Journal of School Choice

International Research and Reform

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Homeschooling Is Not Just About Education:

Focuses of Meaning

Ari Neuman & Oz Guterman

To cite this article: Ari Neuman & Oz Guterman (2017) Homeschooling Is Not Just
About Education: Focuses of Meaning, Journal of School Choice, 11:1, 148-167, DOI:
10.1080/15582159.2016.1262231

To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/15582159.2016.1262231

Published online: 16 Feb 2017.

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JOURNAL OF SCHOOL CHOICE
2017, VOL. 11, NO. 1, 148–167
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/15582159.2016.1262231

Homeschooling Is Not Just About Education: Focuses of

Meaning
Ari Neuman and Oz Guterman
Management in Education, Department of Education, Western Galilee College, Akko, Israel

ABSTRACT KEYWORDS
This article explores the meanings parents attribute to home- education and life; holistic
perspective; homeschooling;
schooling. The literature reveals two main approaches to this postmodern; premodern
subject: a view of homeschooling as a pedagogical practice
and a holistic perspective. Employing qualitative methodolo-
gies, we administered in-depth interviews to 30 mothers who
engaged in homeschooling in Israel, in order to gain a better
understanding of what homeschooling meant to them.
Analysis of the interviews indicated that the participants attrib-
uted diverse meanings to homeschooling. These represented
many themes, which were gathered into four super-themes:
control, lifestyle, family, and child. The first two themes were
emphasized more often than the latter two.

Introduction
This article explores the meaning that parents attribute to homeschooling
(also known as elective home education). The literature reveals two main
approaches to research on this subject: that of homeschooling as a pedago-
gical practice and a holistic view of the practice. We begin with a brief
description of homeschooling, followed by a review of research on what
homeschooling means for parents who choose this form of education for
their children. We conclude that in order to fully understand the spirit of
homeschooling, it is necessary to consider not only the pedagogical charac-
teristics but additional aspects as well.
Homeschooling is a practice in which parents do not send their chil-
dren (of any age) to school but educate them at home instead. This is not
a new practice; in fact, throughout most of human history, parents bore
the responsibility for their children’s education. Most children were taught
in their parents’ homes or, alternatively, learned a trade as apprentices.
The few schools that existed served a very small percentage of the
population of children, usually those expected to fulfill religious positions
or children of the well-to-do. In most cases, these schools focused on

CONTACT Ari Neuman [email protected] Management in Education System Division, Department of

Education, Western Galilee College, Akko, Israel.
© 2017 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC
 JOURNAL OF SCHOOL CHOICE 149

teaching different aspects of religion and not general studies (Avner, 1989;
Cai, Reeve, & Robinson, 2002; Hiatt, 1994; Tyack, 1980).
In response to the Industrial Revolution, governments established public
schools, enacted mandatory education laws, and over time assumed the
responsibility for the education of children (Evangelisti, 2013; Gaither,
2009; Hiatt, 1994; Wilhelm & Firmin, 2009).
Over the past few decades, parents have begun to share the responsibility
for their children’s education, and some have even chosen to refrain from
giving an external organization charge, instead assuming full responsibility
for the educational process by means of homeschooling.
The beginnings of this trend in the United States appeared in the 1970s; at
that time reports indicated that about 13,000 children were being home-
schooled. Nowadays, 40 years later, the estimated figure is 2 million, and in
Britain the estimate is about 80,000 (Blok & Karsten, 2011; Davis, 2006; Ray,
2011). In Canada it is about 50,000, in Australia about 30,000, and in France
about 2,800 (Authors, 2013).
This rise in the number of children being homeschooled may stem from
increasing dissatisfaction among parents with the conventional school sys-
tem, coupled with growing public legitimation of this practice. In many
places in the world, and particularly in the United States and England,
parents who educate their children at home and meet certain criteria are
deemed to be fulfilling the mandatory education laws.
In Israel, homeschooling is a relatively recent development; it began only
two decades ago. However, it is a growing practice. The number of home-
schooling families in Israel is estimated to be about 400, whereas two decades
ago it was only about 60 (Authors, 2013).
The state of Israel, which was established about 70 years ago, did not
undergo a process of transferring the responsibility for education from
parents to the state. From the time it was established, the state was respon-
sible for the education of children. However, parents in Israel today are
allowed to homeschool their children, provided they obtain permission and
meet certain criteria. Thus, the processes currently under way in many
Western countries have affected Israel as well.
In light of the recent development of homeschooling in Israel, the legal
aspects of the practice were established over the past decade, most notably in
a 2006 and later a 2009 directive from the Ministry of education’s director
general, which stated, among other things, that

homeschooling applications will be approved in cases where the parents present a

very well-established worldview which rejects education in a school, or cases in which
there are exceptional, special and extreme circumstances for which the Ministry of
education allows an exemption from the Mandatory Education Law for parents
who request that their child not study in a recognized educational institution, on
150 A. NEUMAN AND O. GUTERMAN

the condition that the child is found to be receiving a systematic, satisfactory

education in his home. (Ministry of Education, 2009, our translation and emphasis)

