Deeper Learning: From Wonder to Inquiry to Practice

Deeper Learning: From Wonder to Inquiry to Practice is a course which seeks to help Christian educators develop 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. Our consideration of 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 deeper learning and the impact it has on developing a caring and just world.

Dr. Edith van der Boom

260004 W27*

Blended (Online Asynchronous/Synchronous)

(MA-EL)

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. Last date to register is January 4. Maximum enrolment of twelve (12) students. ICS reserves the right to decline registrations.

*NOTE: Approved for Area 3 of the CSTC

The Craft of Reflective Practice

We humans make sense of things by telling stories. In this course we will learn how to do critical reflective practice, primarily by telling stories about our everyday professional lives. We will zoom in on the story of an ordinary day at work, and then zoom out to the story of our career to date, zoom out further to the story of our work community, and zoom out even further to the overarching story of God’s world. In the process we will learn qualitative research skills, receive an introduction to phenomenology (the philosophical study of lived experience), develop our own approach to praxis (that is, the craft of morally-oriented, theoretically-informed, and theory-generating critically reflective practice), and, most significantly, come to terms with who we are in what we do.

Dr. Gideon Strauss

132501 / 232501 F26*
Blended (Online Asynchronous/Synchronous)

(MA-EL)

Syllabus

Required Books:

Britzman, D. P. (2003). Practice makes practice: A critical study of learning to teach

Amazon CA (print), Thriftbooks, Abebooks

*students should order a copy as soon as possible, because this book is only available in used format, and shipping may take a long time, so they'll need to make sure they have the book arrive in time before the course starts in the second week of September.* 

Enrolment Notes:
To register for this course, email academic-registrar@icscanada.edu. Last date to register is September 8 (Note that the first session for this course takes place on September 10). Maximum enrolment of twelve (12) students. ICS reserves the right to decline registrations.


*Approved for Area 2 of the CSTC

Cultivating Learning Communities of Belonging

This is a course for instructional leaders and administrators considering school and classroom cultures. Course content will include attention to social and cultural contexts, racial justice, Indigenous perspectives, human sexuality, restorative practices, and how these topics impact and form school and classroom cultures.

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

• What is the relationship between the daily behaviour of educational leaders and the cultures of schools?
• How do we awaken our students’ knowledge, creativity, and critical reflective capacities in our schools and classrooms?
• How do racism and other forms of oppression underlie achievement gaps and alienation within our schools?
• How can classroom learning be linked to larger movements seeking to effect change in the community?
• How can school culture be a vehicle for social change?
• How do we cultivate learning communities of belonging in our schools?

Dr. Edith van der Boom
260008 F26*
Blended (Online Asynchronous/Synchronous)

(MA-EL)

Syllabus

Required Books:

Freire, P. (2018). Pedagogy of the oppressed: Fiftieth anniversary edition. Bloomsbury Academic. (Note: Any edition of this book is acceptable for use in this course.)

Smith, D. I. (2018). On Christian teaching: Practicing faith in the classroom. William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company.

Enrolment Notes:
To register for this course, email academic-registrar@icscanada.edu. Last date to register is September 8 (Note that the first class for this course takes place on September 10).  Maximum enrolment of twelve (12) students. ICS reserves the right to decline registrations.


*Approved for Area 2 or 3 of the CSTC

Biblical Foundations: Narrative, Wisdom, and the Art of Interpretation

How can we read and experience the Scriptures as the Word of Life in the midst of an Academy that believes the biblical witness will restrict human freedom and thwart our maturity? How may we pursue biblical wisdom as we “re-think the world” when our Christian traditions seem convinced that biblical truth may be disconnected from—or simply applied to—the most pressing and perplexing issues of our time?

This course will explore the Bible—from Genesis to Revelation—as the ongoing story of and for God and all God’s creatures, paying special attention to the way in which humanity’s attempt to find its way is interwoven with the story of the Divine presence and with the wisdom and promise of creation-new creation. In asking whether and how the biblical story may find its future in our ongoing narratives, we will attempt to identify which hermeneutical methods and sensitivities might help us discern its significance for present day life, including the academic enterprise. If Jesus is the Living Word at the heart of Scripture, does that change our understanding of where biblical truth is coming from and where it is going? Does the Bible have an implicit, sapiential pedagogy that we have misconstrued? Can the familiar Reformed themes of creation and covenant, election and eschaton speak to us in new, reformational ways? These are some of the questions we shall explore together as we reintroduce ourselves to the biblical writings.

1108AC / 2108AC F26 **

ICB2010H L6201*

Online Synchronous

Wednesdays, 6:00-9:00pm ET

(MWS, MA, MA-EL, PhD)

Syllabus

Enrolment Notes:

To register for this course, email academic-registrar@icscanada.edu. Last date to register is September 11. ICS reserves the right to decline registrations.

*Attention TST students: if you are interested in taking this course for credit, you must petition your college of registration to count the course credit toward your degree program. 

**NOTE: Approved for Area 1 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 21, 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

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 21, 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

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)

Tuesdays July 14 - Aug 4 + Monday Aug 10, 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

Called to Teach: Formation and Learning - CANCELLED April 1st

CANCELLED

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 21, 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

CANCELLED

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

Cultivating Learning Communities of Belonging

This is a course for instructional leaders and administrators considering school and classroom cultures. Course content will include attention to social and cultural contexts, racial justice, Indigenous perspectives, human sexuality, restorative practices, and how these topics impact and form school and classroom cultures.

