Abstract

This chapter investigates teaching for civic engagement as a means of promoting student awareness of homeless and other marginalized communities. Drawing on the example of a third-year religion course taught at the University of Toronto on the topic of Religion and the City, it suggests that a dimension of pedagogies of civic engagement is making the familiar seem unfamiliar. Through a student field trip, literary works, and a mini-ethnography assignment, students explore places and sites to which they are intimately connected from the perspective of the outsider or an otherwise citizen non grata. This chapter offers a practical example of the ways in which teaching for civic engagement can be integrated into courses through consideration of theoretical materials, case studies, and cultural data.