When I was at school – differences in stories about school told by parents of home-schooled and regular-schooled children

Abstract

Home schooling has become increasingly widespread over recent decades in the western world. Since the choice to educate children at home in effect signifies abandonment of the educational system, one may assume that parents’ childhood experiences within the educational system play a significant part in their decision to opt for home schooling. The present study takes a hermeneutic phenomenological approach to investigating the choice in favour of home schooling and compares the childhood memories of school reported by 28 mothers of home-schooled and regular-schooled children. Data were analysed in three stages – determining the nature of the experience; performing a thematic analysis; and arranging the themes into groups of meta-themes. Six interviewees reported an entirely positive experience; 6 reported an entirely negative experience; and 16 reported a mixed experience. Analysis of the text revealed 30 themes, which were grouped into five meta-themes: treatment, attributes, teachers, studies and social relations.

Keywords:

• Home schooling
• home education
• parents’ memories of school
• reasons for choosing home schooling
• comparison of home schooling and regular schooling