The Ministry of education also established a unit to supervise and assist

parents who homeschool their children. These legal arrangements paved the
way for families who wish to homeschool to do so legally, but because they
were instituted only a few years ago, the number and percentage of home-
schooled children are relatively small compared with other Western coun-
tries. However, as noted, the practice is growing rapidly. To date, there is no
organized, updated database on the characteristics of families that home-
school in Israel.
These developments represent a universal trend that is not specific to any
one country: Parents are once again assuming more responsibility for their
children’s education. In particular, they are becoming more involved in the
public school system, sending their children to special or private schools, or
taking them out of the school system and educating them at home.
Parallel to the increase in the number of families that educate their
children at home, many studies have been conducted to examine this prac-
tice. Some have compared the scholastic achievements of children of the
same age who attend schools and those who are educated at home. Others
have examined the reasons why parents choose homeschooling (Bates, 1991;
Marchant & MacDonald, 1994; Neuman & Aviram, 2003; Ray & Warez,
1991; Rothermel, 2005; Snyder, 2013) and the processes that occur within the
homeschooling context (see Kunzman & Gaither 2013, for a recent review of
the literature on this subject).
Researchers have attempted to distinguish between different homeschool-
ing groups, such as structured and unstructured homeschooling (the latter is
also referred to as unschooling; Authors, 2016; Kunzman & Gaither, 2013;
Ray, 2011; Rothermel, 2011). Homeschoolers who advocate structured
schooling follow a defined curriculum, usually of their own design; propo-
nents of unstructured homeschooling teach varying subjects, based on the
wishes of the children, without any external dictates. These parents provide a
supportive environment for learning and enable the children to choose the
materials, methods of learning, and times for study (Aurini & Davies, 2005;
Barratt-Peacock, 2003; Bertozzi, 2006; Kunzman & Gaither, 2013; Ray, 2011;
Rothermel, 2005).
However, many researchers of homeschooling treat this practice as an
educational and pedagogical option, a means by which parents can be
involved in the schooling as well as the education of their children. It is
one of several possible alternatives to the conventional education system,
which also includes public and private schools. Studies based on such a
pedagogical perspective examine the curriculum, the role of the child in the
learning process, scholastic achievements, teaching methods, teaching
 JOURNAL OF SCHOOL CHOICE 151

materials, and other educational aspects of homeschooling (Bagwell, 2010;

Coleman, 2010; Gaither, 2008, 2009; Kunzman & Gaither, 2013; Meighan,
1997; Ray & Warez, 1991; Rothermel, 2002, 2004).
Although this is the most popular approach today, it is also possible to
extend the study of homeschooling beyond the purely pedagogical aspects.
Neuman & Aviram (2003) described two approaches to the study of home-
schooling, one purely pedagogical and the other holistic. The pedagogical
study of homeschooling considers the educational aspects of this practice; in
comparison, the holistic approach examines the ways in which homeschool-
ing affects the lifestyle of those who choose this practice. Literature based on
this approach has viewed homeschooling as life changing; accordingly, it has
examined factors such as the influence of homeschooling on parents and
children, family structure, marriage, career and employment, income and
standard of living, attitudes and perceptions regarding life, the daily life
routine, as well as other life-changing factors (on this, see also Ray, 2013).
The pedagogical and the holistic approaches to homeschooling examine
different questions. In this article we further broaden the holistic approach by
examining what homeschooling means, beyond a pedagogical option, to
parents who practice it.
In the majority of cases, homeschooling is a choice that parents make for
their children; therefore, it is important to understand the focuses of the
meaning that parents attribute to this choice, or in other words what it is that
they choose.
The pedagogical choice of homeschooling is well documented in the
literature. However, it is also important to understand the other components
involved in the decision to homeschool. Accordingly, the present research
sought to answer the following question: “When you say homeschooling, what
do you mean?”

