Interpretación de datos de la encuesta

This chapter serves as an introduction to my findings on home educating parents as well as an important exploration of the data itself. Motivations for home education and parents'19 _{associated attitudes towards state and school}

form a basis for understanding the practices and experiences of home education explored later in the thesis. Parents' motivations for home educating had a profound effect upon their pedagogical practices and were also closely linked to their constructions of motherhood and childhood that became core to their modelling of home education.

One recurring theme within home educators' constructions and descriptions of their motivations to home educate was the notion of parental20 _{responsibility and}

the reclaiming or separation of that responsibility from that held by the state. Both in law and in common culture there is a sense of a co-responsibility for children between the parent and the state (New, David 1985, Miller 2005). This is particularly true for education, where legally it is the parents' duty to ensure that children receive an appropriate education, but the state also shares that duty. Generally the co-responsibility is implemented through children's school attendance and it is implicit that the state holds the best interests of children at heart and that those best equipped to educate children are the professionals within the education system.

19 I use the term 'parents' here as home educators in two-parent families, both male and female, tended to present their attitudes towards state and school as being shared by both the mother and father in their family.

20 'parental' responsibility was seen as being held by both parents but carried out on a day-to- day basis predominantly by mothers; see Hughes et al (1991)

In the case of home educators, however, the co-responsibility relationship has either never existed or has broken down. This chapter starts by exploring the rupture of that relationship and identifying an overarching emphasis on the individual. I then proceed to examine the problems with schooling and the role of the state, as perceived by home educators. The existence of a widespread fear of persecution among home educating families, something not identified by previous research, is established and its positioning as key to the motivations and attitudes of home educators is explored. These explorations of the world- views of home educating families lay the foundations for the examination of the experiences and constructions of home education, motherhood and childhood explored in the following chapters.

This chapter draws upon a range of existing literatures. Home education literature is made use of insofar as it illuminates and explores home educators' motivations and attitudes to school and state. Where home education literature is lacking, or my findings benefit from greater contextualisation, this literature is supplemented by broader literature in the area of educational choice and private schooling as well as drawing upon neo-Marxist literature which is used to highlight the nature of some home educators' choices and attitudes.

Differing from previous research, my data suggests that home educators can be categorised into three broad 'types', based upon their motivations for home educating and their associated attitudes to the nature and functions of the state and the formal school system. These three types: Natural, Social and Last Resort are broad and heterogeneous groupings (I hesitate to call them 'groups' as home educators within each type would not necessarily identify closely with each other) which hold some key foci in common and can be located along a

continuum of attitudes to school-based education which ranges from the concept of schooling (and state involvement in schooling) as problematic, to the practice of school provision as the root of the problem. This is shown in Illustration 2: Continuum of types of home educator.

The motivations and attitudes of each type also have a significant impact on their practices in home education, something which is explored in Chapter 6. As we will see, these categorisations differ significantly from those identified by American home education researchers such as Van Galen's (1988) Ideologues

and Pedagogues and Mayberry's (1989) four motivational classifications. They therefore counter the common assertion in US home education literature that the primary division between home educators is along religious/non-religious grounds and the assertion in UK literature that classification is impossible due to extreme diversity among home educators (Rothermel 2003, Rothermel 2011). I now proceed to briefly outline each of the three types of home educator in order to set the scene for the exploration of attitudes and motivations that takes

place in the rest of the chapter. The characteristics of each type are further explored and developed as we progress through the analysis of my data.

I have named the first type of home educator 'Natural' as it was a term frequently used by these families to describe their choices around childhood, learning, education and lifestyle. In using the term they were often referring to a way of life outside what they saw as coercive social structures and often evoked images of an idealised pre-industrial lifestyle. Natural home educators tended to view themselves as independent of (or trying to be independent of) dominant social discourses and structures and therefore tended to be rejecting, either overtly or less consciously, of state structures and authority. Home education was therefore part of the rejection of authority and a rediscovery of a more 'authentic' way of living. Natural home educators matched most closely the dominant portrayal of home education in UK literature and particularly in popular home education literature (Dowty 2000, Fortune-Wood 2001, Fortune-Wood 2005, Webb 1990).

Social home educators also tended to view themselves as separate from dominant lifestyles and and discourses, although in contrast to Natural home educators this was presented with an emphasis on the need for sound moral structures and a concern that their children should be socialised in a way that they felt was appropriate to their values and lifestyles. Many of the Social home educators that I encountered held strong religious beliefs (predominantly evangelical Christian) which informed their world-views. However, this was not the case for all Social home educators and neither could all the holders of strong religious beliefs be categorised as Social home educators; they were also found amongst the Natural and Last Resort groups; countering the strong

line drawn between the religious right and other home educators by those such as Apple (2000) and Stevens (2001). For Social home educators therefore, home education was a means of ensuring the desired social milieu for their children as the interactions within schools, between teachers and children, and the curriculum of mainstream schools was seen as risky or inappropriate.

In contrast to the Natural and Social home educators discussed above, for eight families interviewed (and many others whom I encountered) home education had been a 'last resort', rather than a deliberate choice such as that described in the mainstream school choice literature (see for example Ball 2003, West, Noden 2003, Reay 1996). These Last Resort families had assumed that school would 'work' for their children, but for various reasons had felt compelled to withdraw them to be home educated, although this had not been an ideal option. Several families spoke of their children having come close to suicide or emotional breakdown prior to being removed from school, with the cause being their children's needs and the inability of individual schools to meet those needs. Ofsted (2010) report negative school experiences to be a significant factor in the choice of home education. Accounts of bullying are present in popular home education literature, and Fortune-Wood (2007) and Knox (1989) suggest home education as a means of dealing with school phobia. However, home education as a last resort has not been addressed in any focussed way by other researchers on home education. With nearly half of my interviewees belonging to this type, along with numerous others met during observations, my research suggests that this is a significant grouping.

For most home educators therefore (some 'natural' families excepted), the decision to home educate came from a conviction that the school system, or an

individual school, was dysfunctional, rather than from a conviction that home education was the best form of education21_{. Parents' perceptions of the}

problems with school were closely associated with their notions of responsibility for their children and perceptions of the entities from whom they saw themselves to be taking back that responsibility.