The five day event that was organized by the International Association for Intercultural Education and ELTE PPK Centre for Intercultural Psychology and Education attracted more than a hundred educators and researchers from all over the world with the aim to discuss and share research results, best practices and common challenges in the field culture and education. The presentation given by Foresee Research Group on September 8th titled “A universal approach to conflict management? Reflecting on the potentials of restorative justice in multicultural settings” focused on the various aspects culture and restorative justice are intertwined followed by a case study analysis of a restorative session involving hate crime mediated by Foresee RG. The conference session ended with an inspired discussion with the international audience about best practices in multicultural education.

The webpage of the conference can be reached here.

The abstract of the conference talk
A universal approach to conflict management? Reflecting on the potentials of restorative justice in multicultural settings
Zsuzsanna Z. Papp, Borbála Fellegi, dr.

The aim of the presentation is to discuss the potentials of restorative practices in multicultural settings and to present cases exemplifying good practices of implementations. Restorative justice is an alternative conflict resolution approach that reacts on norm-breaking behaviour by fostering dialogue among involved parties with the help of an impartial facilitator. As an introduction, the role of culture in conflict and in relation to restorative methods is discussed. Through examples and a theoretical overview, we examine the range of challenges cultural differences may present in restorative sessions (such as roots of conflicts, communication barriers, diverging goals and priorities). Research and facilitators’ reports (Törzs, 2014) show however that restorative practices serve as an efficient tool also in culturally heterogeneous settings. In the second part of the talk therefore we focus on identifying universal needs in conflicts and common characteristics of restorative justice as a response to those needs (values, principles, methods and communicational norms). Lastly, the potentials of restorative methods in prevention work in schools are discussed. Cases conducted by Foresee Research Group are presented as good examples.