The present article discusses female students' perception of the female role models introduced to them during religious education classes in Poland. Besides imparting knowledge, the teaching of religious classes in schools, a part of religious education, aims at shaping attitudes. Therefore, presenting young people with role models who can inspire…

This article discusses oral history sources that give insight into how a specific group of teaching sisters (also known as nuns or women religious) reflect on their primary identity as vowed women, and their professional identity as teachers. Their identity was bound up with the fact that they had taken religious vows, and entered a congregation…

'Christian pyrexia' and 'education fever' have contributed greatly to the empowerment of women in Korea and helped with the transformation of Korean society more broadly. This article begins with an overview of the Confucian gender constructs and delimiting social expectations of women in the pre-modern period. It then focuses on the changing…

This paper highlights the need for studies to be undertaken on Irish women who became 'female religious' in Roman Catholic religious communities and who taught in Australian schools up until 1922. The paper is structured in three parts. It opens by outlining the international context that gave rise to the existence of these personnel in Australia.…

The Word of God is 'the true light that enlightens everyone who comes into the world' and is the driving force behind the charism of the Immaculate Heart Sisters (IHM). Charles Heerey wanted the Sisters to be 'the fairest of the children of God'. Their life must be modelled on Jesus Christ, the great teacher and master to humanity. In view of this…

This volume brings together the work of a wide range of scholars to explore the long and complex history of the relationships between churches and education. Christianity has always been involved in education, from the very earliest teaching of those about to be baptised, to present-day churches' involvement in schools and higher education.…

As women's and gender studies (WGS) is increasingly seen as an indispensable part of the academic landscape, a growing number of professors find themselves teaching WGS at religiously affiliated institutions. After she finished my PhD in feminist studies, the author transitioned into a new job as tenure-track faculty in a women's and gender…

Girls' schools in the early modern era were largely run by nuns and can therefore be distinguished as Catholic institutions of learning. These schools flourished in the Catholic parts of Europe since the turn of the seventeenth century. Despite their focus on religious education, elementary skills such as reading, writing and sometimes arithmetic…

This paper addresses the roles of Irish Catholic female religious institutes for teachers in the context of the recent debates about education and empire. Nineteenth century colonial South Australia provides an opportunity to examine such institutes, for example the Irish Dominicans from Cabra Dublin, the Irish Mercy Institute from Baggot Street,…

Historians have long presented France's "civilizing mission" within its colonies in secular terms ignoring women's presence as both actors and subjects. This is particularly true in Algeria where the colonial government's explicitly prohibited proselytism. This article emphasizes women's roles pursuing both secular and religious goals in…

This paper examines Catholic girlhood, womanhood and the mother-daughter relationship, and its socio-historical construction within a range of disparate discourses. The aim of the paper is to deconstruct dominant patriarchal constructions and images of femininity, particularly those embedded within the doctrine of Catholicism. Moreover, the paper…

The "Partial Agenda for Modern European Educational History" proposed by Albisetti focuses primarily on the nineteenth century, and on some large-scale trends and issues, such as those relating to education and secondary instruction for women. Discussing this issue implies--especially in the diverse and heterogeneous context of…

Mary Perkins Ryan remains one of the least recognized of the twentieth-century figures in the modern renewal of Catholic education in the United States. The reasons are many but none satisfactory. Ryan was an intellectual without a scholarly credential. She was an educator without an affiliation to an academic institution. She was a leading voice…

Examined interrelationships between religion, religiosity, and religious education in determining the pacing of second births. Tested hypotheses using data from the 1973 National Survey of Family Growth. Results indicated that religiosity was more important in determining pacing of second births among Catholics and women who received sectarian…