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

• What is the relationship between the daily behaviour of educational leaders and the cultures of schools?
• How do we awaken our students’ knowledge, creativity, and critical reflective capacities in our schools and classrooms?
• How do racism and other forms of oppression underlie achievement gaps and alienation within our schools?
• How can classroom learning be linked to larger movements seeking to effect change in the community?
• How can school culture be a vehicle for social change?
• How do we cultivate learning communities of belonging in our schools?

Dr. Edith van der Boom
ICSD 260008 F25*
Blended (Online Asynchronous/Synchronous)

(MA-EL)


Syllabus

Required Books:

Freire, P. (2018). Pedagogy of the oppressed: Fiftieth anniversary edition. Bloomsbury Academic. (Note: Any edition of this book is acceptable for use in this course.)

Smith, D. I. (2018). On Christian teaching: Practicing faith in the classroom. William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company.

Enrolment Notes:
To register for this course, email academic-registrar@icscanada.edu. Last date to register is September 5 (Note that the first class for this course takes place on September 11).  Maximum enrolment of twelve (12) students. ICS reserves the right to decline registrations.


*Approved for Area 2 or 3 of the CSTC

Biblical Foundations: Narrative, Wisdom, and the Art of Interpretation

How can we read and experience the Scriptures as the Word of Life in the midst of an Academy that believes the biblical witness will restrict human freedom and thwart our maturity? How may we pursue biblical wisdom as we “re-think the world” when our Christian traditions seem convinced that biblical truth may be disconnected from—or simply applied to—the most pressing and perplexing issues of our time?

This course will explore the Bible—from Genesis to Revelation—as the ongoing story of and for God and all God’s creatures, paying special attention to the way in which humanity’s attempt to find its way is interwoven with the story of the Divine presence and with the wisdom and promise of creation-new creation. In asking whether and how the biblical story may find its future in our ongoing narratives, we will attempt to identify which hermeneutical methods and sensitivities might help us discern its significance for present day life, including the academic enterprise. If Jesus is the Living Word at the heart of Scripture, does that change our understanding of where biblical truth is coming from and where it is going? Does the Bible have an implicit, sapiential pedagogy that we have misconstrued? Can the familiar Reformed themes of creation and covenant, election and eschaton speak to us in new, reformational ways? These are some of the questions we shall explore together as we reintroduce ourselves to the biblical writings.

Dr. Nik Ansell

ICS 1108AC / 2108AC F25 **

ICB2010H L6201*

Online Synchronous

Wednesdays, 6:00-9:00pm ET

(MWS, MA, MA-EL, PhD)

Syllabus

Enrolment Notes:

To register for this course, email academic-registrar@icscanada.edu. Last date to register is September 12. ICS reserves the right to decline registrations.

*Attention TST students: if you are interested in taking this course for credit, you must petition your college of registration to count the course credit toward your degree program. 

**NOTE: Approved for Area 1 of the CSTC.

The Craft of Reflective Practice

We humans make sense of things by telling stories. In this course we will learn how to do critical reflective practice, primarily by telling stories about our everyday professional lives. We will zoom in on the story of an ordinary day at work, and then zoom out to the story of our career to date, zoom out further to the story of our work community, and zoom out even further to the overarching story of God’s world. In the process we will learn qualitative research skills, receive an introduction to phenomenology (the philosophical study of lived experience), develop our own approach to praxis (that is, the craft of morally-oriented, theoretically-informed, and theory-generating critically reflective practice), and, most significantly, come to terms with who we are in what we do.

Dr. Gideon Strauss

ICS 132501 / 232501 F25*
Blended (Online Asynchronous/Synchronous)

(MA-EL)

Syllabus

Required Books:

Britzman, D. P. (2003). Practice makes practice: A critical study of learning to teach

Amazon CA (print), Thriftbooks, Abebooks

*students should order a copy as soon as possible, because this book is only available in used format, and shipping may take a long time, so they'll need to make sure they have the book arrive in time before the course starts in the second week of September.* 

Enrolment Notes:
To register for this course, email academic-registrar@icscanada.edu. Last date to register is September 5 (Note that the first session for this course takes place on September 11). Maximum enrolment of twelve (12) students. ICS reserves the right to decline registrations.


*Approved for Area 2 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

ICSD 260004 S25*

Blended (Online Asynchronous/Synchronous)

(MA-EL)

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 or complete a Google Form. (Note that the first class for this course takes place on July 14). Maximum enrolment of twelve (12) students. ICS reserves the right to decline registrations.

*NOTE: Approved for Area 3 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

ICS 1107AC / 2107AC S25

Remote (Online Synchronous)

Dates/Time TBA

(MWS, MA, PhD)

Syllabus

Enrolment Notes:

To register for this course, email academic-registrar@icscanada.edu. Last date to register April 18, 2025. 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

ICSD 260001 S25*

Blended (Online Asynchronous/Synchronous)

(MA-EL)

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 18, 2025. Maximum enrolment of twelve (12) students. ICS reserves the right to decline registrations.

*NOTE: Approved for Area 4 of the CSTC

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

ICSD 132504 / 260003 S25*

Blended (Online Asynchronous/Synchronous)

(MWS, MA-EL)

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 18, 2025. Maximum enrolment of twelve (12) students. ICS reserves the right to decline registrations.

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