Design Team Group Photograph

CULTURAL DIVERSITY AND CONFLICT MANAGEMENT CURRICULUM OVERVIEW

Curriculum introduction for CSJ packet

Design Overview
Over a ten-day period in October, 2015, the global St. Joseph Design Team, consisting of nine sisters (from four continents) and two university consultants, worked to create a teaching curriculum on “Cultural Diversity and Conflict Management.” It was a “train the trainer” program and live simultaneous, interpretation was provided in four languages: English, Spanish, French and Portuguese. The Design Team members would create the goals, objectives and essential elements of the program, design the curriculum, research content sources, study and debate pedagogical strategies, and ultimately two or three sisters (Design Team members) would team-teach the ten-day curriculum to approximately 125 sisters from five continents. Two Avila University faculty would attend each session and evaluate the project’s effectiveness. The training program was taught five times over a two-year period between May 2016 and May 2018, ultimately bringing 122 St. Joseph sisters to Le Puy, France. These sisters were trained in the curriculum and pedagogical skills necessary to return to their own countries and cultures to teach an additional 75 sisters and laypersons the concepts and strategies of this peacebuilding educational program. Ultimately, the program would touch the lives of approximately 3000 people.

Curriculum and Methodology
The Design Team based the curriculum and methodology of the program on three essential elements: 1) Nonviolent Communication and Conflict Resolution; 2) Critical Engagement with Difference; and 3) Role of Empathy for Understanding and Right Relations needed to work within a diverse community. Around these three themes, the Design Team developed workshop content and methodology asking a central question: “What do you want sisters-participants to leave with after their ten days in Le Puy”? The Design Team created materials and content that provided knowledge and skills integrated with the congregation’s heritage and spirituality. The focus of the grant was to teach 125 sisters-participants who were in early stages of religious life (postulants, novices, newly professed) and those who helped direct this formation process.

Strategies and methods included, but were not limited to readings, real-world case studies, experiential learning, discussions (face-to-face and online) role-playing, journaling/reflections, collaborative projects, listening circles, videos, performance activities, personal narratives, and study/thought questions. The curricular template was not meant to be a one-size-fits-all document. During the ten-day training sessions in Le Puy, between May 2016 and May 2018, sisters from 19 countries participated, representing four distinct linguistic groups: Spanish, French, Portuguese and English. Sister-teachers had to be flexibility and innovative to teach curriculum in five separate sessions with the 25 sisters in each representing a wide variety of cultures and backgrounds. By the seventh day of training, the participating sisters began to work individually and in small groups to begin creating their own workshops for their sisters and laypersons in their home settings.

The success of the Cultural Diversity and Conflict Management workshops demonstrated successful outcomes, in both quantitative and qualitative assessment measures, providing a road map for future research and program development, particularly for religious congregations of women operating in a global milieu. In a world overwhelmed by conflict, locally and globally, women religious are in a unique position to reach a variety of constituencies including members of their own congregations and the lay people to whom they minister.