Patience for others to change change is slow to others

true that people respond to change differently. To some, it takes time to respond to change. However, whether it takes time or not, patience is required to overcome the challenges that may appear when implementing RJ practices. This section will address the different ways participants respond to challenges.

Participant A admitted how his cultural experience led him to struggle to come to terms with RJ philosophy, especially in detaching himself from the zero-tolerance practices he had been used to in his country. He tied his resistance to cultural expectations. He believed this same cultural attachment may also be responsible for the reason that people he invited to RJ practices were reluctant to accept new paradigms. Similar challenges were also mentioned by participant C when she described how she had encountered people who chose to look through their own lens instead of accepting new paradigms or respecting the views of others. Participant C corroborates a similar challenge as a Canadian.

Since I have finished this course, there have been a number of challenges that I have faced both internally and externally. Because I found this course life changing, I look at people and things differently. But I still struggle with this daily. I find it easy to go back to the way I was, to judging people based on my views and experiences… I have also encountered other people who look at the world through their own lens, and are not willing or able to understand the story that someone brings with them. They don’t want to, or are unwilling to, show respect to a person, to honour their value. In my teaching, I have

felt and heard people disapproving of “just talking” with students to solve problems, that the point of a healing circle is useless, since no one is “punished.

Despite encountering challenging experiences, participant A’s response to these challenges remained positive. Instead of getting discouraged, he stated a commitment not to relent in living the ethos of RJ.

My response to this challenge is that, am not relenting in the telling people about this model of relationship first. Showing a good example among friends and families by applying what I am preaching to issues of concern and serving as a role model to the young ones. I believe with time, people will be able to see things differently and join the change agent in using restorative justice to solve many human issues and promote love, peace, unity, and to also heal any broken relationship through restorative circle.

Although participant A admits he has had struggles, two personal experiences have helped him to persist. RJ principles saved his relationship with his girlfriend, and living the ethos of RJ helped him in his academics and in building relationships on campus. He states:

I had some issue with my girlfriend, which normally could have been the end of that relationship. However, I could apply restorative justice concept to handle the issue. She was surprised at the way I talked to her using restorative approach questions to unravel what led to such

argument and misunderstanding. Also, finally, I could build a cordial relationship with other students from other parts of the world because of the positive friendship experience I had with my classmates during a restorative justice class. That relationship helped me throughout my program.

While appreciating how people embrace the use of RJ in building community and connecting people through relationship, participant B worried that those who are accustomed to the criminal justice system may see it as a weak approach to justice. He also identified that some people will use RJ as a soft landing to freedom without passing through the criminal justice system. In this case, genuine repentance resulting in accountability may not necessarily be present. Thus, participant B identified this as the reason his friends have not been able to resolve issues with him.

RJ has its challenges especially when the approach is employed to resolve crime in community. Most people appreciate and embrace that the relational approach is tried to be accountable when needed for quick reconnection and restitution. However, many people who were well acquainted with the criminal justice system perceived RJ approaches as weakness and seen as an opportunity to exploit without genuine repentance and accountability. I see this in cases where I tried to reconnect and reconcile with people who disagreed with me; trying to let them understand that we could deal with the issue that

prompted the disagreement without shattering the relationship we share.

The above challenges notwithstanding, all the participants expressed a change in perspective after completing the course. Participants began to see life from the framework of relationship and being human. All the participants expressed how the course engaged them to interrogate the status quo and reflect on issues of everyday life. From my findings, this critical interrogation of the self, structure, system, and institutions was an open window for change.

The question to be addressed in the next theme is: What in the course enabled the shifts by my participants?