Saudi U of T education students graduate with mix of excitement, sadness

A group of Saudi students graduating from the University of Toronto's teachers' college on Friday are doing so with mixed emotionsas a diplomatic dispute between Canada and Saudi Arabia forces them to return home some earlier than expected.

"They were sad," saidCatherine McKernan, an educator at the university'sOntario Institute for Studies in Education. "They love Canada some of them would love to be able to stay."

McKernansays her students were "blindsided" by the news they'd have to return home amid a diplomatic row between the two countries.

While the students are excited and proud of their accomplishments, they're also "sad about the wedge between the countries," she said.

Freedom 'like nothing they've experienced'

McKernan says her students, especially the women, were "transformed" over the year that she taught them.

When McKernan asked her students to write about their experience of Canada, one student wrote, "I noticed the beauty and harmony of people walking in crowds, minding only their own business."

"I cannot count how many times I bumped into people by accident when I was looking to others."

In Canada, the student wrote, "no one cares about your clothes, how you look, your relationships, your religion or even your sexuality."

"I learned here to accept other people without judging them based on their looks, backgrounds, identity, religion, but based on how we treat and respect each other."

Another student wrote about her placement at the Toronto District School Board's Greenwood Secondary School,where she was inspired by a teacher working with teenagers with special needs.

"The teacher struggled with themand reached the point of almost giving up. I thought she would finish with as little effort as possible but then I saw the teacher wrote on the back of a sticky note before she did anything to reprimand her students, 'I love my job'. The moment touched my heart," wrote the Saudi teacher.

She said it reminded her that "patience, knowledge and caring are important aspects of being a good teacher."

Educator hopes lessons learned in Canada will stick

The majority of Saudi students studying in Canada are here on grants funded by their government as part of Vision 2030,a wide-ranging blueprint for the royal kingdom's future.

"Canada's education system is one of the most respected in the world," saidMcKernan. It exemplifies a more "co-operative, holistic approach" compared to the Saudi approach, whichMcKernansays is textbook-based with lots of rote learning.

As a veteran educator,McKernanwas hired to teach a course called Building Leadership for Change, whichshe says was inspired by South Africa's human rights and political leader Nelson Mandela, who famously called education the most powerful weapon someone can use to change the world.

Shehopes her student will bring the lessons they've learned here in Canada back home with them asthey become educators themselves.

"They were so oppressed culturally and the freedom they experienced is like nothing they've experienced before."