The Issue of Homeschooling in Poland, the Czech Republic and Slovakia from the Perspective of Parents of Homeschooled Children

Abstract

Th is research addresses the opinions of parents of homeschooled children on the issue of homeschooling. Th rough both quantitative and qualitative research -a questionnaire with 78 parents of homeschooled children from Poland, the Czech Republic and Slovakia, their opinions on the selection of a school for their children, problems in compulsory examination, and the selection of teaching methods and forms were found out. On the basis of the research fi ndings, it was possible to state that criteria for school selection was not related to problems in the compulsory examination of the children, and the pedagogical education of the respondents (parents) did not infl uence the selection of didactic methods or forms.

Compulsory Examination of Homeschoolers in Poland, the Czech Republic, and Slovakia From the Perspective of Parents of Homeschooled Children

“…It can be stated that in Poland, the Czech Republic, and Slovakia the issue of compulsory examination in the umbrella school is not examined in sufficient detail and the ambition of this research is to contribute to solving the issue. The research problem was formulated on the basis of several realized research dealing with the given topic Mazur et al, 2019;Kašparová, 2012;2015;Rochovská et al, 2020;Porubčanová, 2021;Severini et al, 2021).…”

“…In post-communist countries with a similar educational tradition, such as Poland, the Czech Republic and Slovakia, homeschooling has been studied by reseachers: e.g., Kostelecká (2010), Kašparová (2012;2015), Giercarz-Borkowska, (2019), Hána (2017), Hána and Kostelecká (2019), , , Mazur et al (2019), Rochovská et al (2020), Porubčanová et al (2021), Severini et al (2021).…”

Comparison of Preferred Didactic Forms and Methods in Homeschooling

“…While in the United States there are about 2.3 million homeschooled pupils, which is about 8% of all pupils (Ray, 2019), in Slovakia, the Czech Republic and Poland, respectively, homeschooling is opted for only by parents of 0.3% of all pupils (Mazur, Rochovská & Kľačková 2019); however, this number is tending to rise. For instance, in the last fi ve years the number of homeschooled children increased from 70 to 579 in Slovakia, from 1038 to 3232 in the Czech Republic and from 2699 to 11466 in Poland (Rochnovská, Mazur & Dolinská, 2019).…”

“…Th e research problem was formulated on the basis of a number of previous studies (Kostelecká, 2010;Kašparová, 2019;Rochovská, Mazur & Dolinská, 2019;Mazur, Rochovská & Kľačková, 2019). As shown in Table 1, it was found that 14.12 % of parents of homeschooled children, participating in the research, preferred unschooling 2 as the main form of education.…”

“…(Rochovská, Mazur & Dolinská, 2019). Mazur, Rochovská & Kľačková (2019) investigated whether the pedagogical education of parents of homeschooled children in Slovakia, the Czech Republic, and Poland had an impact on their choice of teaching methods. Th e hypothesis that respondents without pedagogical education preferred unschooling more than respondents with pedagogical education was not confi rmed.…”