
Mission and Culture of Catholic Education
The Catholic Studies Graduate Program’s Mission and Culture of Catholic Education provides Catholic school educators the principles to develop more mission-driven schools and classrooms.
The Mission and Culture courses will help you:
Advance Excellence in Catholic Education
Apply your knowledge to address the modern challenges of Catholic education and develop concrete strategies for making your classroom and school more mission driven.
Engage the Catholic Tradition
Deepen your knowledge of Catholic approaches to education and learn how to ground your teaching in the unity of knowledge and the complementarity of faith and reason.
Cultivate Community
Build relationships with other area educators and with staff from the Office for the Mission of Catholic Education at the Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis within the rich, supportive learning environment of our blended online courses.
Earn Graduate Credit
Continue your studies by applying the credit you earn in our Two-Course Study or Six-Course Certificate to a Master of Arts in Catholic Studies.
Contact
Shawna Wicker
Free Tuition for Educators of the Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis
Opportunities for Catholic School Educators
Three Ways To Participate


Six-Course Certificate
Mission and Culture Fellows in Catholic Education
This unique program provides on-the-job formation for college graduates who are discerning Catholic education as their vocational call. Paired with the Six-Course Certificate in Mission and Culture of Catholic Education, our Mission and Culture Fellows engage the Catholic Intellectual Tradition, get valuable experience in the Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis, earn a monthly stipend, and receive generous scholarship support for graduate-level courses.
Curriculum Details
Two-Course Study - The Heart of Culture
The heart of any culture, as well as its continuity, can be found in its educational tradition, the distillation for the next generation of its highest ideals and most important truths. For the West this began with the Greeks, who set in place, some five centuries before Christ, the main aspects of a tradition that lasted, with significant developments, up until very recent times.
This course will trace that tradition, using both primary and secondary source material, and will include: its origins in fifth- century BC Greece; its universalization during the Hellenistic period; its encounter with Christianity in the Patristic era; its Christian instantiation under the Carolingian Empire; the great Medieval educational synthesis and the rise of the University; the development of Renaissance humanism and the Ratio Studiorum of the Jesuits; Newman's classic expression of the tradition in The Idea of a University; and the great challenge to that tradition and change that has taken place during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.
This course is an online blended course offered in the summers.
Two-Course Study - Challenges in Catholic PreK-12 Education
This course explores the history, philosophy, and theology of PreK-12 Catholic education in the United States over the past 100 years. The course aims to help students understand the challenges PreK-12 Catholic schools face with respect to their mission and culture. Students will be exposed to the philosophical and theological foundations upon which Catholic schools have been built, the changes within church and society that have affected Catholic PreK-12 education, and the future of Catholic PreK-12 education. Discussions and assignments will focus on creative solutions to mission and culture challenges facing Catholic schools today.
This course is an online blended course offered in the summers.
3 Elective Courses
In addition to the Two-Course Study, certificate students select 3 elective Catholic Studies graduate courses.
Sample courses include:
- Science and Catholicism
- The Catholic Novel
- Virtue
- Nature and Grace in Shakespeare
Capstone Project
Students finish their Graduate Certificate with a Capstone Project in which they take what they have learned and present a plan to implement a project in their school.
Two-Course Study - The Heart of Culture
The heart of any culture, as well as its continuity, can be found in its educational tradition, the distillation for the next generation of its highest ideals and most important truths. For the West this began with the Greeks, who set in place, some five centuries before Christ, the main aspects of a tradition that lasted, with significant developments, up until very recent times.
This course will trace that tradition, using both primary and secondary source material, and will include: its origins in fifth- century BC Greece; its universalization during the Hellenistic period; its encounter with Christianity in the Patristic era; its Christian instantiation under the Carolingian Empire; the great Medieval educational synthesis and the rise of the University; the development of Renaissance humanism and the Ratio Studiorum of the Jesuits; Newman's classic expression of the tradition in The Idea of a University; and the great challenge to that tradition and change that has taken place during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.
This course is an online blended course offered in the summers.
Two-Course Study - Challenges in Catholic PreK-12 Education
This course explores the history, philosophy, and theology of PreK-12 Catholic education in the United States over the past 100 years. The course aims to help students understand the challenges PreK-12 Catholic schools face with respect to their mission and culture. Students will be exposed to the philosophical and theological foundations upon which Catholic schools have been built, the changes within church and society that have affected Catholic PreK-12 education, and the future of Catholic PreK-12 education. Discussions and assignments will focus on creative solutions to mission and culture challenges facing Catholic schools today.
This course is an online blended course offered in the summers.
3 Elective Courses
In addition to the Two-Course Study, certificate students select 3 elective Catholic Studies graduate courses.
Sample courses include:
- Science and Catholicism
- The Catholic Novel
- Virtue
- Nature and Grace in Shakespeare
Capstone Project
Students finish their Graduate Certificate with a Capstone Project in which they take what they have learned and present a plan to implement a project in their school.

Lead + Teach + Live Catholic
Earn a masters-level certificate or full graduate degree in Catholic Studies or at the Saint Paul Seminary and discover the opportunities to LEAD, TEACH and LIVE your Catholic faith in the Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis.
Financial Support for Catholic School Educators in Dioceses Outside of Saint Paul & Minneapolis


The Heart of Culture: The Story of Catholic Education
Course Excerpt
Can understanding Newman help us pursue renewal in educational institutions? Dr. Naughton explains how.