Learning with Mothers

Learning with Mothers

A Study of Home Schooling in China

Xiaoming Sheng

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Acknowledgements

vii

Preface

ix

Chapter 1: Introduction

Chapter 2: Research Contexts

Chapter 3: Parental Motivation: Why Do Parents Practise Home Education?

53

Chapter 4: Parental Involvement in Home Schooling

61

Chapter 5: Class Strategy and Home Schooling: Why Does Social Class Matter? 89
Chapter 6: Gender and Home Schooling: Why It Is Mothers?

101

Chapter 7: A Case Study of Home Schooling in Shanghai

111

Chapter 8: Conclusions and Policy Implications

123

References

133

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

This book was written during a period in which my father was very ill and my mother
was recovering from a serious traffic accident. This book is for my parents. I would
like to show my gratitude to them for their love and support during the whole period
of this research study. I would like to express my most sincere gratitude to Sister
Siu for her belief in me and full support all the time. I am also very thankful for the
support from Sheila. Without their support, I could not have started my research and
finished this book.
There are too many people who have helped me to acknowledge fully here. I
wish to thank to all the interviewees and respondents involved in the process of the
qualitative data collection for their kind and full support during the period of my
fieldwork.
Xiaoming Sheng
September 2013

vii

PREFACE

When I was engaged in a research project focusing on parents involvement in

Beijing, I started to get to know a group of homeschooling families in Beijing. From
this I began to take a special interest in the research topic of home schooling in China.
Since then I have devoted myself to exploring the motivation of homeschooling
families, the process of home schooling and its outcomes through document review,
observations, and various forms of interview over the past few years.
Home schooling is at an early stage: for the public, researchers, media and
educational authorities in China it is mysterious and even abnormal or odd. Yet the
research relating to homeschooling families has been entirely ignored. In particular
the literature grounded in empirical research and focusing on gender role and the
impacts of social class is negligible in the educational context of China. The public,
parents and researchers have many questions about home schooling, and many
researchers and middle-class parents in China are taking a specific interest in this
educational phenomenon.
This book uniquely provides comprehensive first-hand data and an in-depth
analysis of home schooling in the Chinese context. This book aims to contribute to
the literature and reveal the motivation, teaching process, and experiences of homeschooling families in China. Meanwhile, what is happening in the development
of home schooling in China is anticipated to contribute to the literature of home
schooling in world wide. The objectives of this book, then, are to adopt a sociocultural
perspective and used relevant conceptual tools to examine existing social differences
in terms of gender and social class in the process of home schooling in the context
of China.

ix

CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION

Chinese society has been experiencing a period of transition from a planned, centrally
controlled economy to a market economy since 1978. The relevant literature
indicates that the social transformation has been an impetus for, and is reflected in,
educational changes (Fagerlind and Saha, 1989; Carnoy and Samoff, 1990). Parents,
particularly middle-class parents, are willing to strive for the best education for
their children, which has led to a noticeable change in parental choices regarding
childrens education. Such choices have become varied and diversified. Middleclass parents are enthusiastic about the individual education and having a variety
of educational services from which to choose. When the above forces combine, the
requirements of middle-class families in terms of their childrens education have
resulted in the emergence of various forms of alternative education. In the first years
of the 21st century, home schooling, as an educational phenomenon, has emerged in
the big cities of China, such as Beijing and Shanghai.
However, being a marginal educational phenomenon, the study of home schooling
has been entirely ignored in the educational context of China, perhaps because
homeschooling families have generally been dissatisfied with mainstream schooling,
or because the majority of such families have strong religious beliefs. There is no
literature that has systematically examined parental decisions to school their children
at home or how parents are involved in home schooling in China. In particular the
literature grounded in empirical research and focusing on gender role and the impacts
of social class is negligible in China. This book therefore seeks to examine whether
there are social class differences in the process of deciding to educate children at home
and, if so, to explore what they are. In addition, I will draw specific attention to gender
differences in the practice of home schooling. This book attempts to use a rich body of
qualitative data to provide in-depth information about the demographic characteristics
of homeschooling parents, the motivations for home schooling in the context of China,
the process of practising it and its relevant academic and social outcomes.
In seeking answers to the above questions, this book uses theoretical tools in
order to explore social differences in terms of social class and gender in the practice
of home schooling. I suggest that the experiences of Western researchers may
provide some useful analytical tools. Bourdieus concepts, such as capital, can be
seen as a useful lens in the exploration of social inequality in terms of class and
gender (McNay, 1999; Lawler, 2004; DiMaggio and Mukhtar, 2004; Reay et al.,
2005; Bennett et al., 2009; Sheng, 2012a, 2012b, 2013b). As DiMaggio and Mukhtar
(2004:99) assert, scholars from around the world have contributed to the literature
that focuses on the relationship between family background, cultural capital and
1

