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Seeking Authenticity: Women and Learning in the Catholic Worker Movement

Millersville University

Edward W. Taylor

Pennsylvania State University, Harrisburg

Oral history interviews form the basis of an investigation into both the context and the everyday actions that contributed to the learning environment for women within the Catholic Worker Movement during the 1930s and 1940s. Findings reveal that narrators (a) were grounded in a variety of learning environments including family, Catholic Church, and school contexts; (b) sought adventure and authenticity as young adults; (c) practiced compassionate and critical-systemic faith within the Catholic Worker, which resulted in a new framework or way of seeing; (d) developed significant relationships that fostered learning in new ways; and (d) despite oppressive narrowing of opportunity for some because of their gender, learned to trust personal conscience as it guided them into positions of leadership that were unusual at the time within their local parishes. This study contributes to the expanding boundaries of the history of adult education by addressing issues of gender, spirituality, and learning in social movements.

Key Words: women • learning in social movements • spirituality • gender • adult education history • Catholic Worker Movement • oral history

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