Understanding "Strategies for Learning:" Pedagogy, Feminism, and Academic Culture at Mundelein College, 1957-1991
Mundelein College was an all-women's, Catholic college absorbed by Loyola University Chicago in 1991. Before absorption, the college's academic culture experienced an extraordinary transition from being traditionally Catholic to one that placed the "woman question" at the center...
| Main Author: | |
|---|---|
| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
|
| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
American Catholic Historical Society
2005
|
| In: |
American catholic studies
Year: 2005, Volume: 116, Issue: 2, Pages: 39-66 |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
| Summary: | Mundelein College was an all-women's, Catholic college absorbed by Loyola University Chicago in 1991. Before absorption, the college's academic culture experienced an extraordinary transition from being traditionally Catholic to one that placed the "woman question" at the center of its curriculum. This transition began when Sister Ann Ida Gannon became president in 1957 - although it took forms she did not anticipate. Two Gannon hires became important change agents at the college: Norbert Hruby and Mary Griffin. Hruby brought a feminist-activist ethic to the college, and Griffin assumed control of the newly created Weekend College in the early 1970s. The Weekend College (WEC), an experimental unit within Mundelein, eventually became a jewel in the Mundelein College system - comprising more than fifty percent of the college's student population. A creative transition course constructed especially for WEC students, entitled "Strategies for Learning," helped its student population acclimatize, academically and socially, to the college's academic culture. The class served as a kind of formalized consciousness-raising group for its participants. This paper reconstructs what brought the college to Strategies, and specifically explores how Mundelein's academic culture enabled Strategies to come about. Because the course was not constructed by informal institutional processes, but by people with inherent strengths and weaknesses, particular individuals will also be explored. Understanding both the course and the Weekend College, it turns out, helps to explain Mundelein's successes - but also provides clues about the college's eventual demise. |
|---|---|
| ISSN: | 2161-8534 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: American catholic studies
|