CHAPTER 1

the influences of cultural capital on educational outcomes, not merely in Western

Europe and the USA, but Eastern Europe, Latin America and Asia.
Bourdieus concepts and the cultural reproduction model have proved to be useful
in the exploration of social stratification and social class in a range of socialist and
communist countries, as well as in the context of China. There is extensive literature
that supports the claim that Bourdieus theoretical framework, particularly the
concepts of capital and habitus, is valuable in terms of understanding the reproduction
of inequality in socialist and communist countries (Mateju, 2002; Mink, 2002;
Outhwait, 2007). Also a number of empirical studies which have emerged from
the socialist societies of Eastern Europe have provided strong evidence to support
cultural capital theory and the reproduction of culture (Ganzeboom et al., 1990;
Mateju and Peschar, 1990). In the last few decades Bourdieus concepts, as well as
his cultural reproduction model and cultural mobility model, have been central to a
number of Chinese studies. Bourdieus concept of cultural capital is used to explore
inequality and social stratification in urban China (Liu, 2005; Li, 2005; Sheng,
2012a, 2013a). Sheng (2012a, 2012b, 2013b) argues that Bourdieus conceptual
framework and his cultural reproduction model have applicability to the context of
socialist China. Accordingly Bourdieus concepts of cultural, social and economic
capital have been utilized to examine class and gender differences in the process of
practising home schooling in the context of China.
THE FOCUS OF THE BOOK

As a marginal educational phenomenon, academic researchers have failed to examine

the development of home education in the context of China. Policy-makers and
education officials have had little substantive information about home schooling.
This book reports the findings of a data-based research study of home schooling
families in urban China in order to provide in-depth information about the demographic
characteristics of home schooling parents, the motivations for home schooling in
China, the process of practising it and its outcomes. This book mainly focuses upon
several issues, including social stratification, gender and home schooling, which
are now attracting scholarly interest and public attention. This book arises from an
empirical study which was based on Bourdieus theory. The strongest aspect of this
book in my opinion is the fact that research on cultural capital, social stratification,
gender and home schooling is relatively sparse in the Chinese context. The book may
facilitate further discussion and bring a timely well-argued analysis of home schooling,
social stratification and gender to English-speaking readers as well as Chinese readers.
The secondary aim of this book is to take a sociocultural perspective and develop
an analytical framework regarding home schooling in the Chinese context. Nearly
all the literature focusing on home schooling is descriptive rather than theoretical.
The topic of home schooling seems to be less theorised. This book is firmly based
on Bourdieus theoretical framework to provide an insight into how social class and
gender differences influence parental involvement in childrens home schooling. It
2

INTRODUCTION

has adopted a sociocultural perspective and utilized Bourdieus concepts to conduct

an empirical research study of homeschooling families in contemporary Chinese
society. The book seeks to examine social differences in terms of social class and
gender in the process of practising home schooling in China and also takes account
of gender differences in relation to parental involvement.
The discussion on gender issues is a distinctive topic that is rarely found in Chinas
literature on social and education issues. In this book, the role of mothers is seen to
be central to understandings of parental involvement in childrens home schooling.
Furthermore, the majority of the literature that exists in the UK, the USA, Canada
and Australia tends to focus solely on the voice of mothers, but not that of fathers.
In this book, the involvement of fathers is also discussed. Moreover, I am especially
interested in exploring the reasons that mothers are almost always the parents who
practise home schooling, not fathers. An in-depth analysis of the process of home
schooling is provided with the aim of making effective suggestions to policy-makers,
educational officials and parents. Several research questions are posed in this book:
Who is practising home schooling? Why do parents choose to home school their
children? How are parents involved in their home schooling? What is accomplished
in doing so? Further, what are the social class differences operating in the decision
to practise home schooling? Why is the homeschooling parent almost always the
mother? In brief, this research study aims to reveal the motivation, teaching process
and experiences of homeschooling families through document review, observations,
and various forms of interviews in order to provide an insight into home schooling,
this alternative educational path for children in current China.
There are several limitations to my work which I would like to make clear here.
Firstly, as I indicated previously, home schooling is illegal under current educational
law. In this specific circumstance, the participants were primarily homeschooling
parents who registered for a training programme provided by a church in Beijing.
There might have been a number of parents who operated home education on
an individual basis who were overlooked in this research study. Secondly, I paid
particular attention to the parental involvement in childrens home schooling, while
focusing less on the children as some parents refused to let their children be involved
in this research. Thirdly, I also recognise that in line with Kleins (2006) argument,
the complexities of home educators in the context of China may not be captured by
simplistic typologies. In this book I have attempted to develop a typology of the
main characteristics of homeschooling families, as well as the intra-class differences
within the middle classes in China. However, as only 24 middle-class mothers and
eight middle-class fathers were interviewed, the typology needs to be seen as tentative
and indicative and requiring further research to test out its wider applicability.
THE STRUCTURE OF THE BOOK

