SPECIAL EDUCATIONAL NEEDS: Home Education Seen As Only Option in the UK

Record: Lynne Kendall and Elizabeth Taylor, “‘We can’t make him fit into the system’: parental reflections on the reasons why home education is the only option for their child who has special educational needs.” International Journal of Primary, Elementary and Early Years Education, 44, No. 3 (2016): 297-310. [Abstract]

Summary: This small-scale study by Lynne Kendall and Elizabeth Taylor from the Department of Education, Health, and Community at Liverpool John Moores University in the UK investigates the perspectives of parents who withdrew their children from the state-maintained education system due to their children’s special educational needs.

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EXTENDED SCHOOL NON-ATTENDERS: Developing Best Practice

Record: Isabel Rose Gregory and Anita Purcell, “Extended School Non-Attenders’ Views: Developing Best Practice.” Educational Psychology in Practice, 30, No. 1 (2014), 37-50. [Abstract]

Summary: This article from the UK by Isabel Rose Gregory from the West Berkshire Educational Psychology Service and Anita Purcell from the National Educational Psychology Service is not about home education but rather extended school nonattendance. The authors aim to identify the key concerns and experiences of extended school non-attenders in order to inform the service delivery of the Educational Psychology Services (EPS), an institution that attempts to successfully include all children within mainstream school settings.

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INTERNATIONAL PERSPECTIVES ON HOME EDUCATION: Do We Still Need Schools?

International Perspectives of Home Education discusses home-based education in a wide variety of countries such as the UK, USA, Australia, Israel, Afghanistan, Norway, Germany and more. The volume was edited by Paula Rothermel, a UK academic in the field of home education. She is Elected Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts (FRSA) and Elected Associated Fellow of the British Psychological Society (ABPS). She also coordinates the International Network for Research into Home Education, a global community of scholars interested in home education research.

 

Over the next several weeks, all 21 chapters will be reviewed in order. Links will be added as reviews are posted. Here follows a table of contents for the volume:

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HOME EDUCATING PARENTS: Martyrs or Pathmakers?

Record: Leslie Safran Barson, “Home Educating Parents: Martyrs or Pathmakers?” in International Perspectives on Home Education (2015): 21-29. [Table of Contents]

Summary: This article is part of a series of reviews on the book International Perspectives on Home Education. Barson is a homeschooling mother who went on to get her PhD in Education. Here she discusses the sacrifices that parents make to homeschool their children.

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MATHEMATICAL LEARNING WITHIN THE HOME ENVIRONMENT: Views of Parents and Children

Record: Noraisha Yusof, “Parental and Children’s Views on Mathematical Learning within the Home Environment” in International Perspectives on Home Education (2015): 44-56. [Table of Contents]

Summary: This article is part of a series of reviews on the book International Perspectives on Home Education. Yusof was home educated in the UK for 16 years before receiving a PhD in mathematics from Warwick University. Here she presents the results of a semi-structured questionnaire about how the parents’ approach to home education affected their children’s views and understanding of math.

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NEW TECHNOLOGIES: Impact on Elective Home Learners

Record: Andrew McAvoy, “How Are New Technologies Impacting Elective Home Learners?” in International Perspectives on Home Education (2015): 74-84. [Table of Contents]

Summary: This article is part of a series of reviews on the book International Perspectives on Home Education. McAvoy obtained his MSc in Science Education at Sheffield Hallam University in 2007 and has worked as a teacher in secondary schools for 18 years in both the UK and Turkey. Here he asserts that the impact of broadband technologies on homeschooling communities has already been significant and irreversible.

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OPINIONS AND LIFESTYLE SURVEY: Characteristics of Home Educating Families in the UK

Record: Emma Smith and Jeanette Nelson, “Using the Opinions and Lifestyle Survey to Examine the Prevalence and Characteristics of Families who Home Educate in the UK” in Educational Studies, 41 (3), (2015): 312-325. [Abstract]

Summary: Emma Smith is a professor of Education at the University of Leicester, and Jeanette Nelson was a doctoral researcher at the University of Birmingham. In this article they use the results of an omnibus survey to provide an empirical look at home education in the UK.

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HOME EDUCATION IN NEW SOUTH WALES

Record: Talina Drabsch, “Home Education in NSW” in NSW Parliament E-Brief, issue 7 (August, 2013). [available here]

Summary: Drabsch, a frequent contributor to the New South Wales (NSW) Parliamentary Library pubilcations series, here summarizes the home education situation in NSW and so much more.

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School Refusal and Homeschooling

This post reviews Alan Thomas and Allison Wray, “School Refusal and Home Education” in Journal of Unschooling and Alternative Learning 7, no. 13 (2013).[Available Here]

Thomas, a well-known authority on home education in Britain and Visiting Fellow at the University of London Institute of Education, and Wray, graduate student at Cambridge University and mother of three children, two of whom had refused school, here present the results of a recent study of twenty-four children who had refused to attend school and whose families turned to home-based learning as an alternative.

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