Understanding conflict transformation dialogue through coding based on Buber and Rogers

This chapter discusses restorative disciplinary meetings in secondary schools in the UK as examples of conflict transformation dialogue. It focuses on one school where specially trained teachers facilitate restorative meetings for students who are experiencing conflict. The chapter explores relational transformation with the theories of Martin Buber and Carl Rogers and suggest a coding framework for the analysis of conflict transformation dialogue in schools following peer disputes and bullying. Conflict transformation dialogue is a development from conflict resolution theory mainly with lawyers wanting to find alternatives to formal legal procedures and the destructive consequences of the dominant Win–Lose paradigm. There is very little research that investigates the nature of the dialogue itself. Exceptions are S. Westrup and T. Tsuruhara. Both use conversation analysis to document and analyse what actually is happening during restorative approaches (RA). Tsuruhara goes on to investigate RA using a coding framework that is informed by Martin Buber’s I and Thou and Carl Rogers’ client-centred approach.