Method
In this study, we used a qualitative participant-centered research methodol-
ogy based on the hermeneutic phenomenological approach (Glense &
Peshkin, 1992; Maykut & Morehouse, 1997; Shkedi, 2011).
Hermeneutics takes its name from the Greek god Hermes, who interpreted
the messages of the gods for humans. Accordingly, this type of research
involves giving meaning to texts, language, and behavior by means of inter-
pretation; it is one of the most common qualitative approaches used in the
social sciences (Bleicher & Bleicher 1980). This approach enables us to
examine a phenomenon as it is experienced and perceived by the subject
participating in it (the phenomenon). In order to understand the phenom-
enon, the researcher must first understand the significance that the subject
ascribes to the phenomenon (Jorgensen, 1989; Willis, 1991). Consequently, a
152 A. NEUMAN AND O. GUTERMAN

study such as this must collect descriptions of experiences and their

significance.
In-depth interviews with the participants is one of the central tools in such
a study (Creswell, 1995). The aim of the present research was to gain a better
understanding of the meaning of the practice of homeschooling to parents
who engage in it; therefore, the hermeneutic approach, which focuses on
interpretations of reality, was appropriate.

Participants
The research population comprised 30 mothers who engaged in homeschool-
ing in Israel. The research participants volunteered to participate in response
to a notice distributed among homeschoolers by various means. Only two
families refused to participate in the research; thus, it can be assumed that
refusal to participate did not affect the research results.
The families that were interviewed lived in urban and rural communities
in northern and central Israel. All of the participants were from the Jewish
sector and led a nonreligious or traditional (not Orthodox) Jewish lifestyle. In
all of the families, the fathers were the main breadwinners and the mothers
spent most of their time at home with the children.
The number of children in each of the participating families ranged from
one to five, with an average of 2.13 children (SD = 1.03). In each of the
families there was at least one child who was between 6 and 12 years old. The
average education of the mothers was 15.94 years (SD = 2.80). For the sake of
comparison, in Jewish families in Israel, the average number of children is 2.3
and the average education of mothers is 14.6 years (Central Bureau of
Statistics, 2016a, 2016b).
The choice to interview the mothers was based on the fact that usually the
mother is the family member responsible for homeschooling. In addition, in
our study, the mothers were the family members who spent the most hours
every day with the children and were involved in the teaching and learning
processes.
As noted in the Introduction, there is a lack of data on the people who
homeschool in Israel. Therefore, it was not possible to establish the extent to
which the interviewees were representative of all homeschoolers in the country.
It is hoped that the development of research in this field will result in the
creation of a larger base of reliable data about the characteristics of this group.

Procedure
In accordance with the gender of the interviewees, all of the interviewers in
this research were also women. Some were students and others were not. The
interviewers participated in a 1-day training seminar in which they learned
 JOURNAL OF SCHOOL CHOICE 153

how to carry out the interview. The training included general knowledge
about homeschooling and knowledge about qualitative research methods in
general. In addition, each of the interviewers practiced administering the
specific interview chosen for this study, followed by reflection.
The interviewers arranged a convenient time for the mothers and went to
their homes. The interviewees received an explanation about the study and
signed an informed consent form required for their participation in the
study. They were then interviewed for 60–75 min. The interviews were
semistructured: The mothers were asked a series of structured questions,
the purpose of which was to understand the significance of homeschooling
for the interviewees (“Tell me about your family,” “What is homeschooling
for you, for your family, and for your children?” “Tell me about the way you
conduct your homeschooling”). In addition, the interviewers conducted an
open conversation on the subject of homeschooling in order to elicit indirect
comments by the interviewees regarding the meaning of homeschooling for
them. All of the participants responded to all of the questions asked during
the interview. The interviews were recorded and then transcribed.

Analysis
We used ATLAS.ti software to analyze the transcripts. One researcher carried
out the analysis. The results of this analysis were then reexamined critically by a
second researcher, according to Lincoln and Guba’s (1986) peer debriefing.
Disagreements between the two researchers were resolved through discussion.
The first stage of analysis involved analysis of the relevant texts and their
division into themes. Each segment of the text was linked to a theme whose
name reflected the written content. Sometimes a number of segments of text
were linked to the same theme. At the end of this stage, every relevant segment
of text had been linked to a theme, which in effect generated a list of themes.
In the next stage, a mapping analysis was carried out that examined
whether there were links between various themes and identified common
denominators. During this stage of the analysis, some of the themes were
divided into groups of super-themes with a common denominator.
We did not include the themes related to homeschooling as a pedagogical
choice in the analysis, and they are not described in this article, as these were
beyond the defined focus of the research question.

