Abstract:
Consecrated religious women are missionaries by
nature and are meant to live in communities made up of religious
women from different nationalities, ethnicities and backgrounds.
This living together as a family at times may be marked by
challenges and difficulties caused by their cultural diversities.
The main objective of this study is to assess multicultural
awareness among the consecrated religious women. The study
was guided by Social Integration Theory and Salad Bowl Theory.
The study adopted a convergent parallel mixed methods research
approach design. The target population was 86 participants that
was sampled using census method. The study employed
purposive sampling, to select 5 participants for qualitative data
and 81 participants for quantitative data and only 71
questionnaires validly returned. The research instruments that
were used were questionnaires given to 81 participants to collect
quantitative data and 5 participants purposely chosen for
interview to collect qualitative data. The study revealed that
awareness of multiculturalism enabled many women religious to
live harmoniously with each other from diverse cultures. The
study established that religious women’s exposure to diverse
cultures has immensely impacted their lives mostly in a positive
way. The study also revealed that most of the respondent feel
obliged to respect other cultures while acknowledging the
existence of many similarities between one’s culture and other
cultures. The study recommends that the General and Local
superiors to consider organizing workshops and seminars to
enlighten the consecrated religious women more about the
challenges that arise as a result of multicultural differences.
