Christian Educator Certificates

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 sometimes 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 two kinds of leadership, positional leadership, and contributory leadership, and two kinds of leadership practices, algorithmic leadership practices, and heuristic leadership practices. Positional leadership is the kind of leadership that comes with a particular, recognized position in a group, and contributory leadership is the kind of leadership that you can contribute regardless of your position in a group. Algorithmic leadership practices are those leadership practices for which there are clear, commonly agreed-upon procedures and goals, and heuristic leadership practices are those leadership practices for which there are not (or not yet) clear, commonly agreed-upon procedures and goals and that demand imaginative discernment. We will attend to leadership with regard to both making beneficial change happen and ensuring needed maintenance.

This 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.

This 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. 

This is a course for new and aspiring school administrators. The course provides frameworks and tools for leadership in making the connections between the vision of a school, the budgeting process, and fundraising. 

The course starts with an introduction to Henri Nouwen’s spirituality of fundraising. It continues with an introduction to the basic financial documents that a principal should be able to read and to other documents relevant to schools. It explores the art of communicating the story told by school budgets as a necessary element of fundraising. It concludes with the processes necessary to gain competency in working with school boards and staff (with an emphasis on financial and advancement staff) on the financial aspects of school management. 

This is a course for new and aspiring principals, school leadership teams, and school boards. The course provides frameworks and tools for leadership in educational governance. 

The course introduces participants to the work of nurturing the relationships among the school’s stakeholders, with a focus on the pivotal relationship between the board and the executive leadership team (or, in smaller schools, the principal). Different approaches to the work of the board are considered, with particular attention to the stewardship of the school’s vision, mission, and values, to the strategic formulation of policy and the monitoring of executive performance, and to accountability to the school’s parents and supporting community.

This is a course for instructional leaders and school administrators in consideration of both school and classroom cultures. Course content will include attention to social and cultural contexts, racial justice, indigenous perspectives, human sexuality, and 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?

This is a course that will inspire and support K-12 educators in their own personal journey of learning. Participants will consider a deeply Christian vision for their lives as educators and reflect on teaching practices in light of faith and spiritual practices. It is intended to guide educators on an inner journey as they pursue a path of refreshment and renewal in their work within Christian education.

• This course seeks to answer the following questions:

• What is my calling as an educator?

• How should I intentionally live out my calling to teach?

This is a course for instructional leaders. It explores learning as a journey from wonder to inquiry to action. This course seeks to help Christian educators develop Deeper Learning within the context of:  

1. Celebrating the learner - What does it mean to be created in God’s image? 

2. A mindfulness towards learning design - How do curriculum, instruction, and assessment inspire us to live out our lives as Kingdom Ambassadors who are intentional about character formation and loving our neighbours?  

3. A responsiveness to culture - How do we embody our mission in every aspect of school life and live it out in God’s world?

This is a course for instructional leaders as they consider their roles as Christian educators called to be transformers of society and culture. 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 as we consider Christian practices within our teaching. 

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: How do Christian practices inform our teaching? 

This is a course for instructional leaders and school administrators in consideration of both school and classroom cultures. Course content will include attention to social and cultural contexts, racial justice, indigenous perspectives, human sexuality, and 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?

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 sometimes 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 two kinds of leadership, positional leadership, and contributory leadership, and two kinds of leadership practices, algorithmic leadership practices, and heuristic leadership practices. Positional leadership is the kind of leadership that comes with a particular, recognized position in a group, and contributory leadership is the kind of leadership that you can contribute regardless of your position in a group. Algorithmic leadership practices are those leadership practices for which there are clear, commonly agreed-upon procedures and goals, and heuristic leadership practices are those leadership practices for which there are not (or not yet) clear, commonly agreed-upon procedures and goals and that demand imaginative discernment. We will attend to leadership with regard to both making beneficial change happen and ensuring needed maintenance.