Imagine an Affirmative team being met with a Cooperative team; a Mindful Coordinator chairing the debate; and a Mentor who doesn’t judge, score or rate, yet instead meters out a series of Guidances. Now you have a Collaborative Debate – a debate that may actually get us somewhere beyond the argument, towards the solutions that we are seeking. A debate where the skills that young people are learning are not simply for the sake of learning – they are life skills.

An author and educator, Margaret is a thought leader in peace education and founder of The Gandhi Experiment.

Margaret has been Head of Campus at Preshil School and holds a Master of Educational Studies. Her first novel, Clarity in Time, published in 2012, explores how the protagonist comes to understand that to make a difference in this world, you can no longer remain a passive bystander. Her most recent book, The Gandhi Experiment: Teaching our teenagers how to become global citizens has been endorsed by Rajmohan Gandhi, Gandhi’s grandson. As the creator and author of Collaborative Debating, Margaret has developed a refreshing approach to non-adversarial, solution-focused debating into schools and the corporate world.

Margaret is the recipient of the 2016 Sir John Monash Award for Inspirational Women’s Leadership.