Home Education: Reshaping Teachers and Parents’ Responsibilities in the Era of Intensive Parenting

Abstract

A growing number of parents are choosing not to send their children to school to educate them at home. This is also happening in Italy, where home education has started arousing scholars' interest. We cannot dismiss it as local vogue: it is an international and diverse trend that is likely bound to grow. Moreover, during the last months, the restrictions and the concerns related to the COVID-19 epidemic have been a catalyst for many families worldwide who were already sceptical of the traditional school system and started home educating their children. To better understand this many-sided phenomenon, a look capable of holding its micro-, meso-, and macro-levels is particularly needed. This paper provides an analysis of the homeschooling movement considering the international literature on the topic and an ethnographic study conducted on the parents' point of view in Italy. I will claim that the geo-temporal diffusion of home education bears witness to some characteristics of our contemporary society e.g. the emergence of intensive parenting, the reported loss of social prestige and authority of teachers, and the general narrowing of the epistemic gap between professional and lay visions. Lastly, it calls attention to the tension between mass schooling and the growing demand for more individualised learning paths.

Home‐schooling in the Republic of Ireland

“…In Italy, Chinazzi (2021) argues that parents are often influenced by the school environment and academic preparation for students with disabilities or those that required one‐to‐one or tailored instruction (Chinazzi, 2021). Her research shows that it was primarily parents' dissatisfaction with their child's schools that influenced the decision to home‐school (Chinazzi, 2021). She described how this group of parents view home education as a last resort born from frustration from their experiences with conventional schools.…”

“…The language around home-schooling or home education is complex but generally, home-schoolers are those who seek to replicate modern schooling at home compared to home educators who consider education in all forms and view all experiences as educational (Oldham, 2021). From a policy perspective, home-schooling is not universally recognised as a legal option for children and young people (Chinazzi, 2021), and countries across Europe and internationally vary widely in how they respond to children and young people who, for whatever reason, are educated at home. Alongside the expansion of this form of educational provision, research on home-schooling has developed in most regions over the past decade.…”