Entwistle, Harold

Harold Entwistle was born in Manchester, England on December 24, 1923 to working class parents, and died in Montreal on February 7, 2015. At age eleven, he won a scholarship to grammar school. Having completed his matriculation examinations, he left school at age 15 when WWII broke out. He then took a job as a junior clerk and enrolled in night school courses in commercial subjects. At age 18, he was conscripted into the Royal Tank Corps as a tank gunner. His troop landed in Normandy just after D-day, and fought across France, Belgium, Holland, and Germany. Harold spent the last half of 1945 in Germany as a member of the army of occupation, and then his regiment was posted in Italy. He was released in early 1947.

From 1947 to 1949, he studied at the Sheffield City Training College, where he received a Certificate in Education. He then taught for the next ten years in primary and secondary schools in Manchester as well as taking on two degrees, a B.Sc. in Economics at the University of London, that he completed in 1953, and an M. Ed. degree at the University of Manchester in 1958. In 1959, he was appointed Lecturer at the City of Leeds Training College. Two years later, he left to head the Education Department at a newly-opened College for Mature Students in Leeds. In 1962, he was Lecturer in Education, at the University of Manchester while working on his Ph.D. at the University of London, which he obtained in 1966. In addition to supervising students in initial teacher education, he also undertook teaching and thesis supervision in Comparative Education and Adult Education, and occasionally in Philosophy.

Harold Entwistle emigrated to Canada in 1969 and came to Montreal to take a position in comparative education at Sir George Williams University (now Concordia University). Over several years, he developed courses in Politics and Education as well as teaching undergraduate and graduate courses in Philosophy of Education. He later played a major role in founding Concordia’s Department of Education, and the graduate programme in Educational Studies. He retired from Concordia in 1993.

Apart from his teaching activities, Harold Entwistle pursued his research interests in education and wrote numerous articles, book chapters and five books: Education, Work and Leisure (Routhledge & K. Paul 1970), Child-Centred Education (Methuen 1970), Political Education in a Democracy (Routhledge & K. Paul 1971), Class Culture and Education (Methuen 1978), and Antonio Gramsci: Conservative Education for Radical Politics (Routhledge & K. Paul 1979).

He has been long active in the Canadian Philosophy of Education Society, serving as president between 1992 and 1994 and as reviews editor for the society’s journal, Paideusis from 1987 to 1995. In 2000, he joined the McGill Institute for Learning in Retirement (MILR), a voluntary organization based on peer learning. As a consequence of this involvement with the MILR, he wrote several papers and acted as Editor of the MIRL Newsletter.

Created 2015-05-08