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…

From the mid-1960s, the teaching force in Catholic schools in Ireland that for so long had been composed primarily of members of religious orders began to change as a large number returned to the secular world and recruitment levels dropped rapidly. Concurrently there was an outpouring of order-focused hagiographic works. During the 1980s, a range…

This article examines some of the legacy of the Irish education pioneer Nano Nagle, foundress of the Presentation congregation of nuns. The congregation spread rapidly in the nineteenth century, not only in Ireland but also in Newfoundland, India, England, Tasmania, Australia and continental North America. This year, Presentation schools globally…

Progressive education swept across Canada in the early to mid-twentieth century, restructuring schools, introducing new courses, and urging teachers to reorient the classroom to the interests and needs of the learner. The women religious who taught in Vancouver's Catholic schools negotiated the revised public school curriculum, determined to…

Over the last three decades, there has been a burgeoning of research on teacher identity. While the various bodies of work produced are very valuable, further lines of enquiry need to be pursued in order to take account of the complexities involved. This paper on the conception, construction, and maintenance of the identity of Roman Catholic…

Traces the contributions of Black Roman Catholic nuns to Black education in the United States since the early 1800s. Also shows that, despite declining membership, the three existing religious orders continue to be active in Black education and social change. (GC)

Focuses on the influences of British Anglican, Catholic, and Wesleyan clergy in elementary schools during latter 19th century. Concludes that Anglican and Catholic clergy affected elementary education far more than Wesleyan clergy did because they who frequently travelled circuits. Wesleyan and Nonconformist schools gave more authority to the…

Asserts that there has been growing interest in the last three decades in public education and its relationship to democracy. Discusses the development and importance of schools established by the Society of the Sacred Heart in frontier Saint Louis. Concludes that these schools pushed the limits of universal education. (ACM)