A brief description of the research contexts of this research will be covered in the
next chapter. In Chapter Two an introduction focusing on social classification in the
3

CHAPTER 1

contemporary Chinese transitional society will be provided. Then the main analytical
tools will be introduced, including cultural capital, social capital, economic capital,
and habitus, followed by a description of the different volumes of cultural, social and
economic capital possessed by parents from the different social groups. A summary
will be provided of recent research focusing on home schooling in the Western
context. Then a brief note on the research background to home schooling in China
will be given. Finally, this chapter will briefly describe the research strategies and
research methods adopted by this research.
Chapters Three to Four focus on the findings generated by the analysis of the
qualitative data. Chapter Four provides in-depth information regarding the motivations
for home schooling and the demographic characteristics of home schooling parents
in China. It begins with a description of the reasons that homeschooling themselves
parents decided to provide education for their children, followed by a brief summary
of which people practicing home schooling for their children. Chapter Four discusses
the process of practising home schooling and several primary aspects of this process
are covered: the feelings of parents, the choice of textbooks, teaching content,
teaching methods, and the influence of religious belief.
Chapter Five is concerned with Bourdieus concepts, including cultural, social
and economic capital, and explores the ways in which the familial resources affect
the process of practising home schooling in China. There is specific discussion of
the ways in which the different volumes of cultural, social and economic capital that
families possess influence the ability of parents to mobilize their childrens cultural
capital through the practice of home schooling.
In Chapter Six, gender differences in relation to home schooling are explored. It
begins with a description of gender differences as they relate to parental involvement
in the process of home education. This chapter then presents an in-depth analysis of
the reasons that mothers are almost always the parent who practises home schooling,
not fathers. Finally, based on the qualitative data of this research, I specially address
the way in which fathers are involved in their childrens home schooling.
Chapter Seven pays particular attention to the description of the case studies of
home schooling in Shanghai. It begins with a brief description of the development
of Meng Mu Tang in Shanghai since 2006. I then provide a short discussion of the
outcomes of the form of home education referred to as Meng Mu Tang. Chapter
Eight begins with a brief summary of findings with a focus on social differences in
terms of social class and gender in the home education process. In particular this
research provides an insight into the intra-class differences within the middle classes
in relation to decision-making and practising home education in China. Finally, the
implications for educational policies and practices are explored.

CHAPTER 2

RESEARCH CONTEXTS

In this chapter the reasons that this research adopted a sociological perspective on
education will be explained. The chapter begins with a theoretical review of why
Bourdieus theory was chosen from among a number of sociological theories which
focus on social inequality in academic settings. Secondly, a description of Bourdieus
main concepts, such as capital, habitus and distinction are given, followed by an
introduction to the application of Bourdieus concepts in China. Then I provide a
brief review of past literature on home schooling, which includes the motivations,
the outcomes, and the influential factors regarding home schooling, and who chooses
to home school their children? An overall review of the relevant studies which focus
on the issues of social class, gender and home schooling will be given. Thirdly, I will
present the contexts of home schooling. Fourthly, I will provided a brief introduction
relating to the legal situation of home schooling in the Western countries, followed
by a introduction of legal situation regarding home schooling in China. Finally,
I will describe the research methodology of this research, including the research
strategy, research design, pilot study, secondary research, semi-structured interview,
sampling, and interview practice.
CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK

Studies have provided an abundance of evidence to support the notion of social

inequality relating to class and gender in academic settings. The relationships between
social classes, gender and education in the Western countries has been researched
frequently over a period of time. In this context there exist a considerable number
of different viewpoints about theory among sociologists. One important point of
difference is between those whose main aim is to explore the structural fit between
the education system and the economic order (Bowles and Gintis, 1976) and those
who attempt to explore how certain cultural norms and cultural practices which
support the middle classes are transmitted and reproduced within the educational
system (Bourdieu, 1973, 1977, 1984, 1986, 1990; Bourdieu and Passeron, 1977;
Bourdieu and Wacquant, 1992).
As noted by Mottier (2002:345), Pierre Bourdieus reputation as one of the most
important social theorists of our time is uncontested in the Anglo-Saxon context. As
a reproduction theorist Bourdieu developed a system of conceptions, such as capital,
habitus, field and distinction, which provide an ideal theoretical means to research
the sociology of education (DiMaggio, 1982; DiMaggio and Mohr, 1985; Calhoun
et al., 1993; Mohr and DiMaggio, 1995; Lareau, 1987, 1989, 2000; Robbins, 1991,
5

CHAPTER 2

1993; Grenfell et al. 1998; Sullivan, 2001; Brantlinger, 1993, 2003; Bennett et al.,
2009). As Nash (1999:124) has pointed out, Bourdieus central concept of habitus
offers a powerful tool for observing and understanding the experiences of social
agents in order to gain knowledge of the ways in which social structures have their
impact on practice.
Bourdieus concepts, in particular, that of capital and habitus, have had a
significant influence on British and American research on the family, cultural capital
and educational attainment (DiMaggio, 1982; DiMaggio and Mohr, 1985; Lamont,
1992; Lareau, 1987; Lamont and Lareau, 1988; Katsillis and Rubinson, 1990;
Bryson, 1996; Holt, 1997, 1998; Aschaffenburg and Maas, 1997; Roscigno and
Ainsworth-Darnell, 1999; De Graaf et al., 2000; Lizardo, 2004); family background
and childrens educational attainment (Dimaggio, 1982; DiMaggio and Mohr, 1985;
Mohr and DiMaggio, 1995; Katsillis and Rubinson, 1990; Niehof and Ganzeboom,
1996; Kalmijn and Kraaykamp, 1996; Sullivan, 2001); and the influences of parental
cultural capital on parents knowledge of childrens college admission procedures
(Weis, 1988; McDonough, 1997; Thomas, 2002). Several scholars have also
integrated Bourdieus concept of habitus to explore the influences of habitus on
students educational attainment (McDonough, 1997; Thomas, 2002).
A large number of studies have revealed that cultural capital continues to be
significant in socialist societies (Kolosi, 1988; Kolosi and Vnuk-Lipinski, 1983;
Mateju and Peschar, 1990; Robert, 1990; Ganzeboom et al., 1990). There is both
evidence and arguments to support the use of Bourdieus concepts in relation to
socialist and communist countries. As Outhwaite (2007) argues, Bourdieus model
of class, framed as it is in terms of cultural capital and habitus, makes a valuable
contribution to the understanding of the restoration of capitalism in the postcommunist period.
In the past few decades, Bourdieus concepts have been central to a number of
Chinese studies. For example, at the theoretical level, growing attention has been
focused on Bourdieus conceptual framework and the theory of the reproduction
of culture (Xiao, 1996; Wang, 2000; Hong, 2000; Li, 2001; Li, 2003; Guo,
2005; Chen, 2006; Niu and Bai, 2006). Employing educational and sociological
perspectives, several researchers have attempted to provide a better understanding
of the implications of Bourdieus concept of capitals in the context of China (Zhu,
2005; Guo, 2005; Zhu, 2007). Zhu (2007) has conducted a theoretical analysis of the
impact of Bourdieus cultural capital on the economic sphere in China. He argues
that variations in individual educational level are associated with differential access
to various occupational positions (Zhu, 2007).
In the past few decades, Bourdieus concept of cultural capital has been used to
examine social stratification and inequality (Li, 2005; Sheng, 2012b, 2013b). Social
capital has been employed to explore social relationships in urban China (Yang,
1994) and examine the influences of family background on childrens educational
attainment (Sheng, 2012a, 2012b). Bourdieus concept of habitus has been adopted to
explore gender differences in terms of parental involvement in childrens educational
6

