Enrique Dussel and the Philosophy and Ethics of Liberation

Dubbed the “Hegel of Coyoacán,” referring to the Nahuatl name for a neighborhood in Mexico City, Enrique Dussel (1934-2023) produced an impressive body of work in dialogue with a wide range of philosophical, theological, and other voices across history and geography. Thinking from the context of Latin America, Dussel grounds his philosophy and ethics in the materiality of human beings, specifically those who are excluded from the world system of capitalist globalization, modernity, and Eurocentric epistemology. Critically engaging traditions from phenomenology and Critical Theory to pragmatism and communitarianism, Dussel consistently identifies how European and Anglophone philosophy, even in its progressive and radical voices, routinely fail to account for colonialism as a distinct, world-defining process, holding back their ability to authentically understand or philosophize about the realities of people outside their geographical contexts, the majority of the global population. For Dussel, philosophy must contribute to the liberation of oppressed people, dismantling systems of domination and contributing to material alternatives. This course explores two foundational texts in Dussel’s oeuvre, Philosophy of Liberation, published in 1977 shortly after his exile from Argentina to Mexico, and Ethics of Liberation, his magnum opus, both of which provide opportunities to also critically examine other philosophers including Karl Marx, Rosa Luxemburg, Charles Taylor, Emmanuel Levinas, Alisdair MacIntyre, and more.

Dr. Dean Dettloff
122904/222904
Online Intensive
Dates TBA
Mondays and Wednesdays; 7-9pm ET
(MA-PhD, MWS)

Syllabus

To register for this course, email academic-registrar@icscanada.edu. (Note that the first class for this course takes place on -). Maximum enrolment of twelve (12) students. ICS reserves the right to decline registrations.

Lead From Where You Are: Making a Difference in the Face of Tough Problems, Big Questions, and Organizational Politics

Leadership is not about personality, authority, position, influence, or power as such. Leadership is an art, a craft, a practice, to which everyone is called sometime or other, in widely different situations. Leadership can be practiced with varying degrees of authority, from any position, at varying scales of influence, and with varying access to different sources of power. Leadership is the work of motivating a group of people to act in certain ways as they shape what they share. 

In this course we will explore how to contribute leadership when we have a particular, recognized position of authority in a group, and also regardless of our position in a group. We will learn how to contribute leadership when our group has clear, commonly agreed-upon procedures and goals, and when there are not (or not yet) clear, commonly agreed-upon procedures and goals (so that we must practice imaginative discernment). We will learn how to contribute leadership both to make beneficial change happen and to ensure needed maintenance.

Dr. Gideon Strauss

132504 / 260003 S26*

Blended (Online Asynchronous/Synchronous)

(MWS, MA-EL)

Dates/Time

Thursday, April 23, 2026, 6:30 - 9:30 pm ET

Thursday, May 7, 2026, 6:30 - 9:30 pm ET

Thursday, May 28, 2026, 6:30 - 9:30 pm ET

Tuesday, August 11, 2026, 1 - 4 pm ET

Wednesday, August 12, 2026, 1 - 4 pm ET

Thursday, August 13, 2026, 1 - 4 pm ET

Syllabus

Required Books

1. Crouch, A. Strong and Weak: Embracing a Life of Love, Risk & True Flourishing.

2. Heifetz, R.A., Grashow, A. & Linsky, M. The Practice of Adaptive Leadership: Tools and Tactics for Changing Your Organization and the World. 

3. Lencioni, P. The Advantage: Why Organizational Health Trumps Everything Else in Business. 

4. Williams, D. Real Leadership: Helping People and Organizations Face Their Toughest Challenges.

Enrolment Notes:

To register for this course, email academic-registrar@icscanada.edu. Last date to register April 17, 2026. Maximum enrolment of twelve (12) students. ICS reserves the right to decline registrations.

