Homeschooling in Mexico With Educational Platforms

This chapter reports on a research project on the homeschooling phenomenon in Mexico and how parents perceive the use of online programs to undertake academic activities with their children. It is in this space that this chapter is located, as it explores the changes to the phenomenon of homeschooling and the impact communication technology and, more specifically, of national and international educational platforms have had on the processes of follow-up and accreditation in Mexico and Latin America. In what follows, this chapter explores the situation in Mexico in particular and Latin America more broadly. It begins by exploring the problem statement and the question guiding this chapter. It then undertakes a literature review, from which it ascertains a theoretical lens and methodology. The data collection methods and the data are then outlined. Then, data are analysed.

The Accidental Home Educator

Previous conceptions of the choice to home educate have focused on a dualism between ideology and pedagogy. Indeed, the discussion around home education choice frequently falls back onto these two categories to explore and explain the choice to home educate. Using empirical literature on the choice to home educate that presents the experiences of families who home educate, this chapter instead proposes a different dichotomy. Rather than ideologues and pedagogues, this chapter proposes there are two choosers based on their a priori/a posteriori relationship with schooling for their children, and, instead, they choose either because of ideological or pedagogical reasons; rather, they choose either deliberately or accidentally. Using the theoretical lens of responsibilisation, this chapter argues parents are responsibilised toward home education in response to risks they perceive. These risks could be experienced a posteriori, through direct exposure to their child's schooling, or a priori, through a belief about what schools are like.

An Overview of the Worldwide Rise and Expansion of Home Education Homeschooling

This chapter outlines the current situation about homeschooling across the world today. It highlights its enormous growth over the last 40 or 50 years, since its reintroduction in the USA and the impact that has had on the world homeschooling movement. It describes the contested outcomes of home education, including the evidence that students' academic, social, and emotional outcomes are higher while also providing a solid basis for ‘graduates' of home education to experience success in adulthood. Theorizing the roots of this success, the chapter looks at the measures of success and the theoretical bases of the success of the mainstream schooled and explores how the features that make a successful graduate of mainstream schools are naturally and almost exclusively present in the home education setting, Finally, it considers how the current turn against home education and suggests how future research might be useful to counter these negative discourses about the practice while understanding this growing cohort of children across the world today.

Homeschooling as a Barometer of State Power and Control in the Czech Republic

The chapter introduces homeschooling in the Czech Republic, Europe, from the perspective of an anthropologist, who herself had both observed the phenomenon scientifically, as well as practiced it with her four children. The author introduces homeschooling as an important social topic, that may be regarded as a barometer of state power and control over its citizens. The text takes the reader onto a historical journey through various regimes that have governed the country, from the dawn of compulsory schooling under the Habsburg dynasty in the 18th century, through to two World Wars, onto socialism, communism, and finally, democratic government and its various turbulences over the last 30 years. Based upon participant observation, interviews, autoethnography, and secondary sources analysis, the author shows nuances and niches of homeschooling within the state compulsory education system, its battle for recognition, inclusion, and sustainability, which is achieved not only by law itself but also by five pillars of successful homeschooling, noted at the end of the chapter.

Reliable or Risky?

The global and growing phenomenon of home education is regulated differently in different countries and different states. Where is it legal the regulatory burden on home educators ranges from low to moderate to high. A range of commentators, including home educators, work to shape the frames through which home education is understood and subsequently regulated. Using an illustrative case study, this chapter shows that regulation impacts on child wellbeing and that home educators take different motivational postures based on a range of factors, of which their relationship with the regulator is one. The degree to which regulators cultivate a cooperative relationship is proposed as a critical factor in developing a positive regulatory environment. Co-production of home education regulations, as was previously undertaken in Tasmania, Australia, is presented as an effective and more acceptable approach to regulation. This is recommended as a model of practice to be undertaken in other settings.

Internet Use in Home-Education

Home educated students are Australia's fastest growing educational demographic. This growth may be due to the ubiquitous availability of resources made possible by the internet. This chapter considers several enablers and barriers to internet use in home education, using search engines as a case study. Search engine use is associated with several benefits and is the most prolific online activity conducted in home education. The chapter reports on a study into whether or not the search engine use of home educated students' (so-called digital natives) is stronger than that of their parent-educators (so-called digital immigrants). The study involved a survey of 60 parent-educators and observations, tests and interviews with five families. Irrespective of age, all searchers were found to use search engines in superficial ways. Findings can assist the growing number of Australians educating at home to maximise enablers while minimising any barriers to effective search engine use. Future research directions and the practicalities of existing literature for home-educators and students are also discussed.

The Academic and Social Outcomes of Those Who Have Homeschooled

This chapter focuses on the academic and social outcomes of those who have been homeschooled. What happens to homeschoolers when they grow up? Are they able to attend college? Are they employable? Are they socially, emotionally, and psychologically healthy? Are they happy and well adjusted? Numerous researchers have studied the outcomes of those who are home educated, with very positive results. This chapter focuses on the conclusions of these studies and ends with an analysis of how research on adult homeschooled graduates must grow and change to represent the shifting data on homeschooling itself.

Slow Education From a Homeschooling Perspective

This chapter explores one mother's perspective on homeschooling when there are no time constraints to learning. Home education provides an alternative to this fast-paced lifestyle. It is an antidote to a system that rewards conformity and provides stress to families and children. The home is where slow learning can thrive, thereby encouraging individuality, creativity, and curiosity. By abandoning the rush, families adapt to a natural rhythm for learning. Traditional education systems, mechanistic in their mass distribution design, have transformed learning into time-restricted activities, placing pressure and stress on children and families. Learning is short-term and its purpose is externally motivated. When learning is evaluated solely by quantitative measurements in a specified time period, the impetus for going deeper into a subject is eliminated or a curious interest in a subject is subverted. Mass data cannot be analyzed when individuals are assessed based on inherent qualities of true learning like transference of skills and knowledge, creativity, and curiosity.

Home Education in the United Kingdom

Home education is the fastest growing educational movement in the world and the research remains limited on why and how it has become so popular. This chapter highlights the historical development of home education and its legal base in the context of the United Kingdom. It also explores many of the current issues facing the home educators, the government of the UK, and the wider community. Based on the existing literature, it briefly explores the history of the home education movement in the UK and how policy and practice come to this point at this time. It investigates the different perspectives on how and why home education is the fastest growing educational movement in the 21st century's UK.

Practising “Istruzione Parentale”

The field of education is replete with tensions that challenge established visions of knowledge, teaching, and learning. Beyond the neoliberal drives that have had decades-long influence, bottom-up micro-practices emerge that outline an interesting empirical field. In this chapter, the phenomenon of homeschooling in Italy (istruzione parentale, IP) is observed as an everyday practice for untangling its pluralities and tensions. A focus is posed on the situated learning paths that lead homeschooling parents from the margins to the heart of the practice. Sixteen homeschooling parents have thus interviewed and the policy on IP has been analysed. On the one hand, IP moves around constantly: it is an open-ended practice taking multiple arrangements. On the other hand, it holds its shape– as a network where diverse actors converge, and as a social space laying out situated learning paths and cultural orientations. IP is held together by an antagonistic tension toward the forme scolaire, responsible for the standardisation of education. Hyper-personalisation and care are activated as solutions.