Course Offerings
Employers
For employers seeking candidates with restorative practices skills, please submit your job posting to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Our graduates are highly skilled professionals who specialize in:
- Problem-solving in a way that fosters cohesion and creates conditions for collaborative teamwork,
- Emotional intelligence, self-reflection, and conflict management skills that equip them to proactively build more effective relationships and positive community culture,
- Effectively leading people, building diverse, resilient teams, and sparking innovative ways of thinking by focusing on responsibility, respect, and inclusive participation,
- Uncovering the root causes of conflict and facilitating complex conversations to minimize harm, identify solutions, and repair relationships, and
- Critical thinking and communication skills to influence change.
Our graduates are located around the world, so you have access to a global network of experienced professionals.
Students and Alumni
Join our Student and Alumni networking groups on Facebook and LinkedIn. These groups offer the opportunity to communicate with other students and alumni, share resources, and access job postings from interested employers.
Student-centered and learner-driven.
At the IIRP, we offer flexible graduate-level programs geared toward working professionals that allow you to study where you live and work. We foster an approach of starting small and growing to bigger circles in your communities. You can tailor your plan of study to meet your individual learning goals. Each course of study convenes a diverse learning community, where you will engage with the subject matter, fellow students, and faculty. Each program requires a bachelor's degree or equivalent, along with the belief that all of us possess the power to heal our communities and the curiosity to learn how.
Master of Science in Restorative Practices
Graduate students at the IIRP are catalysts for change, putting what they’ve learned into practice in their own professional settings. The study of restorative practices draws from a range of disciplines, with the goal of understanding how to best address wrongdoing and conflict, support positive behavioral change, build social capital, educate, lead and, ultimately, foster social change.
Within the degree, students have the opportunity to concentrate in specific fields, as well as the option of completing research in this growing field. If your vision requires broader focus, the degree allows you to chart your own course with the support of a faculty advisor.
Program Overview
- Ten courses: four required courses and six electives.
- Supported by faculty and fellow students, course assignments help you put your learning into practice.
- Most students complete the program in two to three years.
Requirements include:
- RP 500 Basic Restorative Practices or RP 504 Foundations of Restorative Practices
- RP 525 Restorative Practices in Action
- RP 610 Evaluation of Research
- Six general electives
- RP 699 Integrating Seminar (once all other coursework is complete)
Community Engagement Specialization
Restorative practices honors the existing strengths in a community and helps to increase people’s personal and collective efficacy, creating social conditions for people to be healthier and have greater well-being. The community engagement specialization provides students with a cluster of courses that focus on relationships and social connections in the community through processes, programs and policies. Students who choose this specialization will develop competencies in facilitation, collaboration, planning, intervention, and implementation from a community perspective. You will learn to understand different communities’ characteristics, dynamics, cultures, and contexts; how to become a change agent in the communities you wish to influence; and ways to challenge systems of oppression to create opportunities for more connected community.
Requirements
To earn specialization recognition on a transcript, the following are required in addition to the required coursework for the Master of Science:
- Four of your electives, including two at the 600 level, must be related to the specialization. These include:
- Your project for your final course, RP 699 Integrating Seminar, must be rooted in your specialization.
There are no additional costs associated with choosing a specialization for your Master of Science in Restorative Practices.
Education Specialization
Restorative practices promotes a healthy teaching and learning environment through practical implementation of engaging processes that are both proactive and responsive. The education specialization provides students with a cluster of courses that focus on teaching and learning. Themes explored in the education specialization include strategies to enhance student-teacher engagement; practical classroom activities; development of teacher pedagogy; understanding students' social, emotional, neurological and academic needs; and building on restorative frameworks to develop anti-racist education and challenge current educational systems and practice.
Requirements
To earn the specialization recognition on a transcript, the following are required in addition to the required coursework for the Master of Science:
- Four of your electives, including two at the 600 level, must be related to the specialization. These include:
- Your project for your final course, RP 699 Integrating Seminar, must be rooted in your specialization.
There are no additional costs associated with choosing a specialization for your Master of Science in Restorative Practices.
Thesis Option
Students — as well as our alumni — who wish to conduct original research may choose to pursue the Thesis Option. A faculty chair will provide guidance as you design relevant research that can be completed within a one-year time frame. By completing the Thesis Option, you can gain research experience and develop advanced competencies in scholarly writing. If you are considering a research-intensive career or are interested in pursuing doctoral-level study, the Thesis Option may be a desirable choice for you.
Requirements
- Complete all four Master of Science required courses.
- Complete two focused research courses – RP 680 Designing Restorative Practices Research and RP 685 Data Analysis for Restorative Practices Research – along with four other electives (these may be the electives required for the Education or Community Engagement Specialization).
- Students enroll in RP 707 Thesis Seminar after all other Master of Science courses have been completed.
