About the Practitioner
Kristin is an Adjunct Associate Professor at Monash University in Australia and an Associate Professor in Education (Positive School Communities) at Cape Breton University in Canada. Her work supports teacher candidates to bring a restorative approach to their work the classroom.
Kristin also researches how restorative approaches are used in classroom and school settings and how students feel, engage and respond to the use of restorative practices.
Kristin grew up in her birth country of Canada in a Mennonite community, where the principles of Restorative Practice were just accepted as the way things were done.
The first victim-offender reconciliation meeting occurred in the 1970s near where Kristin was raised, at the suggestion of a Mennonite parole officer. This is seen as the start of Restorative Processes being used in Western justice systems.
Whilst undertaking her studies for her degree in Peace and Conflict Studies, Kristin investigated more thoroughly how Restorative Justice worked and later, during the six years she spent working with a Mennonite organisation in the USA, she used Restorative Justice principles when dealing with youth victims and offenders.
Subsequently, Kristin spent time teaching in North Korea, and it was during this time she became acutely aware that teaching and Restorative Practice were inextricably aligned through their focus on relationships.
Kristin feels both education and Restorative Practice have the power to transform who we are, how we are with one another and how we structure our societies to be just and equitable.
Kristin has spent more than 25 years working in the area of Restorative Justice and Restorative Practice both in Australia and internationally. She is a qualified teacher, has a degree in Peace and Conflict studies and both a Masters and PhD in Restorative Practices in schools.
Organisation
- Academic - lecturer,
- Consultant
- Facilitator
- Mentor coach
- Trainer
- School
- University
- Advocacy
- Coaching
- Community Development/Education
- Consultancy
- Culture change
- Education - University
- Facilitation
- Group based relationship education
- Leadership development
- Policy development
- Program development
- Reflective practice
- Research
- Restorative Circles
- Restorative Conferencing
- Restorative Practice meetings