Driestar Christian University for Teacher Education offers the short course ‘Transforming Society: Education for Justice and Shalom’. In this course we will work on deepening your vision about how Christian education can serve the community, and how you can play a part in this.
The short course is part of the Master’s programme on Christian education. As a participant in the short course you will join the international learning community of Master’s students and Professors. The short course is a blended learning programme.
Course Content
Within an international community of students and expert (guest) lecturers you will extend your theoretical and practical understanding of Christian education. In this course you will work on deepening your vision about how Christian education can serve the community, and how you can play a part in this. We will focus on contemporary and societal challenges related to education, such as inequality, poverty and diversity; and you are encouraged to make this very specific to your own context. All this is done in the light of shalom and justice, as characteristics of God’s Kingdom.
By studying theory and reflection on their own practices, this course helps participants to enrich their practice (or the practices they serve) with insights into the development of organisations and people in Christian Education.
For Dutch participants, this short course is extra interesting because we pay attention to the sustainable development goals and link these to a Biblical perspective.
The course objectives of the short course ‘Transforming Society: Education for Justice and Shalom’ are as follows.
Knowing and understanding
At the end of the course the participants:
Can explain what the Biblical concepts of justice and shalom mean in the light of God’s Kingdom and what they mean for societies today.
Can describe the main characteristics of teachers being agents of social change.
Can describe the main characteristics of global citizenship education.
Can recognize the main demographic, sociological and other trends that impact education worldwide.
Applying
At the end of the course the participants:
Can identify how injustice and the absence of shalom appear in their own cultural context.
Can argue how they value the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in light of Christian education.
Can define the call to fight against exclusivism, inequality and poverty in Christian education.
Can find relevant policy documents and interpret them for their own situation.
Can share their vision about transforming society in Christian education in their local communities.
Prepare to have impact on local leaders (within or outside the school) to put injustice and related problems at the agenda.
Tuition fee: approx. € 2.000,-
The on campus week will incur additional costs. Please contact the International Office for more information.
The course is offered to experienced teachers, principals, school leaders and people who work in educational aid organisations.
Admission requirements:
You require a bachelor’s degree in the field of Education to be admitted to the short course. If you work in education and you have obtained a bachelor's degree in a different field, you can still apply and you can gain access to the programme on the basis of a positive outcome of the admission interview.
You work in education or a related workplace.
All students must prove that they have good writing and conversation skills in English.
The course will be taught by:
Prof. Peter van Olst (the Netherlands)
We offer credits for the course according to the Bologna system (the European Credits Transfer System, ECTS). After completing the short course, you will receive a Driestar Christian University Certificate, indicating that you have completed the 5 ECTS credit course (on average, one credit requires 28 hours of study).
The short course programme consists of regular online meetings on Tuesdays, independent learning tasks, group assignments and online lessons. You should expect 140 hours of study for the short course, spread over the full duration of this course. That means that you will need to spend around 8 hours a week on individual study or online meetings.
This short course is scheduled from 9 February 2026 – 10 July 2026, with the on-campus week of this short course scheduled from 9 February - 13 February 2026.
As soos as enough participants have been accepted to the programme, we will inform you if the course will take place in February 2026! The latest we will inform you about this, is 2 months before the course.
Short courses help to deepen your understanding of themes concerning education improvement from a Christian perspective. These courses will help you look at your own educational practice in a different way. We offer four different short courses: Christian Education: a Practices Approach (semester 1); Developing organisations and people: The intersection of leadership, ethos, and curriculum (semester 2); Religious Education: Formation of Christian Committed Character (semester 3); and Transforming Society: Education for Justice and Shalom (semester 4). For these courses, you will join the modules of the content strand in the Master's Programme. If you pass the module(s), you can get exemptions if you register for the complete Master's Programme at a later time (subject to the conditions).
The courses involve regular online meetings on Tuesdays, independent learning tasks, group assignments, online lessons and one week on-campus seminar in Gouda, The Netherlands. During this on-campus seminar you will have meetings with your fellow students and the Professor(s), and you will have the opportunity to visit schools and, if possible, gain teaching practice in Dutch schools.
