Previous Years' Course Catalogues

The media and youth culture are an integral part of the emergent meanings and developing values of young people. Media and their messages challenge and support, as well as threaten and undermine the spiritual, moral, and faith journey of youth. The course explores the complex world of late childhood and adolescence. It seeks to develop, with the participants, practical responses for youth ministers and religious educators that engage the media of popular culture, take seriously young people's questions and dreams, and draw on the power and wisdom of the Scriptures and Church tradition. The course will consist of lectures, seminar presentations, group assignments and a final paper or project.

This course introduces the student to the Psalms in the history of interpretation. It begins with a description of modern critical reading of the Psalms, including ‘canonical reading’, and then examines in weekly seminars the older history of interpretation, including the School of Antioch, Augustine, Aquinas, Rashi, Luther, Calvin and othe

Ecclesiology embraces the study of the story, nature, self-understanding, hopes, achievements and failings of the church. This class will explore the Inter-relation between ecclesiology, ethics, and community In recent times and our current age. It will focus primarily, but not exclusively on the Roman Catholic Church, although it will examine issues of wider ecclesial relevance, as well.

This course explores not only Orthodox (both Byzantine and non-Chalcedonian) understandings of the Church but also the singular perspectives and experience of the Eastern Catholic Churches whose very nature as “Uniate” bodies poses questions of ecumenical and ecclesiological import. Special attention will be paid to controverted issues of conciliar and papal authority and primacy, the rise of synodality in the Catholic world, and the problematic relationship between nationalism and ecclesial structures. Sources for the course will run on parallel tracks: official (in a Catholic context: “magisterial”) documents on ecclesiology and ecumenism from both Orthodox and Catholic sources; official documents of bilateral and multilateral regional and international ecumenical dialogues; and published scholarship from academics of these traditions

In recent years, several studies conducted in boards of education, such as Peel Region (Chadha, Herbert, and Richard 2020) and Toronto District (James and Turner 2017), have reaffirmed the existence of racial inequities in Canada's education system. While these inequities exist at primary, secondary and tertiary levels, the vulnerability of the K-12 sector makes it a particularly urgent issue. The studies highlight disparities in student achievement, suspensions, streaming and completion rates among Black students and their white counterparts. Furthermore, the school to jail pipeline is a well documented phenomenon that has far reaching implications for society. Recent events such as the police killings of Black individuals, and the civil rights movements spawned by these horrific events, have served to emphasize the systemic racism present in our institutions, including those mandated for education. Scholars such as Ladson-Billings (1995) and Grant and Sleeter (2011) have mapped the characteristics of successful teachers of Black students. Influenced by the conscientization philosophy of Paulo Freire (1970), three spheres of successful learning experiences converge to ensure this success: believing that students can succeed academically, encouraging cultural competence, and nurturing critical consciousness. Through this course, we will uncover how racism disrupts the humanization process and subsequently assails educational development.

In recent years, several studies conducted in boards of education, such as Peel Region (Chadha, Herbert, and Richard 2020) and Toronto District (James and Turner 2017), have reaffirmed the existence of racial inequities in Canada's education system. While these inequities exist at primary, secondary and tertiary levels, the vulnerability of the K-12 sector makes it a particularly urgent issue. The studies highlight disparities in student achievement, suspensions, streaming and completion rates among Black students and their white counterparts. Furthermore, the school to jail pipeline is a well documented phenomenon that has far reaching implications for society. Recent events such as the police killings of Black individuals, and the civil rights movements spawned by these horrific events, have served to emphasize the systemic racism present in our institutions, including those mandated for education. Scholars such as Ladson-Billings (1995) and Grant and Sleeter (2011) have mapped the characteristics of successful teachers of Black students. Influenced by the conscientization philosophy of Paulo Freire (1970), three spheres of successful learning experiences converge to ensure this success: believing that students can succeed academically, encouraging cultural competence, and nurturing critical consciousness. Through this course, we will uncover how racism disrupts the humanization process and subsequently assails educational development.

The MRE Practicum offers participants the opportunity to reflect upon and integrate the theological, philosophical, historical, and pedagogical areas of study, to practice the knowledge and skills, to profit from a supervised peer-supported group and to relate teaching contextually in a post-modern globalized reality.

The MRE Practicum offers participants the opportunity to reflect upon and integrate the theological, philosophical, historical, and pedagogical areas of study, to practice the knowledge and skills, to profit from a supervised peer-supported group and to relate teaching contextually in a post-modern globalized reality. This is a required core Religious Education course of St. Augustine's MRE candidates. Lectures, class discussions, written reflections on readings, theology of ministry paper, and practicum project. Prerequisite:Completion of ten courses in the MRE degree program.

The MRE Practicum offers participants the opportunity to reflect upon and integrate the theological, philosophical, historical, and pedagogical areas of study, to practice the knowledge and skills, to profit from a supervised peer-supported group and to relate teaching contextually in a post-modern globalized reality.

The MRE Practicum offers participants the opportunity to reflect upon and integrate the theological, philosophical, historical, and pedagogical areas of study, to practice the knowledge and skills, to profit from a supervised peer-supported group and to relate teaching contextually in a post-modern globalized reality.

The MRE Practicum offers participants the opportunity to reflect upon and integrate the theological, philosophical, historical, and pedagogical areas of study, to practice the knowledge and skills, to profit from a supervised peer-supported group and to relate teaching contextually in a post-modern globalized reality. This is a required core Religious Education course of St. Augustine's MRE candidates. Lectures, class discussions, written reflections on readings, theology of ministry paper, and practicum project.

The MRE Practicum offers participants the opportunity to reflect upon and integrate the theological, philosophical, historical, and pedagogical areas of study, to practice the knowledge and skills, to profit from a supervised peer-supported group and to relate teaching contextually in a post-modern globalized reality.