45 Credit Hours of Integral Scholarship
A comprehensive, research-focused curriculum designed around foundation courses, concentration electives, immersive learning, and a capstone research project.
Curriculum Overview
A Program Shaped by Faith, Practice, and Wisdom
The MA (Phil) in Educational Leadership combines ICS's rich history in integrally Christian scholarship with a commitment to inquiry-based learning. This program inspires and equips educators to create innovative, challenging, and just learning environments that contribute to God's ongoing redemptive work in the world.
The curriculum is organized around four commitments. Every course is:
- Biblically informed and focused on the love embodied by Christ
- Deeply contextualized and relevant for educators
- Aligned with one's own professional passion and practice
- Rooted in wisdom and sound methodology
Foundation Courses
The Bedrock of Integral Scholarship
Every MA-EL student begins here. These two courses establish the biblical and philosophical foundations that undergird the entire program.
Become more familiar with the Bible as an ongoing story of God and creation. Increase your ability to think creatively and constructively about the relationship between the biblical text, academic reflection, and contemporary discernment.
Reflect on what it means to teach or educate Christianly. Situate a Reformational understanding of Christian education and develop a clearer understanding of how faith impacts education and how your faith shapes what you do as an educator.
Immersive Courses
Deepen Your Practice
Taken by all MA-EL students regardless of concentration, these courses cultivate reflective practice, vocational clarity, adaptive leadership, and inclusive community.
A course that provides educators with a vocational vision of Christian educational innovation and leadership. It guides educators on an inner journey as they begin cultivating personal competency in critical and constructive reflection on their professional practice.
Provides understanding and practice in how to diagnose and address the toughest problems experienced by organizations. Students will identify the leadership they are able to contribute to addressing these problems from where they are in their organizations.
Engage in how to do critical reflective practice by telling stories about everyday working lives. Learn qualitative research skills, receive an introduction to phenomenology, develop your own approach to praxis, and consider what you want to change in your practice.
Considers diversity, cultural complexity, increasingly blurred markers of origin and ethnicity, racial justice, and restorative practices, and how they impact and form both school and classroom cultures.
Four Concentrations
Specialize in Your Calling
Choose the concentration that aligns with your context. Each path shares the same foundation and immersive courses while allowing you to go deep in your area of passion.
Instructional Leadership
A pedagogical concentration for K–12 teachers in the classroom. Deepen your understanding of teaching practice, curriculum design, and what it means to lead learning in a Christian context.
Helps Christian educators develop deeper learning. Consider what it means to be image-bearers of God called to care for our neighbours and be engaged in real work that is part of God's story. Examine the importance of global citizenship as a form of deeper learning.
Frames holiness, justice, and restoration as the foundations of Christian pedagogy. Examine your posture, the cultural narratives that shape your teaching, and how to integrate faith into classroom life. Learn strategies to align pedagogy with school mission and foster spiritual formation.
School Administration
An organizational concentration for current and prospective school administrators. Develop the capacities to lead Christian school communities with wisdom, justice, and vision.
A course for new and aspiring principals. Provides frameworks and tools for setting directions, building relationships, developing people, developing a school culture and structures to support desired practices, and securing accountability.
Provides frameworks and tools for leadership in making the connections between the vision of a school, the budgeting process, and the cultivation of sources of revenue. Create your own personal playbook for the financing of a school's vision.
Provides frameworks and tools for leadership in governance. Introduces students to the work of nurturing the relationships among the school's stakeholders, with a focus on the pivotal relationship between the board and the principal.
Inclusion
An inclusive practice concentration for teachers and administrators. Learn to cultivate just and welcoming learning communities where every student belongs. Offered in partnership with Calvin University, expanding your scholarly network and community.
Concentration courses are delivered through the ICS–Calvin University partnership. Contact us for the current course rotation and descriptions.
Literacy
A literacy concentration for K–12 teachers. Explore the intersections of reading, writing, language, and faith-informed pedagogy in developing literate learners. Offered in partnership with Calvin University.
Concentration courses are delivered through the ICS–Calvin University partnership. Contact us for the current course rotation and descriptions.
Capstone
Praxis & Project
The culmination of the MA-EL is a sustained piece of original research undertaken under faculty mentorship. The Praxis & Project (the MA-EL equivalent of a thesis) integrates everything you've learned (biblical foundations, philosophical worldview, and concentration expertise) into a significant scholarly contribution to Christian educational thought. It may take a variety of forms: a professional development workshop, a podcast series, a video documentation, a curriculum, an extensive playbook, a conference paper, or a journal article.
After completing most coursework and the Praxis & Project, MA-EL students participate in Celebrating Joyful Learning, the program's capstone course. In this immersive experience, students integrate their learning across the entire program, critically reflect on their development as scholar-practitioners, expand their interdisciplinary understanding of educational leadership in dialogue with peers across both concentrations, and conclude their MA-EL journey in a celebratory manner.
Capstone Details
- 12 credit hours of sustained original research
- Individualized mentoring from ICS faculty throughout
- Flexible project forms including workshops, curricula, articles, podcasts, and more
- Celebrating Joyful Learning capstone course to integrate and celebrate your journey
- Foundational for doctoral study or advanced educational leadership
Course Schedule
When Courses Are Offered
MA-EL courses are delivered on a rotating schedule. Each combines asynchronous online learning with biweekly Zoom sessions.
| Term | Course | Type |
|---|---|---|
| Summer 2026 | What Is Christian About Christian Education? | Foundation |
| Summer 2026 | Called to Teach: From Formation to Transformation | Immersive |
| Summer 2026 | Lead From Where You Are | Immersive |
| Fall 2026 | Biblical Foundations | Foundation |
| Fall 2026 | The Craft of Reflective Practice | Immersive |
| Fall 2026 | Cultivating Learning Communities of Belonging | Immersive |
| Winter 2027 | Christian Deeper Learning / Transformative Teaching: The Practice of Christ-Centred Education (rotating) | Concentration |
| Winter 2027 | Administration courses (rotating) | Concentration |
Concentration courses rotate on a two- or three-year cycle. The Praxis & Project runs concurrently with coursework in the final terms, culminating in the Celebrating Joyful Learning capstone course. See the ICS Course Catalogue for the most current schedule and syllabi.
Program Costs
A Wise Investment in Your Calling
The MA-EL is a community-supported degree. With a $500 bursary available each semester, ICS makes rigorous graduate education accessible for working educators.
Tuition Rate
$1,500
per credit hour
Total Credits
45
credit hours (10 courses + capstone)
Bursary
$500
per semester (as applicable)
Estimated Cost Breakdown
- 10 Term Courses (30 cr. × $500) $15,000
- Praxis & Project Capstone (12 cr. × $500) $6,000
- Subtotal (45 Credit Hours) $21,000
- Bursary ($500/semester) –$5,000
- Estimated Net Total ~$17,280
Community-Supported Bursary
ICS is a community-supported institution. A $500 bursary is available each semester, helping make graduate education accessible for working educators.
All amounts are in Canadian dollars. Tuition and fees are subject to change. Bursary availability is subject to eligibility. The Praxis & Project capstone fees may vary. Contact ICS for the most current fee schedule.
Ready to Go Deeper?
The MA-EL is for educators who want to produce original scholarship that advances how we think about faith, learning, and leadership. Your next step starts here.