There was a hiatus in my teaching and research career for five years, while I moved to Northern Québec to get involved in community work. This experience proved invaluable as I was challenged to channel my urge to teach in different ways. I facilitated training sessions in catechesis, in liturgy, and in youth ministry. These combined an approach akin to lecturing with workshops and theatrical acts. Preparing for these activities involved multiple skills which do not normally enter the job description of a university teacher, such as setting up rooms for a variety of activities (lectures, group work, individual prayer, liturgy). It also challenged me to find ways to educate people who, despite having a common religious background, often had fundamentally divergent values and expectations because of age or social difference.

While I was involved in facilitating these large gatherings with the catechetical team, I also participated in diocesan youth ministry in Amos. This targeted a different crowd: street youth. The approach of the person in charge of the diocese’s youth ministry was not to preach; she instead adopted a social work approach that used religious tools to achieve a social goal by fostering self-reflection. Together we helped a team of young men and women set up an Alternative Cultural Centre, where they got involved in constructive artistic activities that had the effect of bolstering their self-confidence and their sense of belonging in the city.

I quickly realised that enthusiasm and knowledge were not enough to relate to these youth. I was far away from the halls of academe, which most of them would probably never enter, for lack of opportunity. In order to acquire the necessary skills, I enrolled in a Certificate in group leadership at the Université du Québec en Abitibi-Témiscamingue. This programme embodies the principle that groups provide the impetus for social change, and that they need leaders with the tools to gather and to empower them. This changed my outlook on teaching as I never again was to think that students are simply recipients to be filled with knowledge: I came to better appreciate diversity in people and I developed an approach to teaching based not so much on grading as on empowerment and feedback. I do not see my role as one of magister but one of facilitator whose experience and prior knowledge can help others to develop the capacity to better understand the world they live in and to act according to the changes they wish to see happen. When I left the region after choosing to leave the religious order in 2004, I was challenged to put to use the techniques learned in that leadership certificate, and my early experiences teaching at the University of Ottawa constituted my capstone project for the certificate I was awarded in 2006.