A feminist paradigm in teaching christology towards self-empowerment (a Scholastican experience)

• Main Author: Gutierrez, Angelina Leonarda Villapando
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Animo Repository 2001
• Subjects: Feminist (theology); Paradigm (Theory of knowledge); Teaching; Jesus Christ—Person and offices; Religious Education
• Online Access: https://animorepository.dlsu.edu.ph/etd_doctoral/862
• Institution: De La Salle University

This study develops a feminist paradigm in teaching Christology and finds out the response of the students from the pilot test of the course as well as the insights of religious educators and theologians about this investigation. Through qualitative and quantitative data collection and analysis, the research accomplished the following: a) design of an introductory feminist Christology course that may be used for one semester consisting of a syllabus, four modules and innovative feminist pedagogies b) pilot test of the course to undergraduate theology students at St. Scholastica's College (Manila) and production of a multimedia CD-ROM/software as teaching/learning tools and c) qualitative and quantitative analysis of the data from the 48 students and the 14 interviewees (7 religious educators from Metro Manila Catholic colleges and 7 local and North American theologians). Results indicated that the students had a positive response to the feminist paradigm in Christology. Statistical results of the pretest and posttest showed significant difference and remarkable improvement on the cognitive and affective domain of the students (p.01). Qualitative analysis of the data from the students showed a shift towards feminist consciousness, which empowered them to question the patriarchal status quo not only in our Christian study of Jesus but also in other areas of life. Exposure to feminist Christology has subverted their former androcentric understanding of following Jesus as manifested in their social awareness and desire for social involvement in order to bring about a social change to achieve the full realization of the potentials and humanity of women. Interpretation of the interviews of the religious educators indicated that local Catholic colleges have not yet integrated the feminist perspective in their religious education program because of their lack of knowledge and exposure to feminist theology. Analysis of the interviews from local and North American theologians suggested that they agreed with the proposition of this research that the feminist paradigm in teaching Christology can generally raise the feminist consciousness of the learners. They placed great importance to this paradigm shift because it leads to an inclusive and wholistic study of Jesus. These research findings demonstrated that the feminist paradigm addresses contemporary moral, sociopolitical, cultural and global concerns that affect the total Christian formation and happiness of both the educators and learners. Indeed, the feminist paradigm in teaching Christology has significant applications in educating towards social transformation.