In this episode of The English-Language Education in Quebec podcast, we travel back to the mid-19th century to explore the experiences of young, English-speaking women from Quebec’s Eastern Townships who moved to Montreal to study at the McGill Normal School.

Lina Shoumarova speaks with historians Mary Anne Poutanen and Rod MacLeod, co-authors of a chapter on women from the Townships who attended the McGill Normal School between 1857 and 1865, published in Quebec’s Eastern Townships and the World (2024).

Drawing on rich archival and genealogical sources, they discuss the lives of women such as Mary-Luella Herrick and Maria Machin, the emergence of formal teacher training, the opportunities and c ...