*NOTE: Approved for Area 2 or 4 of the CSTC

What's Christian About Christian Education?: Reformational Philosophy

This course will offer you an opportunity to reflect about what it means to teach or educate “Christianly.” It will situate a Reformational understanding of Christian education within two distinct types of “context”: first, the “spirits of the age” that are at work influencing our shared modern, Canadian society; and second, the local context of the school you work at. The ‘spiritual’ context will help us see Christian education as an alternative, not simply to “secular” education, but to other patterns of spiritual formation, like consumerist education or workaholic education. The ‘local’ context will then allow us to discuss how Christian education can be ‘put to work’ in your day-to-day activities as a teacher or administrator. The goal is to give you time, space, and resources to develop a clearer understanding of how faith impacts education in general, and how your faith shapes what you do as an educator more specifically.

Dr. Neal DeRoo

1107AC / 2107AC S26

Remote (Online Synchronous/Asynchronous)

(MWS, MA-EL)

Dates/Time

Thursday, April 23, 2026, 6:15 - 9:15 pm ET

Thursday, May 7, 2026, 6:15 - 9:15 pm ET

Thursday, May 28, 2026, 6:15 - 9:15 pm ET

Tuesday, August 11, 2026, 1 - 4 pm ET

Wednesday, August 12, 2026, 1 - 4 pm ET

Thursday, August 13, 2026, 1 - 4 pm ET

Syllabus

Enrolment Notes:

To register for this course, email academic-registrar@icscanada.edu. Last date to register April 17, 2026. Maximum enrolment of twelve (12) students. ICS reserves the right to decline registrations.

*NOTE: Approved for Area 2 of the CSTC

Called to Teach: Formation and Learning

Called to Teach is designed to inspire and support K-12 educators in their personal and professional journey of teaching and learning. Through this course, participants will explore their vocation as educators, reflecting on their teaching practice in the context of faith and spiritual disciplines. This inner journey invites educators to seek refreshment and renewal in their work while considering the formation and learning of their students.

The course aims to address these key questions:

• What is my calling as an educator?
• How can I intentionally live out my calling in teaching and leadership?

Dr. Edith van der Boom

260001 S26*

Blended (Online Asynchronous/Synchronous)

(MWS, MA-EL)

Dates/Time

Thursday, April 23, 2026, 6:15 - 9:15 pm ET

Thursday, May 7, 2026, 6:15 - 9:15 pm ET

Thursday, May 28, 2026, 6:15 - 9:15 pm ET

Tuesday, August 4, 2026, 1 - 4 pm ET

Wednesday, August 5, 2026, 1 - 4 pm ET

Thursday, August 6, 2026, 1 - 4 pm ET

Syllabus

Required Books

1. Palmer, P. J. (2017). The courage to teach: Exploring the inner landscape of a teacher’s life. Jossey-            Bass

2. Smith, D. I. & Felch, S. M. (2016). Teaching and Christian imagination. Eerdmans.

Enrolment Notes:

To register for this course, email academic-registrar@icscanada.edu. Last date to register April 17, 2026. Maximum enrolment of twelve (12) students. ICS reserves the right to decline registrations.

*NOTE: Approved for Area 4 of the CSTC

Christian Deeper Learning: From Wonder to Inquiry to Practise

Christian Deeper Learning: From Wonder to Inquiry to Practise is a course that seeks to help Christian educators develop their understanding and application of deeper learning. We will consider what it means to be image-bearers of God called to care for our neighbours and to be engaged in real work that is part of God’s story. Considering these ideas will inform classroom practices and signature pedagogies in apparent, unintended, and even transformative ways. Together we will examine the importance of global citizenship as a form of Christian Deeper Learning and the impact it has on developing a caring and just world.

Dr. Edith van der Boom

260004 S26*

Blended (Online Asynchronous/Synchronous)

Thursdays July 16- Aug 13, 12-3pm ET

(MA-EL, MWS)

Syllabus

Required Books:

1. Crouch, A. (2008). Culture Making: Recovering our Creative Calling. InterVarsity Press.

Google Books sells it as an eBook

Students can buy the book directly through the publisher, InterVarsity Press.

Barnes and Noble also sells the book.

Enrolment Notes:

To register for this course, email academic-registrar@icscanada.edu. (Note that the first class for this course takes place on - ). Maximum enrolment of twelve (12) students. ICS reserves the right to decline registrations.

