This paper troubles the narrative around childhood as a 'timeless zone' (James and Prout 2015), which is particularly evident in the performative culture of education. Conversational-style interviews -- and in some cases, re-interviews -- were conducted with four UK Mums during their time of COVID-19 home-schooling. Subsequent interpretive…

This paper presents a constructivist grounded theory on the decision-making process that UK home and alternative educators undertake and the related influencing factors. Twenty-one participants from a diverse range of backgrounds were interviewed between one and three times over a two-year period. Some were current home and alternative educators…

This is a first-hand account of a head teacher's quest to bridge the digital divide in a school catchment of considerable disadvantage in the late 1990s and early 2000s. It describes the Microsoft Anytime Anywhere Learning project (AAL), which the school helped to pioneer in the UK. From this, the paper aims to provide some fresh perspectives on…

There is little literature which provides any analysis regarding the relationship between cultural order and home education. Research reported here found that home education has grown steadily in recent decades and that parents' motivation for home education was closely associated with cultural order. It was noticeable that Christian and Confucian…

Parents of children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) took part in an online survey that explored their experiences of home-schooling during the coronavirus pandemic. Two hundred and thirty-eight parents from the UK responded to 49 questions about the resources and support they had received, their management and feelings…

Home-schooling, or 'elective home education' (EHE) as it is more commonly known in the UK, invites contestation and controversies. Drawing on a UK-wide study of 242 families this paper explores a collection of EHE pedagogic practices within the socially situated contexts of doing everyday life. Through an application of Bernsteinian ideas, the…

A common perception of home education is that despite potential beneficial educational outcomes, children who are home educated lack social experiences and therefore show poor social development. However, previous research in this area suggests that home educated children demonstrate a range of age-appropriate social skills. This research has…

This paper has two aims, first to examine the feasibility of using an omnibus survey to estimate the prevalence and characteristics of families who home educate and secondly to provide an empirical contribution to recent research on home education in the UK. Because there is no statutory requirement for families who home educate to register with…

This small-scale study investigates the perspectives of parents whose children have special educational needs/disabilities and who have elected to withdraw their children from the state-maintained education system in England and educate them at home. The study draws on data gathered from seven parents and their perspectives of home education…

Once societies embarked on programmes of mass education home schooling became essentially a middle-class project and remains so. This paper looks at the educational experiences of some lower middle class women at the turn of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries for whom the resources of the middle-class home were simply not available. It…

Elective Home Education is a legal, minority approach to the compulsory education of children. I review the potential contribution of the historical analysis of "domestic pedagogies", presented in this Special Issue, for home education practice in the UK. By drawing on narratives of a period at the cusp of the perceived normalcy of…

Despite the abundance of legislation and research initiatives concerning children's participation in decision-making, there is less research in this area with regard to extended school non-attenders. Using semi-structured interviews, this research explores how the views of children and their families who have experienced school non-attendance can…

Drawing upon Islamic epistemology to confront the challenges of a postcolonial world, some European Muslims are rejecting existing educational provision, seeking to formulate culturally-coherent pedagogy. This paper contributes to the debate on Islamic schools in Britain through the findings of a qualitative study of a British Muslim community…

The home-education of children is one "choice" of provision that is often overlooked or unreported in the debate on inclusive education for children with disabilities or special educational needs. This study aimed to access the views of these hard-to-reach home-educating families through an online survey. Twenty-seven parents, with at…

Background: There is general agreement across all interested parties that a process of working together is the best way to determine which school or educational setting is right for an individual child with autism spectrum disorder. In the UK, families and local authorities both desire a constructive working relationship and see this as the best…