A Question of Resistance to Home Education and the Culture of School-Based Education

Abstract

Public educator resistance to home education is not a definitive or deliberate offense but part of the culture of teaching, schooling, and the grand culture in which schooling functions. Such resistance, especially at higher bureaucratic levels, stems from a faith stance that might very well be misinformed, misguided, and perhaps even blindly biased. A reading of the roles of teachers and resistance to change from a systems thinking framework informs this work. The main purpose of this article is to present findings from a review of the literature in an effort to expose the critical factors that might inhibit home education growth, acceptance—especially by educators—and greater inclusion as a mainstream education practice. Systemic thinking application in combination with the topic of home education offers multiple strands of understanding home education, systems thinking, and resistance. This article furthers the discussion on home education and prompts educators and researchers alike to reconsider home education and educator roles for the 21st century not as utilitarian functions for local and global economies but as coworkers toward a perceived common goal for children.

Acknowledgments

A variation of this article was originally presented at the April 11, 2011, symposium If Homeschooling is so Good, Why Don't More Educators Promote it? at the AERA annual meeting, New Orleans, LA.

Notes

Although I am speaking about North American education, it seems this same paradox exists globally, although I cannot say universally, which I have gleaned from speaking, teaching, discussions, and consulting east to west from China through Europe to Bahrain, and from Canada to South America. It is also another discussion about the purposes of education, which range from the practical to state and economic needs.

See Uemura (1999) for additional comments and research reporting on both the complexity of, and resistance in, education. Also Corrales (1999).

Anecdotally, I have had brief discussions with academic colleagues who espouse this stance rather vociferously [0].

The FoRSE Matrix demands a much greater development than is possible in this short space. For further information on it, please contact the author.