*NOTE: Approved for Area 3 of the CSTC

Nietzsche, Foucault, and the Genealogical Approach to the History of Philosophy

This seminar examines that philosophical approach to the history of philosophy that travels under the name of “genealogy”.  It does so in terms of selected texts of the tradition’s to major figures: its founder, Friederich Nietzsche and the presently ubiquitous Michel Foucault. It examines the role that genealogical study of the history of philosophy has in the philosophical construction of its practitioners and what they think is truly first and deepest in the history they so study.

Dr. Bob Sweetman
ICS 120406 / 220406 W26
ICH5710*
Remote (Online Synchronous)
Thursdays, 10am - 1pm

(MA, PhD)

Syllabus

Required Texts:

1. Friedrich Nietzsche, The Genealogy of Morals (any edition will do)

2. Paul Rabinow ed., The Foucault Reader (New York, Pantheon, 1984)

*Attention TST students: you have to contact the ICS Registrar to complete your registration. 

How to Coach A Strong Team: Leading People, Building Institutional Capacity, and Securing Accountability

How to Coach A Strong Team is a course for current and aspiring school administrators who want to cultivate their people skills. The course will focus on the competencies involved in having crucial conversations and coaching colleagues for professional development purposes, while also providing opportunities for learning about the competencies relevant to talent acquisition and employment termination. The backbone of the course will be a series of meditations (in the Reformational philosophical tradition) on being human: imaging God in the world.

How to Coach A Strong Team is a remote learning course consisting of six synchronous sessions including three school visits and a debriefing session with an expert practitioner, thirteen weeks of asynchronous online interaction, and the writing of a playbook by each student taking the course for credit. All of the synchronous sessions will be by means of online video, with the possible exception of one of the school visits. The exception may include an on-site, in-person option as part of a hybrid package, depending on circumstances. Team auditors will have access to five of the six synchronous sessions (including the school visits and the expert practitioner debriefing) and a team audit study guide for reading and talking through the course materials in their team contexts.

Dr. Gideon Strauss

ICSD 260005 W26

Blended (Online Asynchronous/Synchronous)

Thursdays

(MA-EL)

Syllabus

Required Books

Kaye, B., & Giulioni, J. W. (2019). Help Them Grow Or Watch Them Go: Career Conversations Organizations Need and Employees Want (2nd ed.). Berrett-Koehler Publishers.

Grenny, J., Patterson, K., McMillan, R., Switzler, A., & Gregory, E. (2022). Crucial conversations (3rd ed.). McGraw Hill.

Levy, S., & Cook, J. (2021). Beautiful Work notecatcher [Unpublished manuscript].

Stanier, M. B. (2016). The coaching habit: Say less, ask more & change the way you lead forever. Box of Crayons Press.

*One further required book (Seerveld, C. (1988). On Being Human: Imaging God in a Modern World. Welch Publishing Co.) will be mailed from the ICS library due to limited availability*

Enrolment Notes:

To register for this course, email academic-registrar@icscanada.edu. Last date to register January 2, 2026. Maximum enrolment of nine (9) students. ICS reserves the right to decline registrations.

Transformative Teaching: The Practice of Christ-Centred Education

Transformative Teaching is a course for instructional leaders as they consider their roles as Christian educators called to be transformers of society and culture by seeking justice for those who are marginalized and disenfranchised. In this course we will consider constructivism (a dominant educational theory in the twenty-first century that informs student-centred pedagogies such as Project Based Learning) through the lens of Scripture and investigate the assumptions that it makes. We will explore our calling as Christian educators to transform culture in our schools, local community, and the world.

This course seeks to help Christian educators find clarity in answers to the following questions: 

• Context: Who am I called to be as a Christian educator in my particular place and time?

• Constructivism: How does constructivism inform my practice?

• Culture: What role does education play in creating culture?

Dr. Edith van der Boom

ICSD 260006 W26*

Blended (Online Asynchronous/Synchronous)

Thursdays

(MA-EL)

Syllabus

Required Books

• Palmer, P. J. (1993). To know as we are known: Education as a spiritual journey.

