Educational Model

Catherine of Siena College employs an educational model that seeks relational, community-based learning in a respectful online environment where all students and teachers have something to share and to learn. In the words of the late Letty Russell,

"When students and teachers become partners in learning, education can become a redemptive process that offers the possibility of being evocative in encouraging the sharing of life experiences, bilateral with joint learning of teacher and students, and actualizing in modeling present behavior that relates to the wider community.”(Russell 1979, 143)

We seek to move far beyond traditional educational paradigms where knowledge is "imparted" by a professor or where Western ideals, theories and practices are assumed towards a model that is truly collaborative and where differences across cultures, regions and religions become the very cornerstone of a gender justice model that has the potential of freeing women everywhee from the stranglehold of patriarchal and hegemonic power.

 

Words that Inspire

"A feminist is a woman who negotiates herself into a position where she has choices.." Arundhati Roy

Women should have economic security on a basis of equality with men. No woman can be free so long as she is economically dependent upon a man no matter how kind or generous that man my be." Gertrude Telford

“The women who have achieved success in the various fields of labour have won the victory for us, but unless we all follow up and press onward the advantage will be lost. Yesterday’s successes will not do for today!”
Nellie McClung - suffragist (1873 - 1951)

“Feminism is based on social justice, for it claims but the equality of rights and of possibility between men and women.”
Idola Saint-Jean (1880-1945)

“Without knowledge the world is bereft of culture. And so we must be educators and students both.”
. Roberta Bondar - Canada's first woman in space (1945-)

“The mind is not a vessel to be filled, but a hearth to be lighted.”
Irene Parlby (1868-1905)

“A child’s individuality is the divine spark in that person. Let it burn.”
Agnes Deans Cameron (1886-1980)

“Education is intellectual travel - go out with confidence and explore the world with your mind and your own eyes.”
Geraldine Kenney-Wallace

“The work of the mothers of our race is grandly constructive. It is for us to build above the wreck and ruin of the past more stately temples of thought and action. Some races have been overthrown, dashed in pieces, and destroyed; but to-day the world is needing, fainting, for something better than the results of arrogance, aggressiveness, and indomitable power. We need mothers who are capable of being character builders, patient, loving, strong, and true, whose homes will be uplifting power in the race. This is one of the greatest needs of the hour.”
Frances Ellen Watkins Harper (1825-1911)

“Women's literacy and education are key to empowering women's participation in decision making in society and to improving families’ well-being.”
UN, The Beijing Declaration (1996) § 13, 14, and 17.

“We still think of a powerful man as a born leader and a powerful woman as an anomaly.”
Margaret Atwood (1939 - )

“Building equality is lots of mortar and once in a while a brick is put in place with lots more mortar. It is a lot of work and it takes time.”
Nancy Ruth (1942 - )