Hi ,
Implementation of Homeschooling: Parents’ Practices and Processes
A Journal Article by Chris Forlin and Dianne
Chambers
Review by Douglas Pietersma, Ed.D.
Editor, Home School Researcher
Research Associate, National Home Education Research Institute (NHERI)
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Background
The researchers Chris Forlin and
Dianne Chambers (2024) conducted a quantitative study to address a gap in literature related to the motivations of why parents chose to home educate, and the practices and procedures they use. The participants were limited to the state of Western Australia. The study utilized a newly developed instrument, the Parents Perception of Home-Schooling (PPHS) scale, to address research questions. The PPHS was utilized in two iterations of analysis to uncover both motivations and practices/processes of
home education. Consistent with other research, motivations included faith-based reasons, reactionary responses to government schooling deficiencies, and special needs requirements of their students. However, the subject of this paper is the analysis of practices and processes for the participant home educating families.
Methodology
The researchers conducted a two-phase pilot study to confirm the content and construct validity of the instrument. Invitations to participate in the study were emailed to a distribution list of home educating families and posted on a homeschooling social media site. A total of 99 families completed the survey, but some questions were not completed by every participant, giving some results of less than 99 responses. The areas
evaluated were 1) daily practice, 2) use of support, 3) satisfying government requirements, 4) support of the Government assigned moderator, and 5) personal feelings about homeschooling. Parents were asked to answer the question based on one child in one of the following descending prioritized categories: 1) child with disability, 2) child with “additional learning needs” (ALNs), and 3) the eldest child.
Summary Results
The following are summaries of notable results:
- The largest amount of time parents spent was in the actual administration of instruction, followed (in descending order) by
researching resources, gathering resources, and preparing instruction.
- The use of support sources was found to be minimal and consisted primarily of online support resources.
- Excursions, or field trips, were not a substantial element of the participating family’s home education experiences.
- Meeting government requirement was seen as being easy, but the most challenging aspect was preparing for meetings with government-appointed
moderators.
- Although parents were not particularly satisfied with the requirement for government-appointed moderators, they did have a positive perspective of how those moderators performed their role.
- The participant generally felt positive about the experience of home education, but the area that was rated lowest was the support of friends and family.
Continue reading complete review of the research study . . .
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