Defining a canon to achieve learning outcomes: Las Casas Apology as a case example

The Humanities Institute of Universidad Panamericana, Guadalajara (Mexico), has carefully crafted its own reading canon by incorporating in to its course design a learning outcomes framework that mirrors its Christian institutional mission. The paper presents an overview of this framework and of its implementation within the University’s Gen Ed reading canon selection. It uses an excerpt of Bartolomé de las Casas’ Apology as a case example of the practice. This text is used within a course of introductory Ethics delivered to 30 different student groups per year. The criteria used in its selection and suggested practices are detailed. Overall, the text shows the value of a learning outcomes approach to text selection in a core-text-based course.