Homeschooling in Singaporean Chinese families: beyond pedagogues and ideologues

ABSTRACT

Despite the achievement of the Singapore education system as one of the top performers in international achievement tests, there remains a group of parents who choose to homeschool their children. While this number is increasing, there is a lack of studies conducted in Singapore on why parents decide to homeschool their children. Thus, this study seeks to explore the relevance of home pedagogy by examining the reasons why parents choose homeschooling. Using a qualitative methodology, 10 homeschooling families were interviewed about their motivations for homeschooling. The results of this investigation revealed that parents were motivated by pedagogical and ideological reasons. These include a preference for individualized instruction, a dissatisfaction with an exam-oriented education system, and parents’ religious orientation and beliefs about bilingualism. This study concludes with the observation that parents who favor homeschooling view education as a lifelong process rather than as a set of content to be mastered.

KEYWORDS:

• Alternative education
• bilingual education
• home education
• homeschooling
• ideology
• pedagogy

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Mia Huan Tan

Mia Huan Tan is a lecturer in the Language and Communication Centre at the Nanyang Technological University in Singapore.