17 Scottish educational theorists

John Gerard Anderson (1836–1911), M.A., J.P., was a Scottish-born educationalist and public servant in colonial Queensland, Australia.

Very Rev Prof George Husband Baird FRSE FSA (Scot) MWS was a Scottish minister, educational reformer, linguist and the Principal of the University of Edinburgh from 1793 to 1840. In 1800 he served as Moderator of the Church of Scotland General Assembly.

James Baird was a Scottish industrialist. He was the founder of the Baird Trust.

Phoebe Blyth was a Scottish philanthropist, educationist and a leading campaigner for opening up opportunities for women in professional employment.

A.S. Neill's A Dominie's Log is a diary of his first year as headteacher at Gretna Green Village School, during 1914-15. It is an autobiographical novel. He changed a hard working, academic school controlled by corporal punishment and the fear of the authority of the teacher into one of happiness, play and children controlling their learning. He was a reflective teacher, sitting on his desk thinking out why he and the children were at the school. He also, most importantly, thought the children were human beings, and engaged with them as such, joining in their games, sliding with them on an ice slide in the street, sharing their sweets, laughing with them, and appreciating and respecting their individuality, and creativity.

Mountstuart Elphinstone was a Scottish statesman and historian, associated with the government of British India. He later became the Governor of Bombay where he is credited with the opening of several educational institutions accessible to the Indian population. Besides being a noted administrator, he wrote books on India and Afghanistan.

John Nicol Farquhar was a Scottish educational missionary to Calcutta, and an Orientalist. He is one of the pioneers who popularised the Fulfilment theology in India that Christ is the crown of Hinduism, though, Fulfilment thesis in Bengal was built on foundation originally laid in Madras by William Miller.

John Ritchie Findlay was a Scottish newspaper owner and philanthropist.

Sir Patrick Geddes was a Scottish biologist, sociologist, geographer, philanthropist and pioneering town planner. He is known for his innovative thinking in the fields of urban planning and sociology.

Leonard Horner FRSE FRS FGS was a Scottish merchant, geologist and educational reformer. He was the younger brother of Francis Horner.

James Finlay Weir Johnston, FRS FRSE was a Scottish agricultural chemist and mineralogist.

Sir Donald Friell McLeod was a Lieutenant Governor of British Punjab. He was one of the founders of Lahore Oriental College, now part of the Punjab University and is generally remembered as a philanthropic administrator and promoter of education.

Robert Morrison, FRS, was an Anglo-Scottish Protestant missionary to Portuguese Macao, Qing-era Guangdong, and Dutch Malacca, who was also a pioneering sinologist, lexicographer, and translator considered the "Father of Anglo-Chinese Literature".

Alexander Sutherland Neill was a Scottish educator and author known for his school, Summerhill, and its philosophy of freedom from adult coercion and its community self-governance. Raised in Scotland, Neill taught at several schools before attending the University of Edinburgh in 1908–1912. He took two jobs in journalism before World War I, and taught at Gretna Green Village School in the first year of the war, writing his first book, A Dominie's Log (1915), as a diary of his life there as head teacher. He joined a Dresden school in 1921 and founded Summerhill on returning to England in 1924. Summerhill gained renown in the 1920s–1930s and then in the 1960s–1970s, due to progressive and counter-culture interest. Neill wrote 20 books. His top seller was the 1960 Summerhill, read widely in the free school movement in the 1960s onwards.

Flora Clift Stevenson LLD was a British social reformer with a special interest in education for poor or neglected children, and in education for girls. She was one of the first women in the United Kingdom to be elected to a school board.

James Diego Thomson (1788–1854) was a Scottish Baptist Pastor, and educator. He served as schoolmaster in South America where Thomson applied the Lancasterian system.

Rev Dr John Wilson DD FRS was a Scottish Christian missionary, orientalist and educator in the Bombay presidency, British India.