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Chapter 4 Conclusions Since Elizabeth Smyth’s statement in 1994 that “the research on the history of teaching sisters is just beginning”,271 studies about the subject have multiplied considerably and a start has been made to apply to it some of the newer methodologies of the history of education. The numerous case studies on teaching congregations and schools run by sisters provide an immense number of useful data which can form the basis for developing general theories, concepts and models. Likewise, the many ‘national’ and ‘regional’ syntheses about women religious in the 19th and 20th centuries which have appeared in the last twenty years can provide an important point of reference for the activities of the teaching sisters. Despite this notable progress, there is still a long way to go. Since most of the specialized literature on women religious and education is descriptive and limited to a particular school, congregation, city or region, much more generalizing, comparative and explanatory studies are needed. To test general hypotheses it is also important that more studies start from a well-defined research question. As a very large number of the books, articles and papers about teaching congregations have little to say on education in the narrow sense of the word, new studies will have to address the educational philosophy of the teaching congregations , the curricula provided in schools conducted by the sisters and everyday practices in classrooms. More research is also needed to determine the influence of the Holy See on the teaching orders, for example the impact of the ‘Counsel to teaching sisters’ given by Pope Pius XII on 15 September 1951 during the ‘First International Congress of Teaching Sisters’ in Rome, as well as the effect of Vatican Council II (1962-1965) on the involvement of women religious in education.272 Marie-Paule Malouin published an important report on the situation of the teaching sisters in Quebec in the 1980s on the basis of a written questionnaire which the Association des religieuses enseignantes du Québec (AREQ) had sent to its members,273 but it has more the character of a historical source than a historical study. 56 the forgotten contribution of the teaching sisters Perhaps the most striking conclusion of our review of the literature is that a large majority of the studies paint the educational endeavours of women religious in very positive terms. Scholars have shown that the secondary schools administered by sisters provided high quality education with an academic and progressive curriculum, that the women were highly competent and qualified professionals, that they made a giant contribution to universal schooling and that they did not just play a passive role in a male-dominated world, but developed strategies to achieve their own objectives. In the more general literature on women religious, where a similar trend praising women religious for their work and independence can be recognized, this current of ‘pro-woman’, almost feminist, historiography has been criticized by some scholars.274 Likewise, in the broader field of women’s history, it has been pointed out that the search for female victims of male oppression which dominated the historiography of women in the 1980s should not be replaced by an optimistic historiography focusing on the agency and autonomy of women.275 So, one has to be vigilant that in research on the contribution of women religious to education the old hagiographic history writing is not replaced by a modern variant. In every case, we hope that this review of the literature will promote the production of critical and unbiased scholarship in which both the favourable and less favourable aspects of sisters’ involvement in education are illuminated so that, ultimately, these forgotten women teachers can be restored to their rightful place in the history of education. ...

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