This book is a valuable resource for those concerned with alternative approaches to education, and for such courses as educational theory or philosophy. Drawing on elements of progressive education, existentialism, feminist pedagogy, and values education, critical humanism combines the holistic-psychological concerns of humanistic education with the sociopolitical contextualization of critical pedagogy. Part 1 contains six chapters that describe how the pedagogy of critical humanism evolved. Chapter 1 provides an overview of the educational context in Quebec. Chapter 2 examines popular educational theories in the 1960s and 70s, and Chapter 3 traces the early philosophical roots of humanistic education. Theorists and theories of humanistic education--such as Abraham Maslow, Carl Rogers, George Isaac Brown, Clark Moustakas--are discussed in Chapter 4. Chapter 5 analyzes critical pedagogy, as presented by Paulo Freire and later critical theorists, and critiques current resistance theory. Chapter 6 describes how elements in the theory-practice of women's studies provide an excellent source for the pedagogy of critical humanism. Part 2 details the ideology and practice of the New School at Dawson College in Montreal, Quebec. Chapters 7 through 11 involve the following subjects: the dialectical relationship between ideology and praxis; the clientele, agenda of the state, and pedagogy at the New School; the primary affiliative group as the locus of learning; learning groups in the formal curriculum; and the school's struggle for creating community. Chapter 12 offers suggestions for implementing critical humanism methods in a variety of settings. Four figures are included. (Contains 200 references.) (LMI)