Description: A comprehensive and original study that demonstrates the significance and pertinence of the scholarship of George Grant for teaching today.
Brief description: William F. Pinar is Professor and Canada Research Chair at the University of British Columbia. In 2015 he was awarded the Ted Aoki Award for distinguished service by the Canadian Association for Curriculum Studies. He is the former President of the International Association for the Advancement of Curriculum Studies.
Review Quotes: Pinar's book is a valuable resource for scholars and practitioners, especially teachers and educational researchers, and not only those studying Grant. The book is written less in the style of a reference text, but with much of the content one may expect from a textbook. With extensive usage of notes, parenthetical comments, and dashes, Pinar's "citation-centred" (p. 377) style of writing blends Grant's thoughts with the ideas of various thinkers. Pinar sheds light on aspects of Grant that have "not been emphasized before" (p. 14), such as Grant's critiques of teaching, time, and technology. This book explores much more, though; it includes ideas relevant to educational, political, philosophical, and spiritual practice and research. Pinar's text provides an abundance of contextual information that grounds Grant's thinking in Canada's history, and in the ideas of thinkers inhabiting similar intellectual and spiritual worlds. Such a comprehensive rendering allows readers to understand Grant on their own terms, which -- Pinar believes -- was Grant's aspiration for how he saw education being meaningfully taken up: through each individual's own experience and perspective.--Aron Lee Rosenberg, McGill University "McGill Journal of Education"