RESEARCH CONTEXTS

choices (Sheng, 2012a, 2012b, 2013b). These studies have highlighted a number
of strengths and weaknesses in the application of Bourdieus conceptual tools in
contemporary Chinese transitional society. In this research, Bourdieus concepts of
cultural, social and economic capital and habitus have been employed to examine
the social class and gender differences in terms of parental involvement in childrens
schooling. The analysis of social class differences has attempted to fill some of the
theoretical gaps existing in the Chinese educational research by focusing on internal
class differences within social classes.
Capital
Capital is a key concept of Bourdieus theory. The concepts of capital have played
a vital role in educational research since the work of Bourdieu and Passeron (1977)
on reproduction in education first emerged. In particular Bourdieus conception
of capital is widely used in the sociology of education and has made a major
contribution towards explaining and understanding social inequality and difference,
and gender and class reproduction. So what is the meaning of capital? For Bourdieu,
capital can be seen as not only something that is owned, such as real estate, but
also something that is embodied, which exists in both material and symbolic forms
(Bourdieu, 1986). In Bourdieus sense the amount of capital that can be accumulated
by an individual makes a significant contribution to determining an individuals
social status (Bourdieu, 1986).
The conceptions of capital offered by Bourdieu mainly include social, cultural,
economic and symbolic capital. According to Bourdieu (1986), the concept of
cultural capital exists in different forms, to which there are two aspects: firstly,
incorporation in the form of education and knowledge and secondly, the symbolic,
which emphasises aesthetic values, standards and styles. Cultural capital can be
seen as access to characteristics, knowledge, skills and forms of expression that are
culturally valued (Bourdieu, 1986:243). In the view of Bourdieu (1986:241), the
educational system makes a contribution to the reproduction of the social structure
by sanctioning the hereditary transmission of cultural capital.
Cultural capital
Cultural capital consists of three forms in Bourdieus theoretical framework,
namely, which are institutional, objectified and embodied cultural capital.
Institutional forms are regarded as formal certificates, such as academic degrees
and diplomas. Objectified forms are found in the form of cultural resources, such
as books, instruments or art works. Embodied cultural capital is seen in the form
of long-lasting dispositions of the mind and body (Bourdieu and Passeron, 1979).
Cultural capital is understood as access to characteristics, knowledge, skills and
forms of expression that are culturally valued (Bourdieu, 1986:243). Bourdieu
suggests that:
7

CHAPTER 2

Cultural capital can exist in three forms: in the embodied state, i.e. in the form
of long-lasting dispositions of the mind and body; in the objectified state, in the
form of cultural goods (pictures, books, dictionaries, instruments, machines,
etc.), which are the trace or realization of theories or critiques of these theories,
problematics, etc.; and in the institutionalized state, a form of objectification
which must be set apart because, as will be seen in the case of educational
qualifications, it confers entirely original properties on the cultural capital
which it is presumed to guarantee. (Bourdieu, 1986:243)
Institutional forms are regarded as formal certificates, such as educational
qualifications. As Bourdieu (1996, 170) asserts, in the judgments and classifiable
practices, certain educational qualifications may be considered to be distinctive
signs, which can be used to distinguish a class from other social groups. Objectified
forms are found in the form of cultural resources, such as books, artefacts, dictionaries,
instruments and art works (ibid.). Bourdieu defines symbolic capital as capital in
whatever form insofar as it is represented, that is, apprehended symbolically, in
a relationship of knowledge or, more precisely, of misrecognition and recognition,
[which] presupposes the intervention of the habitus, as a socially constituted
cognitive capacity (Bourdieu, 1986: 255). According to Bourdieu (1986:244-245),
embodied cultural capital is referred to as external wealth converted into an integral
part of the person, into a habitus. As Bourdieu (1986:244) states:
it implies a labour of inculcation and assimilation, costs time, time which
must be invested personally by the investorthe work of acquisition is work
on oneself (self-improvement), an effort that presupposes a personal cost
an investment, above all of time, but also of that socially constituted form of
libido,with all the privation, renunciation, and sacrifice that it may entail
(Bourdieu, 1986: 244).
As for the concept of the embodied cultural capital, Bourdieu (1986) states:
This embodied capital, external wealth converted into an integral part of the
person, into a habitus, cannot be transmitted instantaneously (unlike money,
property rights, or even titles of nobility) by gift or bequest, purchase or
exchange. It follows that the use or exploitation of cultural capital presents
particular problems for the holders of economic or political capital, whether
they be private patrons or, at the other extreme, entrepreneurs employing
executives endowed with a specific cultural competence (not to mention the
new state patrons) (Bourdieu, 1986-244-245).
Bourdieu (1986: 245) describes the objectified state of cultural capital as follows:
in the objectified state, cultural capital has a number of properties which
are defined only in the relationship with cultural capital in its embodied form.
The cultural capital objectified in material objects and media, such as writings,
paintings, monuments, instruments, etc., is transmissible in its materiality. A
8

