The Accidental Home Educator

Abstract

Previous conceptions of the choice to home educate have focused on a dualism between ideology and pedagogy. Indeed, the discussion around home education choice frequently falls back onto these two categories to explore and explain the choice to home educate. Using empirical literature on the choice to home educate that presents the experiences of families who home educate, this chapter instead proposes a different dichotomy. Rather than ideologues and pedagogues, this chapter proposes there are two choosers based on their a priori/a posteriori relationship with schooling for their children, and, instead, they choose either because of ideological or pedagogical reasons; rather, they choose either deliberately or accidentally. Using the theoretical lens of responsibilisation, this chapter argues parents are responsibilised toward home education in response to risks they perceive. These risks could be experienced a posteriori, through direct exposure to their child's schooling, or a priori, through a belief about what schools are like.