Adaptation of the Restorative Justice Ideology Scale to Turkish Culture and an Assessment of Teachers’ Restorative Justice Beliefs

This study aimed to adapt the Restorative Justice Ideology Scale (RJI Scale) for use in Turkish culture and examine teachers’ restorative justice beliefs about various variables. Restorative justice offers an approach focused on repair and social harmony in response to crime and disciplinary violations, providing an alternative to the traditional criminal justice system. In the context of education, it is essential because it provides a more inclusive and constructive model for school discipline policies. In the study, Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) was employed to assess the construct validity of the scale, and the fit indices were evaluated. The scale has a structure with three sub-dimensions: “restoration,” “cooperation,” and “healing.” The findings showed that the scale generally has an acceptable level of validity and reliability; however, the healing sub-dimension exhibited lower internal consistency compared to the other sub-dimensions. Cultural factors may influence the evaluation of this dimension. Teachers’ restorative justice beliefs did not show significant differences in terms of gender, seniority and level of education. This finding indicates that the concept of restorative justice is adopted regardless of demographic factors. The study’s findings suggest that further research is necessary to integrate restorative justice into the education system in Turkey.