DEPARTMENT OF

EDUCATIONAL
STUDIES
Faculty of
Human Sciences

Parental Choice to Home Educate in Australia

AMY THOMAS, DR ANNE MCMAUGH & DR KERRY HODGE

KEY FINDINGS
42 Australian parents
Parents’ views of school
of children identified as
 76% of responses indicated
gifted or high ability
dissatisfaction with school
who had experienced was a reason leading to
both school and home home education choice.
education completed an
 63%
online survey. The
believed
survey investigated their child’s
factors leading to home
needs were
education and parents’
not met or
perceptions of both partly met in WAS NOT A GOOD FIT
their child’s access to school due
gifted education to their last
practices and their teacher’s
child’s engagement in capabilities in gifted
education.
home and school
settings.  25% of children were
accelerated at school.
 87% believed their child
should have been
accelerated at least one
It is important to year at school.
note that this
 Gifted practices
research focused recommended by Karen
only on parent Rogers (2007) were
perceptions. available at least some of
the time in home education
but not available at least
some of the time in school.
These included:
opportunities for challenge,
independent work, working at a
higher grade level, adjustment
of review and practice, and
access to like-minded peers.
Parents’ views of
home education
80% OF PARENTS
 Their child’s needs
BELIEVED SCHOOL were met through:
interests addressed;
FOR THEIR CHILD. appropriate
curriculum pace and
challenge; support
for child; removal of social or
emotional triggers; access to a
broad range of people, including
like-minds; more suitable
physical environment.
 They would return their children
to school (91%) if their child
wanted to go, if their child’s
needs could be met at school, if
school systems improved or if
home education was no longer
working.
 Overall, parents reported good
relationships with their home
education body.

CHILD AND FAMILY DEMOGRAPHICS

 Average length of home education for each child: 3.6 years.
 50% of focus children were identified as twice exceptional
(gifted with a learning disability or challenge).
 Over 20% of parents had professional backgrounds in
education.
DEPARTMENT OF
EDUCATIONAL
STUDIES
Faculty of
Human Sciences

PARENT PERCEPTIONS OF CHILD AVERAGE CHILD

ENGAGEMENT IN SCHOOL AND HOME ENGAGEMENT
Engagement scales measured parent SCORES IN HOME AND
perceptions of their child’s engagement in school SCHOOL
and home education and gave scores of emotional, ENVIRONMENTS
behavioural and cognitive engagement in each Home School

environment. Parents’ perceptions of child emotional 40

ENGAGEMENT SCORES
and cognitive engagement were significantly higher 30

in home education than in school. There was no 20

significant difference in parents’ perception of 10

behavioural engagement across the two settings. 0

EMOTIONAL BEHAVIOURAL COGNITIVE
TYPE OF ENGAGEMENT
WHAT IS CHILD ENGAGEMENT?

For this study, child engagement was defined as having three components. Behavioural
engagement refers to active participation and involvement in social, academic or
extracurricular activities. Emotional engagement refers to emotional responses to teachers,
peers and academics that can influence a child’s motivation to do schoolwork. It also involves a
child’s sense of belonging to a school community and willingness to be involved. Cognitive
engagement involves an investment in learning, being thoughtful and having a willingness to
apply effort to mastery of skills, concepts or ideas.

INDICATORS OF ENGAGEMENT IN SCHOOL AND

HOME
Parent responses indicated disengagement with
school was a factor in the decision to home educate.
For example, boredom, lack of interest, emotional
reactions to peers, teachers and the school, and
lacking a sense of belonging to school were indicative
of emotional disengagement. Cognitive
acceleration or a lack of investment or willingness of
the child to put in effort. Behavioural
disengagement was recorded less often and was
indicated by examples of perceived child behavioural
issues in classrooms.
In summary, parent responses indicated that 57% –

disengagement from school was indicated through 68% of all responses were indicative of child

responses relating to an absence of challenge, disengagement at school. In contrast, 76% of

responses were indicative of engagement factors in
home education.

Thank you to all the families who participated in this study.

FIND OUT MORE

Macquarie University NSW 2109 Australia
amy.thomas@mq.edu.au
anne.mcmaugh@mq.edu.au
kerry.hodge@mq.edu.au

CRICOS Provider 00002J