Results
In this section, we present our analysis of the interviews with the parents
regarding the question of what homeschooling meant to them. The results
are presented according to the super-themes that arose from the analysis.
154 A. NEUMAN AND O. GUTERMAN

Sense of family
Some of the respondents noted that the family setting was right for their
children and homeschooling was natural for them and the rest of the family
in terms of both the children’s lifestyle and their style of learning. They
referred to homeschooling, or to the child who stayed with the family and
did not go to school, as a natural “default”:
Children should live in the community within their own family. Ideally, it’s really a
tribe, but that doesn’t happen in our world. We live far from our family, but the
default is that children live within the family, the family lives within the tribe or
community, [so there] has to be a really good reason to [go to] school.
(Participant 9)

Moreover, Participant 8 said, “In our family at any rate, the home is the
center; the siblings are the center and the parents are in the center—not
society.”
These comments suggest that sending children to school is not the right
thing to do; it contradicts the desired lifestyle within the family and the
desirable learning style, which is also within the family.
I try to recall how I used to feel about school. Now it’s a lot about this being our
family, how we live; we can’t do it any other way. The thought that [name
withheld] would go to school and we would start the day—every day—without
him, that my daughters would be away from him all day and he would have all
sorts of personal and social experiences without most of his time being at home
seems very unusual to me and it doesn’t fit at all with our life. (Participant 8)

The child in the center

For some of the research participants, homeschooling was a means of placing
the child at the center of their activity. In order to enable children to express
their full potential and grant them rights regarding decisions that affected
their own lives, the parents chose to educate them at home and not send
them to school. This enabled each child to discover and explore his or her
interests at the pace and in the manner suited to the individual.
This theme of the child in the center might be considered a pedagogical
characteristic of homeschooling (in this respect, see Dewey, 1986, 1997, who
emphasized the importance of teaching according to the child in the center).
However, in the present research, it emerged as part of the holistic aspect of
homeschooling.
From this perspective, the theme of the child in the center referred to the
parents’ perceptions of the process that their children underwent within the
family, that is, the experience of reconciling family-related collectivist values
with individualist values that focus more on personal desires. Who knows
better what is right for the children—the collective (in this case, represented
 JOURNAL OF SCHOOL CHOICE 155

by the parents as the family leaders) or the individuals themselves? For

example, “Homeschooling is enabling and opens things up compared with
conventional education, which closes things . . . because homeschooling puts
the child in the center” (Participant 7) and “These are not my goals; how can
I decide? These are their goals, their life . . . I can’t decide that this is the right
way for them just because it’s good” (Participant 12).

Responsibility, choice, and control

The analysis of the interviews indicated that homeschooling enabled parents
to take responsibility for their lives and those of their children. Furthermore,
the choice of homeschooling gave the parents a great deal of responsibility—
which parents who sent their children to school transferred to the education
system. For example, “He is my child and I am responsible for him. I am with
him and I take responsibility for everything good or bad that happens to him.
I think this happens less among conventional parents” (Participant 14) and
“The whole idea of giving someone else the responsibility for education is
difficult for me” (Participant 21).
Some of the parents referred to this responsibility as a hardship, especially
with respect to the responsibility to provide the child’s learning needs.
If something doesn’t go right you have to figure out what the difficulty is yourself
. . . I think the parents of children who attend school also have responsibility, but
here it is very great and sometimes it is heavy and stressful . . . there’s the calm, but
on the other hand there are the questions when you don’t go with the mainstream:
What am I doing to my child and is it right and do I really understand him?
(Participant 4)
It’s not freedom and . . . I always said that it means taking responsibility . . .
There is no freedom here. I constantly have to be responsible for this and for that,
for the transportation of that one, and for the studies of the other one, so there’s no
freedom here. (Participant 24)

Moreover, Participant 22 said, “I have a lot of responsibility. There’s nobody

else to blame. For better or for worse.”
The findings also revealed that parents felt that homeschooling enabled
them to exercise their right of choice regarding their and their children’s
lives.
I don’t want to just let life pass by, especially not as a person who chose this [i.e.,
homeschooling]. It’s not something that someone dictated; I chose it. It gives me a
great deal of strength when I talk with you; it reinforces what I wanted to say. I
chose it every time. Even when it was very difficult, I said, “This is our choice.”
(Participant 2)

It is interesting that the parents also referred to the subject of choice and
responsibility when they spoke about their children’s education. They tried to
156 A. NEUMAN AND O. GUTERMAN

give their children the same sense of responsibility for their actions and for
exercising their right to choose. Participant 5 said, “It is also a responsibility
to come to the pool with all your swimming gear. There’s no way around it—
this is your responsibility, not mine. I always say that.”
Furthermore, some of the interviewees referred to homeschooling as a way
for them to control different aspects of their and their children’s lives, for
example, by reducing the volume of stimuli the children and adults were
exposed to in the contemporary world:

I’m talking about this class of 40 children in a room. It’s much more. I think that
our world today is full of much more stimulation than we were meant to tolerate,
and we succeed a bit in distancing ourselves from this and surviving with a slightly
lower level of stimuli . . . and this [overstimulation] attacks us every time from
every direction. I can take only as much of this as I want and am capable of, and
the children can, too. (Participant 9)
I am really very happy not to be part of that consumer culture. I’m not
interested in stores. I go to the mall once in a while and I don’t find anything. It
doesn’t interest me and really isn’t part of my world. (Participant 17)

