Ageing habits: a case study of the experience of ageing by teaching Sisters

• Deirdre Raftery ^[1] ; Elizabeth M. Smyth ^[2]
  1. [1] University College Dublin

     University College Dublin

     Irlanda

     
  2. [2] University of Toronto

     University of Toronto

     Canadá

     
• Localización: Paedagogica Historica: International journal of the history of education, ISSN 0030-9230, Vol. 61, Nº. 3, 2025 (Ejemplar dedicado a: Ageing in the history of education), págs. 400-413
• Idioma: inglés
• Texto completo no disponible (Saber más ...)
• Resumen

  • The article explores the experience of ageing in cohort of a group of women that has received scant attention: teaching Sisters (nuns / women religious). The authors argue that the stages of ageing, and in particular the stages which follow menopause and precede final decline and death, were blurred within convent communities. Especially in the time before the Second Vatican Council, as they aged, teaching Sisters experienced very few changes in their daily routine. They were often as active in their sixties and seventies as they had been in their thirties and forties. Often, they often started new careers once they retired from teaching. When they finally withdrew from an active life, or became infirm or ill, the presence of their convent community reduced the possibility of loneliness and lack of mental stimulation. Aging Sisters were also assured of comforts that were often denied to others: they would be nursed; they would be comforted by the prayers of their community; they would be given a dignified burial in the convent cemetery. Through an interrogation of archival evidence, the article offers some insights into the impact of senescence within a specific educational and social context.