RESEARCH CONTEXTS

collection of paintings, for example, can be transmitted as well as economic

capital (if not better, because the capital transfer is more disguised) (Bourdieu,
1986: 245).
Social capital
For Bourdieu (1986), social capital is described as the aggregate of the actual or
potential resources which are linked to possession of a durable network of more
or less institutionalised relationships (Bourdieu, 1986:244). These relationships are
more or less enacted, and so maintained and reinforced, in exchanges. On the basis
of indissoluble material and symbolic exchanges, the establishment and maintenance
of which presuppose reacknowledgement of proximity, they are also partially
irreducible to objective relations of proximity in physical (geographical) space or
even in economic and social space. The volume of the social capital possessed by a
given agent thus depends on the size of the network of connections he can effectively
mobilise and on the volume of the capital (economic, cultural or symbolic) possessed
in his own right by each of those to whom he is connected (Bourdieu, 1986:252). As
Bourdieu (1986: 248) states:
Social capital is the aggregate of the actual or potential resources which are
linked to possession of a durable network of more or less institutionalized
relationships of mutual acquaintance and recognition or in other words, to
membership in a group which provides each of its members with the backing
of the collectivity - owned capital, a credential which entitles them to credit,
in the various senses of the word. These relationships may exist only in the
practical state, in material and/or symbolic exchanges which help to maintain
them. They may also be socially instituted and guaranteed by the application
of a common name (the name of a family, a class, or a tribe or of a school, a
party, etc.) and by a whole set of instituting acts designed simultaneously to
form and inform those who undergo them; in this case, they are more or less
really enacted and so maintained and reinforced, in exchanges. (Bourdieu,
1986:248)
Social capital works within social groups and networks in the form of exchanges,
social obligations, and symbols to define group membership, fix boundaries and
create a sense of belonging (Bourdieu, 1993). Bourdieu (1986:248) asserts that the
volume of the social capital possessed by a given agent thus depends on the size
of the network of connections he can effectively mobilise and on the volume of
the capital (economic, cultural or symbolic) possessed in his own right by each of
those to whom he is connected. The existence of a network of connections is not
a natural given, or even a social given, constituted once and for all by an initial act
of an institution, represented, in the case of the family group, by the genealogical
definition of kinship relations, which is the characteristic of a social formation
(Bourdieu, 1986:248).
9

CHAPTER 2

In Bourdieus sense, the network of relationships is the product of investment

strategies, individual or collective, consciously or unconsciously aimed at
establishing or reproducing social relationships that are directly usable in the short or
long term, i.e., at transforming contingent relations, such as those of neighbourhood,
the workplace, or even kinship, into relationships that are at once necessary and
elective, implying durable obligations subjectively felt (feelings of gratitude,
respect, friendship, etc.) or institutionally guaranteed (rights) (Bourdieu, 1986:
249). Furthermore, Bourdieu (1986:249) provides an explanation regarding how
social capital is reproduced:
This is done through the alchemy of consecration, the symbolic constitution
produced by social institution (institution as a relative brother, sister, cousin,
etc. or as a knight, an heir, an elder, etc.) and endlessly reproduced in and
through the exchange (of gifts, words, women, etc.) which it encourages and
which presupposes and produces mutual knowledge and recognition. Exchange
transforms the things exchanged into signs of recognition and, through the
mutual recognition and the recognition of group membership which it implies,
reproduces the group. (Bourdieu, 1986:249)
Economic capital
Economic capital is wealth that is owned and which is inherited or created from
exchanges between the individual and the economy. Bourdieu (1986:243) refers to
economic capital which is immediately and directly convertible into money and
may be institutionalized in the forms of property rights. For Bourdieu (1986),
economic capital comprises monetary income, as well as other financial resources
and assets, and finds its institutional expression in property rights.
According to Bourdieu (1984:137), the conversion of different forms of capital
is usually used as a class strategy to maintain and improve an individual social
position. Bourdieu (1986:249) states that:
The convertibility of the different types of capital is the basis of the strategies
aimed at ensuring the reproduction of capital (and the position occupied in social
space) by means of the conversions least costly in terms of conversion work and
of the losses inherent in the conversion itself (in a given state of the social power
relations). The different types of capital can be distinguished according to their
reproducibility or, more precisely, according to how easily they are transmitted,
i.e., with more or less loss and with more or less concealment; the rate of loss
and the degree of concealment tend to vary in inverse ratio. Everything which
helps to disguise the economic aspect also tends to increase the risk of loss
(particularly the intergenerational transfers). (Bourdieu, 1986:249)
In the view of Bourdieu (1986), economic capital is at the root of all the other types
of capital and one form of capital can be transformed into another.
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RESEARCH CONTEXTS