The parents reported on their control over the study materials the children
were exposed to:

I control the study material. For instance, sometimes [name withheld] comes home
with stories, first-grade reading material that shocks me. For instance, there was a
story . . . a boy whose hair was very long and everyone laughed at him and said he
had girl’s hair and he should get a haircut. So in the end he got a haircut. The
moral of the story was that he should cut his hair, understand? (Participant 6)
It’s the films we choose with messages that we definitely accept even though
every movie with acceptable messages always has small things. We are ultimately
the main figures that they look up to, if you can say that. We have the right to
express an opinion and it is our opinion, and not the film itself that determines
things in the end. (Participant 7)

They also spoke about their control over the children’s actions and their
social encounters.

There’s more parental supervision over what the children do. We are around all
the time so they have much less opportunity to behave inappropriately, you could
say, without us or someone else knowing about it and dealing with it.
(Participant 15)
The kids at school, especially the older ones really frighten me. I also see some
cases with children and I know what it leads to; they influence each other. I know I
have a child who is very sociable and cares a lot about his peer group, so he
wouldn’t be one of those who’d sit on the sidelines. (Participant 7)
 JOURNAL OF SCHOOL CHOICE 157

Development of self-awareness
The respondents noted that in addition to the process of choice they experi-
enced and the effort to control different aspects of their lives, their deviation
from conventional conduct in terms of education and in other ways and the
need to examine each decision and question the choices customarily accepted
by the majority of the population promoted their development of self-
awareness and awareness in general.
You are in a constant process. If you do something everyone else does, you don’t
stop and think whether it is right for you. You are already into something, part of a
herd that walks forward in a given direction. But when you choose your own way,
you have to constantly think about whether it’s the right path. You constantly
check whether it’s right for you. Whatever happens to the children, you suddenly
think perhaps that’s not right. I think this is very good, because it develops
awareness and self-awareness about things in general. (Participant 1)

Moreover, Participant 3 said, “It’s infinite learning; I really love it, it appeals
to me and I discover a lot about myself through it. There were times when I
really felt stuck.”
In this respect it is also interesting that the parents referred to the principle
of developing self-awareness and self-knowing when they spoke about their
children’s education: “We enable them and encourage them to ask them-
selves such questions and to connect to themselves” (Participant 15).

Change in lifestyle
Some of the respondents noted that the choice of homeschooling had paved
their way to other choices, which changed their lifestyle. For them, the step of
leaving the education system was significant and subsequently led them to
other changes in other realms of their lives.
For the parents, the act of questioning a practice that is so widely accepted
in society—sending one’s children to school—and their success in developing
an alternative led to the questioning of other practices that they had pre-
viously taken for granted. Thus, for example, they reexamined the issue of
nutrition and began eating healthier food than they had in the past, recon-
sidered the subject of feeding infants and chose to breastfeed rather than use
formula, and also redefined the meaning of career for themselves in ways that
were not necessarily consistent with the accepted perception of the concept
but were suitable for them personally.
Since then our world has been completely different. There’s no comparison. It’s a
completely different world. It’s as though we said we’d start with one change and
now it is never ending. Things change all the time. It’s really like that, as though
the moment we thought about something so significant as the education of our
children, the mandatory education law, what most people do and so forth . . . from
158 A. NEUMAN AND O. GUTERMAN

the moment we questioned this and survived it, everything became open for
questioning. (Participant 28)
It was the sort of thing that we then also began to eat healthier food and become
aware of the whole issue of nutrition in quite an extreme way—what we wouldn’t
eat at all and what we would—things we hadn’t thought about much. It came
together, our entire life changed radically. (Participant 8)

Slowing down the pace of life

For some of the respondents, homeschooling was a way to slow down the
pace of life for them and the other members of the family. These parents
described their lifestyle before they began homeschooling as stressful and fast
moving and spoke positively about the slower pace of life and reduction of
stress that accompanied their choice to educate the children at home.
They noted that unlike in the past, the morning hours had become calm
hours when there was no obligation to get up at a set time and hurry to
get the children to school. The slower pace was also notable at other times
of the day, when it was now unnecessary, for instance, to rush to get home
from work before the children and prepare their lunch or tidy the house in
the evening and go to bed on time in order to get up early the next
morning, and so forth and so on. For example, “Life is much more relaxed
than having to get up in the morning, get the kids organized . . .”
(Participant 13) and “So my life was much more intensive before. What
happened to me was that suddenly I had the opportunity to slow down the
pace” (Participant 1).
Stopping the race of getting the kids to school at seven, the earliest possible for the
preschool, rushing to work in order to get back 1 minute before having to pick
them up, coming home and managing to get everything necessary done with the
children and tidy the house—and all that in the little time that remained—and
then going to bed thinking about what you had to do tomorrow, stopping that
crazy pace. (Participant 11)

