Courses Offered

 

Registration for program courses is available through Bear Tracks – register at least two weeks prior to the course start date.

These courses are also available to students who are not enrolled in the MACE program:

  • Graduate-level students across the University of Alberta may register in our courses if space is available.
  • If you are not currently registered in another program at the University of Alberta, it is possible to take courses as an Open Studies student or through the Western Deans' Agreement. 

Core Courses

MACE 501: The Practice of Community-Engaged Scholarship

An introduction to the conceptual foundations of the practice of community - engaged research and evaluation, with application across diverse disciplines, forms of engagement (e.g., health care, community development) and community contexts (e.g., government, Indigenous). Students will examine models, processes and practices of community engagement that incorporate principles of equity, diversity, inclusion, and decolonization.

MACE 502: Theoretical Foundations of the Scholarship of Engagement

An examination of theoretical foundations (e.g., Marxism, post/anti-colonialism, feminism) that have shaped the study and practice of community engagement. Students will explore this through a broad spectrum of disciplines and themes.

MACE 503: Methods of Community-Based Research

An introduction to research that broadly includes quantitative, qualitative, Indigenous methods and mixed methods. Research design, formulating community partnerships, formulating research questions, selecting appropriate methods, sampling, data analysis and knowledge mobilization will be included. This course is designed as a seminar — while some classes will be structured, the intent is for participants to learn from each other’s experiences and research examples.

MACE 552: Evaluation in the Community Context

Introduction to the basics of evaluation, including the foundations, approaches, steps, strategies, and ethical considerations of evaluation, with an application across diverse disciplines, sectors and community contexts (e.g., health care, community development, government, Indigenous, not-for-profit). During a week-long intensive course, graduate students will work together with undergraduate students and community stakeholders to develop evaluative responses to community-informed case studies (project-based curricula).

MACE 560: Thesis-based Community Engagement Practicum

Students will gain practical, hands-on experience by contributing to a community-based project that draws on multiple facets of community engagement scholarship. The community experience will be supported by a seminar that explores critical, ethical, decolonizing and reflective approaches to the everyday practice of community engagement.

MACE 599: Course-based Capstone Project

This required capstone course for MACE course-based students involves two 3-credit components: a) completion of three modules; b) practicum/placement with a public, private or non-profit sector agency and completion of agreed upon deliverables.

 

FEATURED ELECTIVES:

MACE 551: Engagement and Public Policy (offered every second year)

An important theme of the course will explore the degree to which citizen engagement contributes to policy and governance adaptation, particularly in response to calls for governance innovations in the face of complex and persistent policy challenges (for instance, as it relates to sustainability or social justice).

MACE 550: Principles of Qualitative Inquiry

This course will be an introduction to qualitative inquiry. The goal of the course is to introduce students to main methods in qualitative inquiry, data collection strategies, qualitative data analysis, rigor, ethics, proposal preparation, and knowledge translation.

MACE 597 (online):Community Engagement, Health and Development

This course uses an ecological framework to explore three major theoretical and also very practice-focused concepts: community engagement, health and development. In the course we examine and critically assess their interconnectedness but also the disconnections and separateness of each. Key areas we examine in this critical analysis are:

  • Community engagement as a model for health
  • Citizenship and social citizenship
  • Civic engagement
  • Social development in a global context

Inquiry-based teaching is used as a teaching and learning method.

MACE 597: Indigenous Arts-Based Research and Practice

This course is an exploration of the relationship between art, research, Indigenous knowledge, and the self. Arts-based research exists as a creative, critical and community practice of social inquiry. Using the circle process, seminars, and creative thinking, students will develop critical thinking skills, interpret visual narrative, and build capacity for aesthetic approaches to research. Focusing on Indigenous paradigms and Indigenous creative processes and practices, students will develop new insights and understandings of arts-based inquiry and practice.

MACE 597: Engaging Communities in Social Entrepreneurship

Social entrepreneurship typically attempts to further broad social, cultural, and environmental goals often associated with the voluntary sector in areas such as poverty alleviation, health care and community development.

MACE 598: Independent or Directed Study

In collaboration with a faculty member, the student will propose a course of study to be undertaken.