OTTERBURNE, MB – This Spring, Providence University College and Theological Seminary was awarded US$30,000 through a grant from the Wabash Center. It is in response to Providence’s proposal to start educational programming with Indigenous and Northern Canadian partners.
Providence has already started conversations with Indigenous leaders in an effort to hear and understand how we can best serve their people and churches through our Centre for On-Demand Education (CODE).
“As we sit with these partners and hear of their desire to make a difference for the future by educating their young leaders, we are honoured by the trust they are putting in us. We have learned that there is a cultural affinity between our learner-centred pedagogies of competency-based educational models and Innuit and First Nation worldviews,” says Karen Anderson, Providence’s Director of the Centre for On-Demand Education
Providence is forging partnerships with:
- key Indigenous leaders in Manitoba, and
- the Anglican Diocese of the Arctic (with a training headquarters in Iqaluit, Nunavut).
These two partners have asked Providence to join them in developing certificate programs with a focus on pastoral leadership as well as Indigenous identity, leadership and reconciliation.
Providence plans to use some of the Wabash grant money to travel to Northern sites and meet with key individuals so that we can begin the research and consultation process. From there, we can develop curriculum contextualized (or Indigenized) for First Nations learners.
By the end of the summer, we plan on having a draft of the two certificates ready to be approved by our Senate and partner committees. Our goal is to have them in final form to present to our partners’ respective conventions in October 2022.
The Wabash Center gives grants to accredited universities, colleges, or seminaries in the United States and Canada with the purpose to enhance and strengthen education in theology and religion. They are exclusively funded by Lilly Endowment Inc. Their program activities include resource development, a re-granting program, and a wide array of cohort groups to improve teaching and the teaching life.