Finally, Participant 4 said, “In most cases, you don’t have to set out at eight in
order to get to an activity. The earliest is nine, and we try to make it later. So
our entire life is much more relaxed.”
Slowing down the pace enabled the parents to be more relaxed and calm
and to devote more and higher quality time to the children. It also enabled
the children to learn at their own pace, not the one dictated by others; the
respondents considered this a more correct way of learning. The underlying
assumption of this view is that learning occurs when the learner is “avail-
able”; thus, learning at the student’s pace is effective because it takes place
when he or she is receptive—at the right time, place, and manner for the
individual. Participant 9 said, “First of all, I am much more thoughtful and
calm and take things much easier. Sometimes I just watch the children
 JOURNAL OF SCHOOL CHOICE 159

discover, find, and learn to understand all sorts of things by themselves.”

Another participant said,
There’s learning that is incidental. In other words, in school it is very selective. I
think that when children are available to absorb what they are taught, they learn,
and when they aren’t, they don’t. At home things are more open, more open to the
children’s pace. (Participant 24)

Living in the present

Some of the respondents said that for them, the transition to homeschooling
was actually a shift to living in the present rather than the future, that is,
dealing with things occurring now and not just planning ahead.
At this point in time I’m not constantly thinking about the future. On the one
hand, I am looking ahead; but on the other hand, I’m living my life in the present,
and I tell the children it’s great to live in the present with the difficulties, because
that’s our situation right now. (Participant 2)

Moreover, Participant 23 said, “The thing is that we live as though it’s mainly
about what’s happening here.”

Rectifying past experiences of school

For some of the respondents, homeschooling represented an effort to rectify
their own past experiences with school. These experiences included, among
others, being forced to study material that they were not ready for, a daily
schedule dictated by the school that was not suitable for them, and a sense
that the school “looked right through them.”
As a result of these negative experiences, which one of the respondents
even defined as a “trauma,” the parents took action to protect their children
from such experiences by educating them at home.
I know that the age of readiness for reading and writing is up to age 9. That means
it ranges from age 5 to age 9, and there are some children, like [name withheld],
who are interested and some like [name withheld], who knows all the letters and
can read but even now doesn’t enjoy it. It doesn’t interest her enough for her to sit
down and learn, so I don’t push her. I know it will come one day when she’s ready.
The day will come. As a child I suffered terribly from this and I said I would never
force my children. I sort of knew there wasn’t any alternative, but then I discovered
there was one. (Participant 1)
It bothered me terribly that I had to study for a test and I had to hand in papers
and I had to get up in the morning—all that obligation. I didn’t live near the
school; every day I had to get on a bus terribly early, and the whole thing was so
difficult for me . . . so actually we began the homeschooling as a result of our pain
and our past. (Participant 8)
160 A. NEUMAN AND O. GUTERMAN

Table 1. Focuses of meanings.

Super-Theme Themes
Control (14) Responsibility (9), choice (3), and control (5)
Family (5) Sense of family (5)
Child (6) The child in the center (6)
Lifestyle (15) Development of self-awareness (4), general change in lifestyle (3),
slowing down the pace (10), living in the present (3), and rectifying
past experiences of school (3)
Note. Numbers in parentheses represent the number of interviewees who mentioned each theme or super-
theme.

Table 1 presents the themes that arose from the interviews divided into
four super-themes. The numbers in parentheses represent the number of
interviewees who mentioned each theme or super-theme. As can be seen,
more parents referred to the super-themes of control and lifestyle than to
those of family and child. All of the themes and super-themes describe
holistic aspects of homeschooling, that is what homeschooling meant to the
parents in terms of control, family, children, and lifestyle.

Conclusions and discussion

As noted in the introduction to this article, much research has examined
homeschooling as a pedagogical practice intended to replace the conven-
tional school system. Accordingly, it has focused on different pedagogical
aspects of homeschooling, such as the curriculum, the learning process,
scholastic achievements, teaching methods, teaching materials, and
others.
However, the findings of the present research indicate that for the inter-
viewees, homeschooling was much more than a pedagogical choice and was
associated with diverse aspects of their daily lives.
It is therefore important to understand the significance of the parents’
choice of homeschooling beyond the pedagogical aspect. For some home-
schoolers, the choice of schooling at home is a life-changing decision (on
this, see also Lees, 2014). Therefore, it is important to understand the
significance of homeschooling for families not only from an educational
and pedagogical perspective but from a holistic one as well.