Depending on the field in which it functions, and at the cost of the more or
less expensive transformations which are the precondition for its efficacy in
the field in question, capital can present itself in three fundamental guises: as
economic capital, which is immediately and directly convertible into money
and may be institutionalized in the form of property rights; as cultural capital,
which is convertible, in certain conditions, into economic capital and may be
institutionalized in the form of educational qualifications; and as social capital,
made up of social obligations (connections), which is convertible, in certain
conditions, into economic capital and may be institutionalized in the form of a
title of nobility. (Bourdieu, 1986:243)
In this context economic capital can be converted into cultural capital, while
cultural capital can be translated into social capital. For example, the cultural capital
contained in an academic degree has the potential to be converted into economic
capital through the particular type of job to which it provides access. The social
capital obtained through the social connections built up in a rugby team or golf
club may be transformed into economic capital through the access they provide
to business exchanges (Shilling, 1993). In this research, economic capital refers
to monetary income or wealth that is owned and which is inherited or created
from exchanges between the individual and the economy (Bourdieu, 1986). In the
interviews, economic capital was investigated using several indicators, including
occupation, possessions, holidays and residential context.
Habitus
Bourdieus concept of habitus is central to his analysis of social identity and represents
his attempt to theorise the ways in which the social is literally incorporated (Lawler,
2004). Bourdieu developed a system of concepts, such as capital, habitus, field and
distinction, which provide an ideal theoretical means to research the sociology of
education. Habitus can be seen as Bourdieus way of analysing how social relations
become constituted within the self, and also how the self is constitutive of social
relations (Lawler, 2004). Horvat and Anthony (1999:319) argue that the concept
of habitus has proved to be a useful analytical tool in understanding how daily
interactions influence individual dispositions and preferences, which in turn affect
how individuals interact with their social world. Moreover, there are many studies
that have used the concept of habitus (Harker and May, 1993; Hodkinson and Sparkes,
1997), the authors of which have often experimented with Bourdieus concepts,
working on their understanding of them and developing new insights into educational
practices (Gunter, 2002). Habitus is described by Bourdieu (1998) as follows:
Habitus is a socialized body. A structured body, a body which has incorporated
the immanent structures of a world or of a particular sector of that worlda
fieldand which structures the perception of that world as well as action in
that world. (Bourdieu, 1998:81)
11

CHAPTER 2

As one of the key concepts of Bourdieus theory, it is extremely difficult to pinpoint

exactly what habitus means because views regarding the concept are quite diverse.
Bourdieus concept of habitus is central to his analysis of social identity, and
represents his attempt to theorise the ways in which the social is literally incorporated
(Lawler, 2002). It is Bourdieus way of theorising a self which is socially produced.
It is a way of analysing how social relations become constituted within the self, but
also how the self is constitutive of social relations (Lower, 2004). For Bourdieu
(1977), habitus refers to:
Systems of durable transposable dispositions, structured structure predisposed
to function as structuring structures, that is, as principles of the generation
and structuring of practices and representations which can be objectively
regulated and regular without in any way being the product of obedience
to rules, objectively adapted to their goals without presupposing a conscious
aiming at ends or an express mastery of the operations necessary to attain
them, and being all this, collectively orchestrated without being the product of
the orchestrating action of a conductor. (Bourdieu, 1977:72)
In the view of Bourdieu (1990:13), habitus refers to a system of acquired dispositions
functioning at the practical level as categories of perception and assessment or as
classificatory principles as well as the organizing principles of action. From this
perspective, the concept of habitus tends to to reproduce the objective structures of
which they are the product, [and] they are determined by the past conditions which
have produced the principle of their production (Bourdieu, 1977: 72-73). I also
share the further explanation provided by Bourdieu in his 1996 work in which he
suggests:
The relationship that is actually established between the pertinent characteristics
of economic and social condition and the distinctive features associated
with the corresponding position in the universe of life -styles only becomes
intelligible when the habitus is constructed as the generative formula which
makes it possible to account both for the classifiable practices and products
and for the judgments, themselves classified, which make these practices and
works into a system of distinctive signs. (Bourdieu, 1996:170)
Bourdieu (1990:56) regards habitus as embodied history, internalized as a second
nature and so forgotten as history. As Lawler (2004:111) notes, Bourdieus concept
of habitus carries the concept of historyboth personal history and social, or
collective, history. Habitus can thus be seen as a compilation or collection of
individual trajectories (Bourdieu, 1990). In other words, the individual history of a
person is composed of habitus, as well as the whole collective history of family and
class that the individual is a member of (ibid.). As Bourdieu (1993:86) states, the
habitus can be defined as something historical, which is linked to individual history.
Bourdieu and Wacquant (1992) write that:
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RESEARCH CONTEXTS