To pursue this option, a student must already be admitted to the Master of Science program and then request faculty approval. Additional fees apply.
Graduate Certificate in Restorative Practices
This program will help you establish a firm understanding of how restorative practices works to distinguish yourself as a practitioner in your setting. This option is ideal for professionals who already have an advanced degree or who are still deciding to pursue a Master of Science. You may complete your certificate within a year and all courses taken for the Certificate can be applied toward a Master of Science degree after completion.
Four Courses
- Two required courses:
- Two electives
We practice what we teach.
Students have the opportunity to personalize their studies and focus on their greatest professional goals and challenges. Students learn through faculty-guided exploration and reflection, as well as through engaging learning experiences with their fellow students around the world. Our faculty are scholars and practitioners who enjoy teaching and learning with others most of all.
Educational Philosophy
The IIRP Graduate School offers graduate degrees and professional development programs that promote learning, personal growth, and social responsibility among its students by integrating the core concepts of restorative practices in all teaching and learning activities.
We believe that every human being has intrinsic value, deserves to be treated with respect, is capable of changing and growing, and is inherently motivated to learn. We also believe that learning occurs best within a participatory learning community with students actively engaged in their own learning and interacting with their fellow students, and that learning should not only build capacity for the future but should also address current problems and challenges facing individuals and society.
Graduates will be thoughtful practitioners, able to advance in their profession and committed to developing their own capacities through habits of exploration and reflection. They will be effective communicators and will have a well-developed capacity to engage in lifelong inquiry and learning. They will have an understanding of healthy interpersonal and organizational relationships and will work well with others in responding to new and unexpected challenges that arise in their organizations and communities.
Lastly, the IIRP Graduate School’s aim, as suggested by Albert Einstein in a speech in 1936, “is the training of independently acting and thinking individuals who, however, see in the service of the community their highest life problem.”
Serving the Mission
Our students' learning process is measured in every course, ensuring we serve our mission. Students will find that each course has learning outcomes and objectives, linked with program goals, institutional learning goals, and the mission.
Institutional Learning Goals
- Critical Thinking: Members of the IIRP learning community will analyze, synthesize, and interpret texts, experiences, feedback, and other information.
- Communication Skills: Members of the IIRP learning community will write and speak well in different contexts.
- Self-Directed Learning: Members of the IIRP learning community will take initiative and responsibility and assess their own learning activities.
- Ethical Awareness: Members of the IIRP learning community will identify and analyze ethical issues associated with restorative practices.
- Information Literacy: Ability to locate, analyze, and use information appropriately.
Master of Science Program Goals
- Explain foundational principles of restorative practices.
- Apply conceptual and analytical skills in evaluating the links among practice, systems, and policy issues.
- Demonstrate the ability to improve professional skills through self-reflection.
- Develop knowledge and skills to work with culturally and socially diverse populations in local and global contexts through a restorative practices frame.
- Apply critical thinking skills to an issue and determine a restorative approach.
- Demonstrate proficiencies in information literacy.
- Thesis option only: Design a research study to advance the field of restorative practices.
Graduate Certificate Program Goals
- Explain foundational principles of restorative practices.
- Apply conceptual and analytical skills in evaluating the links among practice, systems, and policy issues.
- Demonstrate the ability to improve professional skills through self-reflection.
Each class provides an intensive learning experience.
As an IIRP graduate student, you will find that courses incorporate readings, lecture, reflection, videos, role-play, discussion, group exercises and case studies. These activities are designed to enhance the learning outcomes of each course.
At the IIRP Graduate School, learning and community are built using various forms of communication between faculty and fellow students, including video conferencing, email, social media, chat and discussion boards.
Course requirements for each program option
| Required Courses for Certificate | Required Courses for Master's Degree | Required Courses for Master's Degree with Thesis Option |
| RP 500 Basic Restorative Practices or RP 504 Foundations of Restorative Practices |
RP 500 Basic Restorative Practices or RP 504 Foundations of Restorative Practices |
RP 500 Basic Restorative Practices or RP 504 Foundations of Restorative Practices |
| RP 525 Restorative Practices in Action | RP 525 Restorative Practices in Action | RP 525 Restorative Practices in Action |
| Plus 2 Electives | RP 610 Evaluation of Research | RP 610 Evaluation of Research |
| 6 Electives* | 4 Electives | |
| RP 699 Integrating Seminar | RP 680 Designing Restorative Practices Research | |
| RP 685 Data Analysis for Restorative Practices Research | ||
| RP 699 Integrating Seminar | ||
| RP 707 Thesis Seminar | ||
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View the Graduate Course Schedule.
Graduate Program Information
If you would like to speak about graduate courses and programs, please contact Student Services.
Email: studentservices@iirp.edu
“With every course, there was a sense of community.”
Rosie Arcona ‘19
Sacramento, USA