Papers relating to the work of Professor Ronald Meighan encompassing biographical information, correspondence, writings and collected materials on home-based and personalised education, and information regarding his publishing ventures.
The order in which the material was received has been maintained so there is some crossover in content between the files.
Roland Meighan (1937-2014) was an educational practitioner and theorist, internationally renowned as a critic of oppressive educational systems and an advocate of homeschooling. He viewed mass compulsory schooling as an obsolete and counter-productive system, favouring instead something more personalised, flexible and democratic.
He attended Bishop Vesey's Grammar School, Sutton Coldfield and attained the following qualifications during his lifetime - Cert. Ed. (Birmingham), Licentiate of the College of Preceptors (LCP), B.Sc.(Soc) London (External), Ph.D. (Birmingham) and D.Soc.Sc. (Birmingham).
He worked as a secondary school teacher, an LEA organiser for FE, and a technical college lecturer, before becoming Senior Lecturer in Education at Birmingham University and Special Professor of Education at the University of Nottingham. He also taught at the Open University.
He published extensively on a range of topics, largely around aspects of home-based and personalised education. His most well known books being the classic text 'A Sociology of Educating', and 'Flexischooling' which examined how education ought to become better suited to the post-industrial world.
He helped establish the Education Now publishing co-operative, Educational Heretics Press, and Personalised Education Now, all of which were publishing outlets for people committed to exploring alternatives to formal patterns of schooling.
He was also variously editor of the Educational Review, the British Journal of the Sociology of Education and Social Science Teacher.
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