HarperOne. 

Amazon CA, Barnes & Noble.

• Smith, D. I. (2025). Everyday Christian Teaching: A Guide to Practicing Faith in the Classroom. Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.

  
  

  Amazon CA, Barnes & Noble.

Enrolment Notes:

To register for this course, email academic-registrar@icscanada.edu. Last date to register January 2, 2026. Maximum enrolment of twelve (12) students. ICS reserves the right to decline registrations.

*Approved for Area 2 of the CSTC

Pragmatism, Race, and Religion

Pragmatism is a philosophical tradition born in the United States and now influential worldwide. At its core, it is a way of thinking about the human condition between past and future: we inherit the traditions that shape us, yet remain open to creative and hopeful new possibilities. This course examines how Pragmatism has interacted with—and been shaped by—the religious traditions that form part of its cultural context.

Students will explore questions such as:

• How do the passions and moral commitments of Pragmatism connect with religious concerns?
• How does the pragmatic claim that ideas are measured by their practical consequences relate to religious belief, moral life, and community?
• How does Pragmatism’s suspicion of traditional “supernaturalist” theology influence how we think about God, religion, and human responsibility?
• What have pragmatists proposed as faithful and responsible ways for religious communities to live within a democratic society?

A central focus of the course will be the question of race. We will study how the Black experience in America has shaped the evolution of Pragmatist thought, especially through the tragic, absurdist, and hopeful tones of the Blues. The course will explore how Black Pragmatists both affirm and challenge the melioristic hope often associated with American Pragmatism.

By the end of the course, students will be able to:

• Analyze key texts from major Pragmatist thinkers—both White and Black—and explain their views on religion and democratic life;
• Explain how race has influenced the development of Pragmatism as a philosophical tradition;
• Evaluate the strengths and limitations of Pragmatism for understanding religious belief and practice;
• Reflect critically on the relationship between White and Black Christianity in America;
• Discuss how Pragmatism sheds light on issues such as colonialism, White supremacy, and identity in pluralistic democracies.

Ultimately, this course invites students to consider how Pragmatism can help us navigate divided societies, imagine more just futures, and attend to the stories that shape human communities.

Dr. Ron Kuipers
ICS 120501 / 220501 W26

ICT3771/ICT6771*

Online Synchronous
Thursdays, 2pm - 5pm ET

(MWS, MA, PhD)

Syllabus

Required Books

1. Dewey, John. 1934. A Common Faith. New Haven: Yale University Press (120 pages). Students are required to purchase a copy of this book for the course. Please note that online copies do exist for free, including this one. For students who wish to buy a print or eBook copy, Amazon CA sells the paperback for $30 CAD, or the Kindle edition for $13 CAD. Indigo also sells the paperback for $25.

2. Du Bois, W.E.B. 2017. The Souls of Black Folk, with The Talented Tenth” and “The Souls of White Folk.” New York: Penguin. (272 pages). Students must purchase a copy of this text. Please note it is widely available online, including on the Internet Archive and Project Gutenberg. Students will also readily find used paperback copies of this text at bookshops.

For students wishing to purchase copies, Indigo sells several different editions, including the 2008 paperback for $15 CAD. Amazon CA sells both Kindle and paperback; the paperback edition is $10 CAD. Students will also readily find used paperback copies of this text at bookshops.

3. James, William. 1956. The Will to Believe: Human Immortality and Other Essays in Popular Philosophy. New York: Dover. (70 pages). Students must purchase a copy of this text. Please note it is widely available online, including at the Internet Archive or Project Gutenberg. Amazon CA sells the print edition for $14 CAD. Indigo sells the print edition for $16 CAD. Both Amazon and Indigo sell eBook versions as well.

Enrolment Notes:

To register for this course, email academic-registrar@icscanada.edu. Last date to register January 9, 2026. Maximum enrolment of nine (9) students. ICS reserves the right to decline registrations.

*Attention TST students: you have to contact the ICS Registrar to complete your registration.