Publications
Home Education Research
MIKHAYL VON RIEBON
HEA Board Member
November 2021
Abstract:
In one particular study for example, Ewing and Vu (2021) from Monash and Deakin University examined over 10,000 tweets by Australian parents in April 2020. These parents described how having their children at home allowed them to slow down as a family and appreciate the time they had together. Other parents commented on how seeing more of their children presented them with the time and opportunity to get to know them better and appreciate them as individuals. Many of the parents also reported being more engaged in their children's learning, with children having more fun and even thriving in their new learning environment.
© 2021 Brian Ray, published by SciendoThis work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
27 July 2021
Abstract:
The purpose is to briefly summarize forty years of research on the learner outcomes of the modern homeschooling movement and address whether educators should be promoting home education. Studies show that homeschooling (home education) is generally associated with positive learner outcomes. On average, the home educated perform better than their institutional school peers in terms of academic achievement, social, emotional, and psychological development, and success into adulthood (including university). Certain pedagogical and familial elements that are systemic to freely chosen parent-led home-based private education homeschooling are may be the keys to the overall better performance and development of most children – not only the home educated – and into their lives as adults. If this is true, should professional educators be promoting homeschooling rather than criticizing it or trying to inhibit its growth? Are there certain categories of families for whom home education would not be a good idea? Is home education a pedagogical choice and approach about which educators should be skeptical and antagonistic or from which they can learn, be better informed about the needs and successes of students, and support according to the findings of empirical evidence?
Dr Rebecca English
Sciendo Volume 12 (2021): Issue 1 (June 2021)
Special Issue: Home-Based Education
Abstract: Numbers coming out of education departments in Australia suggest that, even though most Australian schools are open, and families are able to send their children to them, increasing numbers of parents are deciding to keep their children at home for their education (Queensland Government: Department of Education, 2020). It may be that, as the president of Australia’s home education representative body stated during the pandemic, Covid school closures offered a “risk-free trial” of home education (Lever, 2020) by providing an a-posteriori experience of education outside of schools. Building on the Covid experiences, this paper suggests that ‘accidentally falling into’ home education may be significant in understanding parents’ home education choices. Using numbers of home educators from Australia, and the associated data on their location and ages, this paper argues responsibilisation (see Doherty & Dooley, 2018) provides a suitable lens to examine how parents may decide, after an a-posteriori experience such as Covid school closures and previous, often negative, experiences of schooling, to home educate in the medium to long term. This paper proposes that increasing numbers of home educators will be seen in various jurisdictions where families perceive themselves responsibilised to home educate due to Covid as an a-posteriori experiences of home education. The paper proposes these families are ‘accidental’ home educators (English, 2021). By contrast, much more stable is the ‘deliberate’ home education population, those whose choices are based in a-priori beliefs about schooling. The paper proposes that the accidental home education category may be better able to explain the growing numbers of home educators in Australia and across the world, providing a means for governments to respond to the needs of this cohort, and the policies required to manage this population.
GLENDA JACKSON PhD.
Australian Home Education Advisory Service
May 2021
Abstract: Research on home education in Australia has a small but growing presence. Parent reasons for home educating have been extensively explored while student academic success has not attracted much Australian research. Socialisation has been examined in different ways by a number of studies. Demographic material on home educating families has been collected. A few projects have specifically focused on student perceptions of their home education experience while studies of students with specific needs have been conducted by a couple of researchers. Home educator interactions with networks, their use of community resources and their needs for appropriate information have also been analysed. Throughout the research problems with home education were identified. The most contentious issue identified was parent resistance to legislation and regulation. The developing theory of home education has distinguished home education as quite distinct from the education provided in formal schools and institutions. A few researchers have included Distance Education in their definition of home schooling and a few academics have addressed the possibilities of home education in the Australian context.
Karleen Gribble PhD.
and
Rebecca English PhD.
International Journal of Child, Youth and Family Studies (2016)
Abstract: Children who experience maltreatment in their families may be placed in out-of-home care. A large, and increasing, number of children are being raised in these settings in Australia. The history of maltreatment that children in out-of-home care have experienced results in a variety of educational challenges. It is generally believed that schools are best placed to serve the educational needs of these children. However, there is extensive evidence that schools are unable to facilitate learning success for many children in out-of-home care. This paper argues that because home education can provide a low- stress environment and individually tailored learning, it can be an effective method of education for children and young people in out-of-home care. A case study of a home-educated child in out-of-home care is presented.
