No Small Lives

Handbook of North American Early Women Adult Educators, 1925-1950

Edited by:
Susan Imel, The Ohio State University
Gretchen T. Bersch, University of Alaska Anchorage

Published 2014

No Small Lives: Handbook of North American Early Women Adult Educators, 1925-1950 contains the stories of 26 North American women who were active in the field of adult education sometime between the years of 1925 and 1950. Generally, women’s contributions have been omitted from the field’s histories. No Small Lives is designed to address this gap and restore women to their rightful place in the history of adult education in North America.

The primary audience for this book is adult education professors and their graduate students. This book can be used in courses including history and sociology of adult education, the adult learner, courses specific to exploring women’s contributions and activities. The secondary audience is the broader fields of women’s studies, feminist history, sociology and psychology or those fields that include an examination of women in the early twentieth century. It could also be useful to those focusing on more specific topics such as gender and race studies, prejudice, marginalization, power, how women were sometimes portrayed as invisible or as central figures, and women in leadership and policy making.

CONTENTS
Foreword, M. Carolyn Clark. Preface, Editors. PART I: HISTORICAL BACKGROUND. Searching for the Women in a Defeminized Past: American Adult Education Between the Wars, Amy D. Rose. Adult Education History and the Issue of Gender: Stepping Back to Move Forward, Jane M. Hugo. PART II: PROFILES OF 26 WOMEN. Lucy Wilcox Adams: Proponent of Discussion-Based Adult Education, Susan Imel. Don’t Shush Me!—Nora Bateson, Activist Librarian, Sue Adams. Nannie Helen Burroughs: Religious Leader, Educator, Activist, Opal Easter-Smith. Maestra Maravillosa: Fabiola Cabeza de Baca Gilbert, Rosalie C. Otero. Olive Dame Campbell: An Appalachian Social Activist and Adult Educator, Carol E. Kasworm. Jessie Allen Charters: “Giving the Best We Know to Mothers and Fathers”, Constance E. Wanstreet. Jean Carter Ogden—These Things We’ve Tried: Democracy and Adult Education, Susan J. Barcinas. Eve Chappell: A Fine Italian Hand, Susan Imel. Mary L. Ely: Dedicated Adult Educator, Gretchen T. Bersch. Dorothy Canfield Fisher: Strengthening Democracy Through Adult Learning, Charlene A. Sexton. Mary Parker Follett: A Paradox of Adult Learner and Educator, Vivian W. Mott. Waking Up the World: Mae C. Hawes and Adult Education, Lisa R. Merriweather. Maria L. Hernández: An Untiring Fighter, Sylvia Fuentes. Dorothy V. Hewitt: Pioneer and Founder of the Boston Center for Adult Education, Mary Alice Wolf. Ruth Kotinsky: Glancing Back, Reaching Forward, Norma Nerstrom. “Education for Living”: Roberta Campbell Lawson, Marilyn McKinley Parrish. Florence Mary O’Neill: Her Own Path Through the Newfoundland Wilderness, Katherine McManus. Bonaro Wilkinson Overstreet: Adult Education for an Educated Citizenery, Yvonne K. Rappaport and Marcie Boucouvalas. Elizabeth Peratrovich: The Right to Education, Diane E. Benson (Lxeis'). Virginia Estelle Randolph and the Jeanes Teachers, Bernadine S. Chapman. Harriett Rouillard: “The Stamp of Its Editor” on the CAAE’s Food for Thought, Leona M. English. “Whistling in the Dark”: The Adult Education Work of Prison Arts Teacher Amy Paddon Row, Dominique T. Chlup. Dorothy Rowden: Tireless Editor, Writer, and Advocate, Lisa M. Baumgartner. Hilda “Jane” Worthington Smith: Pioneer in Women Workers’ Education, Gretchen T. Bersch. Moranda Smith: From Tobacco Plant Worker, to Local Union Organizer, to First African American Woman to Head a Southern Regional Union, Jovita M. Ross-Gordon and Geleana Drew Alston. The Vision and Pedagogical Sensibility of Isabel Wilson: Giving Credit Where Credit Is Due, Shauna Butterwick and Jonathan B. Fisher. PART III: CONCLUSION. Women, Gender Politics, and Adult Education in the Contemporary World: Leaning in to “Progress”, Juanita Johnson-Bailey and Elizabeth J. Tisdell. Themes Across the Women’s Lives, Susan Imel and Gretchen T. Bersch. Appendix A: Other Notable Women From 1925 to 1950, Carole L. Lund. About the Editors. About the Contributors.