Moving Images of Eternity: George Grant’s Critique of Time, Teaching, and Technology(Education)

William F. Pinar presents a comprehensive and original study that demonstrates the significance and pertinence of the scholarship of George Grant for teaching today. While there are studies of Grant's political philosophy, there has been no sustained study of his teaching. Pinar not only draws upon the collected works; he has also consulted Grant's PhD thesis at Oxford, as well as the philosopher's biography, collected letters, and the vast secondary literature.What emerges is a treatise that reveals Grant's timeliness and his prescience in identifying and critiquing key educational issues nearly half a century ago, from academic vocationalism and educational technology to privatization and the ascendency of research-issues that are eminently relevant today.Beyond the classroom, Grant's concerns extended to the impact of economic globalization which, he feared, would erase distinctive national histories and cultures. As such, Grant foresaw the current issues of right-wing populism, notably in the UK and the US, as reactions against these historical tendencies.This volume is destined to become an indispensable reference work for students of Grant in particular and for students of education in general.This book is published in English.-S'il existe des etudes portant sur la philosophie politique et la theologie de George Grant, il n'y avait jusqu'a maintenant aucune etude soutenue sur son enseignement et, plus precisement, sur la relation de son approche pedagogique a celles-ci. Aucune etude ne puisait de facon aussi poussee a l'oeuvre complete - y compris a ses presentations aux enseignants et a sa these doctorale d'Oxford en philosophie - ou a sa biographie, sa correspondance, et la vaste litterature secondaire.Concu comme livre de reference pour les adeptes de Grant de meme que comme un manuel pour les etudiants en education, cet ouvrage arrive a point nomme. Pinar souligne la prescience de Grant, qui identifiait et critiquait il y a deja cinquante ans des questions d'ordre educationnel - vocation academique, technologie pedagogique, privatisation de l'enseignement, ascendance de la recherche sur l'enseignement - qui sont d'actualite.Grant etait aussi preoccupe par le destin de ce qu'il appelait la particularite au Canada et a l'etranger, et s'inquietait que la mondialisation economique effacerait les histoires et cultures nationales distinctives. Un etat mondial, universel et homogene les remplacerait, ce qui representerait la pire tyrannie infligee a l'humanite. Grant avait vu venir le populisme de droite que l'on voit actuellement prendre prise notamment au Royaume-Uni et aux Etats-Unis, comme reaction a ces tendances historiques.Ce livre est publie en anglais.

Table of Contents:
Acknowledgements  Preface Introduction  A Progressive Christian Platonist Subjective Presence  This Book  Reactivation  Notes  CHAPTER 1 Why?  Reactivation  Reconstruction  Moving Images  Teaching  Becoming Historical  Progressivism  Conclusion  CHAPTER 2 Technology  Our Civilizational Destiny  Conclusion  CHAPTER 3 Time  Lament for a Nation   Grant’s Lament   Conclusion  CHAPTER 4 Teaching  Reactivating the Past in the Present  Complicated Conversation  Curriculum and Teaching What Knowledge is of Most Worth?  Conclusion  CHAPTER 5 Idolatry Idolatry  The Gap  Iconography  Conclusion  CHAPTER 6 Attunement Quietude  Listening  Transcendence  Conclusion  CHAPTER 7 Eternity  Reactivation   Time  The Perpetuity of the Past  Eternity in Time  Conclusion  Epilogue  Politics  Freedom  Teaching  Time  Technology  Conclusion  References  Earlier versions and permissions to quote  Index 

About the Author :
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 :
A curriculum specialist, Pinar maintains the primacy of the curriculum and its obligation to question what knowledge is worthy of being taught; judging from his study of Grant, it would be less of the STEM subjects and more of theology, philosophy, and art. Nowhere is there an argument to be found in favour of balance and an engagement with rapidly developing technologies for which youth must be prepared—and, yes, to earn a living as well as to contemplate in their cubicles and to wish that their days might be “[b]ound each to each by natural piety.” We leave William sitting on the rock, renouncing the idols of the marketplace and academy.