of Education and Training in TJAs home state of New South Wales:
In addition to convening three day training workshops, TJA personnel are available to convene a community conference/ School Community Forum for those serious matters where school management feel that a facilitator from outside the school community may be most appropriate.
For further information on the School Community Forum process and the work of Transformative Justice Australia:
visit the TJA website:
phone the Sydney office: 61 + 2 + 9130 2481
fax the Sydney office: 61 + 2 + 9130 2303
e-mail: tja@connect.net.au