Focuses of meaning
Homeschooling can be considered through the focuses of meaning attributed
to this practice. The most common focus—that of pedagogy—involves var-
ious aspects of the educational process. From this point of view, one might
consider homeschooling as the ultimate form of parents’ involvement in the
education of their children (Authors, 2013).
 JOURNAL OF SCHOOL CHOICE 161

However, an investigation of the meaning of homeschooling practice from

a holistic perspective, as presented in this article, reveals additional focuses of
meaning that may deepen our understanding of our question in the present
research: “When you say homeschooling, what do you mean?” According to
our research findings, the main focuses of meaning attributed to home-
schooling are control (responsibility, choice, and control), lifestyle (develop-
ment of self-awareness, change in lifestyle, slowing down the pace, living in
the present, and rectifying past experiences of school), family (sense of
family), and child (the child in the center).
Control and lifestyle seem to be more important to the interviewees than
family or child, as more parents mentioned them (see Table 1). This may
indicate that the aspects associated with lifestyle and parents’ need for control
are central in their choice of homeschooling and in many cases even more
important than family and other aspects. It might suggest that homeschool-
ing can be seen as part of broader social changes currently under way that
also serve as the foundation for other changes in the field of education in
general. In other words, the changes in lifestyle in the postmodern era and
the greater control of individuals over their lives constitute the core of a
change being expressed in numerous social and educational processes, of
which homeschooling is only one.
The finding that home education is largely about lifestyle and control is
consistent with the conclusions of earlier research in an American context
(Stevens, 2001). In the following, we discuss the findings in order of their
importance, beginning with control and lifestyle, followed by family and
child.
Examination of homeschooling in terms of control and choice highlights
these aspects of the lives of homeschoolers. It draws our attention to ques-
tions involving the relevance of the issue of control to other aspects of the
lives of homeschoolers, the extent to which homeschoolers implement the
principle of choice in other realms, the degree of conflict between the two
principles—control and choice (e.g., giving a child choice means diminishing
some of the parent’s control)—and so forth. It would be interesting to use
psychological questionnaires to examine the behavioral aspects of the ability
of self-direction and compare parents who homeschool with parents who
send their children to school.
Examination of homeschooling in terms of the lifestyle focus of meaning
also highlights family life; it involves questions regarding the impact of
choosing homeschooling on lifestyle, the pace of life, the relative speed and
significance of the impact on different aspects of life, realms that are not
affected by the choice of homeschooling, the cultural impact of homeschool-
ing on lifestyle, and more.
The focuses on family and the role of the child are interrelated.
Examination of the practice of homeschooling in terms of these focuses of
162 A. NEUMAN AND O. GUTERMAN

meaning highlights the family life of the participants and gives rise to
questions concerning the importance of family values in the lives of home-
schoolers, the extent to which these values contradict those of socialization
and culture, the role of the child in the family constellation, the resolution of
contradictions between the values of family and of individuation that under-
lie the child-centered approach, and more. It would be interesting to conduct
research on parents’ views regarding the potential conflict between values of
family and of individuation as well as how they try to resolve this contra-
diction in practice.
Mapping out homeschooling in terms of the focuses of meaning attributed
to it (those presented here and others) could serve as a reflective tool for
parents who educate their children at home. As such they could use it to
examine the character of the homeschooling they practice in terms of the
importance they ascribe to each of these focuses of meaning. They could also
use this as a basis to trace their emphases on the different focuses of meaning
from a historic perspective, from the period before they engaged in home-
schooling (because they had no children or their children attended school)
and other significant points in their family history to the present.
Such mapping might also serve as a planning tool: It could be used to
determine goals for the future by examining the desired situation in terms of
the relative importance of the different focuses of meaning.
Correspondingly, people outside of the family or group of homeschoolers,
such as researchers and policymakers, might use such mapping to better
understand the different families that engage in homeschooling based on the
focuses of meaning they ascribe to the practice.

Historical development
As mentioned briefly earlier, education took place at home and was one of
the aspects of daily life (education is life) throughout most of human history
(Brubacher, 1947; Romi & Shmida, 2009). The Industrial Revolution created
the necessity to separate education; it was organized to take place at set times
in set places and was not connected to daily life.
Examination of the current trend of homeschooling as a pedagogical
choice alone perpetuates this separation between life and education. From
this point of view, the most significant difference between schooling and
homeschooling is that in the latter, education takes place at home instead of
school.
Examination of homeschooling from a holistic perspective reveals that it
embodies a trend of returning to a practice of education as one of the
aspects of daily life that accordingly takes place at home. The study of
homeschooling as a pedagogical choice alone is liable to blur this impor-
tant trend.
 JOURNAL OF SCHOOL CHOICE 163

