Discipline, Devotion, and Dissent: Jewish, Catholic, and Islamic Schooling in Canada

The Contributors

259 THE CONTRIBUTORS Qaiser Ahmad is a secondary-school Curriculum Leader of Guidance for the Toronto District School Board, and an education consultant for RAZI Group. He holds an Honours Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Toronto, a Post-Graduate Certificate in Education from the Institute of Education, University of London (UK), and a Master of Education in Curriculum, Teaching, and Learning from the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, University of Toronto. Qaiser taught for six years at a private Islamic school in Toronto, considered one of the most well-established Islamic schools in Canada. In addition to teaching there, he was involved in curriculum development and program planning. For over a decade, Qaiser has been conducting workshops and presentations on Muslims and Islam to a wide variety of audiences, most notably educators and school administrators , in the Greater Toronto Area. Asma Ahmed was an elementary-school teacher at the London Islamic School (Ontario) for five years. She graduated from a Scholars’ Elective Program at the University of Western Ontario in London with Honours in health science and social justice and peace. She then completed her Bachelor of Education and recently earned her master’s degree in educational policy with a leadership focus at the University of Western Ontario. Her thesis explored the purposes of Islamic schools, with specific reference to young Muslims finding their way in the modern West and building a robust Cana- THE CONTRIBUTORS 260 dian and Muslim identity. Asma is currently enrolled in a Ph.D. program in educational policy at the University of Western Ontario. Greg Beiles has been working in the field of Jewish education for the past 15 years. He began his career as a teacher, and for the past decade has been involved in school administration, teacher training, and curriculum development . Currently, Greg is director of the Lola Stein Institute for Leadership in Education, a think tank devoted to innovation and best practices in Jewish and integrative education. Greg also serves as the Curriculum and Training Consultant at The Toronto Heschel School. He holds an M.A. in the philosophy of education from the Ontario Institute for Studies an Education , and is a Ph.D. candidate at the Centre for the Study of Religion at the University of Toronto. His research interests focus on the relationship between Jewish epistemology and the purpose and practice of Jewish education. J. Kent Donlevy is a barrister and solicitor and the former interim associate dean of the Graduate Division of Educational Research in the Faculty of Education at the University of Calgary. His doctoral dissertation and master ’s thesis focused on Catholic education. He has published several books, including The Ten Dimensions of Inclusion: Non-Catholic Students in Catholic Schools, as well as many peer-reviewed papers on Catholic education in several jurisdictions: Australia, United Kingdom, United States, and Canada . Moreover, he has been a public speaker on Catholic education issues in Canada and the United States as well as an expert witness on Catholic constitutional matters in the Alberta Court of Queen’s Bench. He has been a Catholic school principal, taught grades 6–12, and recently conducted research in Catholic high schools in both Alberta and Saskatchewan. His research focuses upon the nexus of section 2(a) of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms (freedom of conscience) and Catholic schools. Fr. Mario O. D’Souza CSB is Dean of Theology at the University of St. Michael’s College, and a member of the Congregation of St. Basil. He holds the Basilian Fathers Chair in Religion and Education at the Faculty of Theology. He has earned degrees from University College, Dublin; the University of Calgary; the University of Toronto; the University of St. Michael’s College, Toronto; and Boston College. His doctorate from the University of Toronto was on Jacques Maritain’s philosophy of education. He teaches and researches in the following areas: the philosophy of Jacques Maritain, THE CONTRIBUTORS 261 philosophy of education, Catholic educational theory, religion and education , the Catholic university, person and personalism, religion, pluralism, citizenship, and Lonergan studies. He is an associate member of the School of Graduate Studies of the University of Toronto and is cross-appointed to the Department of Leadership, Higher and Adult Education at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education. Fr. D’Souza has also taught in the Faculty of Education at the University of Windsor and was the academic...