In comparison, research on homeschooling as a holistic practice may

reveal the close relationship that has been reestablished between education
and life. Even though the choice of the parents in the present research to
educate their children at home might be considered a pedagogical one, for
them homeschooling was more than that. It actually constituted a choice to
restore the connection of aspects of learning and education with other
aspects of life, such as issues of control, family, child, and lifestyle.
The separation of life from education was a characteristic of the modern
period. However, the reconnection between life and education in present
times represents a universal development occurring in many places in the
Western world, including Israel. It is particularly important to consider this,
as it reflects a dramatic change in the way children are being raised and
educated. One sign of this is the steady increase over the past decades in the
number of children being homeschooled in different countries throughout
the Western world.
Figure 1 is a schematic description of our view of the development of the
relationship between education and the home. Point A represents the period
in which life and education were connected (most of history). Point B
signifies the time of the Industrial Revolution, when education and instruc-
tion were separated from daily life and became the realm of the school. Point
C represents a view of contemporary homeschooling as a purely pedagogical
practice, an alternative to education at school. Point D illustrates the result of
a holistic view of homeschooling, which reveals it as an attempt to return to
the premodern period and reconnect home and education.
Naturally, in modern times (represented in the figure by Point B), there
were situations when life and education were connected (as reflected in
Dewey’s theory of life and education). However, the prevailing trend was
one in which education took place detached from life, both physically (in a
different place, namely, the school) and in terms of content.

Figure 1. Schematic description of our view of the development of the relationship between
education and the home. HS = homeschooling.
164 A. NEUMAN AND O. GUTERMAN

Limitations
In considering the conclusions of the present research, some limitations
should be taken into account. Some researchers divide homeschooling into
two streams: structured and unstructured homeschooling, also referred to as
homeschooling and unschooling, respectively. This division is grounded in
different pedagogical approaches, and the research described here did not
examine the difference between parents who hold different pedagogical
approaches. It would be interesting to conduct research from a holistic
perspective that examines the differences between these two perspectives
and the relevant focuses of meaning that each group respectively attributes
to homeschooling.
It is reasonable to assume that the focuses of meaning identified among
homeschoolers are associated with the length of time the families have
engaged in this practice. For example, we would expect families that have
educated their children at home for a long time to mention more aspects of
lifestyle compared with newer homeschoolers. It might be interesting to
design a follow-up study regarding the correspondence of the focuses of
meaning attributed to homeschooling and the length of the participants’
experience with homeschooling.
Home education is primarily a decision made by parents regarding their
children, and therefore the current research explored the way in which
parents perceive home education. It would be very interesting in future
research to examine the same research question among homeschooled
children.
The present research was based on the declarative level of information; the
parents presented their attitudes and perceptions in response to questions
about what homeschooling meant to them. The results of such research
contribute interesting insights into the worldview of parents as expressed
on the declarative level; however, they are still limited to the realm of
perceptions and attitudes.
Further research should examine how this declarative level is expressed in
practice, particularly with regard to the focuses of meaning that arose here.
For example, it would be interesting to investigate the extent to which the
principle of choice or the principle of child-centeredness is expressed in
homeschoolers’ lives.
In addition, the findings of the present research indicate that parents
perceive homeschooling not only as a pedagogical act but as a holistic
practice that affects many different aspects of their lives. This study was
conducted using a qualitative methodology. It would be interesting to try to
validate these findings using quantitative research methods by means of
questionnaires. Our search did not reveal any questionnaires of this type;
therefore, it would be interesting in further research to create such
 JOURNAL OF SCHOOL CHOICE 165

instruments. An investigation of that type would enable examination of the

correlations between different items as well as their relative weights and
perhaps help to construct a psychometric scale for interviews related to
homeschooling.
It is important to consider the effect of mothers’ characteristics on their views.
Variables such as level of education, number of children, and degree of religi-
osity could have an impact on perceptions. In the present research, the sample
size precluded examination of these aspects. It would be interesting in further
research to study the way in which they affect the attitudes examined here.

Summary
The present research was intended to expand the set of concepts used in
reference to homeschooling (also known as elective home education) and to
support the argument that a holistic approach would reveal additional focuses
of meaning to that of pedagogy. The study of homeschooling from a broader
conceptual perspective may further the understanding of this practice, serve as a
reflective tool, provide a planning instrument for homeschoolers, and reveal
contemporary homeschooling as a return to earlier times when education and
life were interwoven and took place primarily at home.
The present article is another step toward a growing understanding of the
factors that underlie the rapidly increasing practice of homeschooling. This
research may contribute to a broader perspective on homeschooling.
Exploring homeschooling beyond its pedagogical aspect enables us to look
at it as part of much broader social trends and in the overall context of
human existence in terms of life and education—its connection to our past,
what it means in the present, and perhaps also how it might help shape our
future.

Acknowledgments
Ari Neuman and Oz Guterman contributed equally to this article.

Funding
This research was conducted with assistance from the Center for Literacy at Western Galilee
Academic College.

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