The habitus acquired in a family is at the basis of the structuring of school

experiencesthe habitus transformed by the action of the school, itself
diversified, is in turn at the basis of all subsequent experiencesand so on,
from restructuring to restructuring (Bourdieu and Wacquant, 1992:134).
There is a question that arises in relation to this: how can habitus play a role in the
social reproduction that takes place between individual and society? The literature
reveals that there are several theoretical answers to this. For example, habitus
functions only in the context of specific local contexts (Lawler, 2002). Bourdieu
(1985) finds an indication of his concept of habitus in the Aristotelian idea of hexis
- the incorporated and quasi-postural disposition, which consequently is transmitted
by scholasticism into habitus (see Swartz, 1997:108). Bodily hexis is political
mythology realized, em-bodied, turned into a permanent disposition, a durable way
of standing, speaking, walking, and thereby of feeling and thinking (Bourdieu,
1990:70). Bourdieu (1994:194-5) explains this as follows:
The motor - what is sometimes called motivation - resides neither in the
material or symbolic purposes of action, as nave finalists imagine, or in
the constraints of the field, as the mechanistic thinkers suppose. It resides in
the relation between the habitus and the field, which means that the habitus
contributes to determining what determines it. (Bourdieu, 1994:194-5)
In Bourdieus (1977) sense, habitus was inculcated through both families and
schools. The primary habitus is inculcated in an individual through the family, then
through the influences of a system which is outside of the family the school, which
is seen as a part of the state apparatus. From this perspective, Bourdieus concept of
habitus has been developed in relation to two aspects, namely, familial habitus and
institutional habitus (Thomas, 2002). From this perspective, in their study, it has
been recognised that although habitus can be deemed a product of early childhood
experience within the setting of the family, subsequent experiences of schooling
also have effects on the formation of habitus.
Distinction
The conceptions of habitus and capital make it clear that a central aim in Bourdieus
theory is to attempt to remove the dichotomy between the individual and society. In
this context habitus is learned more by experience than by teaching and through a
socialisation process remains durable (Gunter, 2002:10). Bourdieu also states that
during the socialisation process the objective social conditions in which the agent lives
are inculcated and so habitus represents structured structures. Furthermore, an agent
can operate in a range of fields of activity but practice is still linked to the core habitus,
and so habitus is transposable (Bourdieu, 1990:53). In order to avoid the shortcomings
of objective determinism, Bourdieu developed the concepts of field and strategies to
provide further explanation of the generative aspect of habitus (Bourdieu, 1993).
13

CHAPTER 2

In Bourdieus (1990) sense a field can be seen as a partially independent social

arena within struggles or manoeuvres that take place over specific resources or
stakes and access to them. Fields are defined by the stakes which are at stake
(Jenkins, 1992:84). The relative power that determines positions of authority and
subordination and locates individuals and social groups within fields is determined
by the distribution and accumulation of different types of capital (Light, 2000:84).
Bourdieu also proposes that social magic brings people together, when there
are people with similar dispositions which have developed under similar social
conditions who have specific stakes and interests, such as lifestyle, education,
politics and prestige (Bourdieu, 1990: 88). As he states,
The vocabulary of strategy which is indispensable to retaining the active,
constructive side of the most ordinary choices of the symbolic struggles of
daily life, must not deceive us. The most efficacious strategies of distinction are
those which find their principle in the practical, pre-reflexive, quasi-instinctual
choices of habitus. (Bourdieu, 1987: 115)
PAST LITERATURE ON HOME SCHOOLING

Home schooling is in fact home-based education (Ray, 2000:276). As Ray (2000:71)

asserts, home schooling is a sort of practice in which the education of children is
clearly parent-controlled or parent-directed (and sometimes student-directed) during
the conventional school hours of the normal school day. Similarly, Mayberry and
Knowles (1989:12-3) regard home education as a way for parents to regain control of
their childrens and their own lives, a way to make the impact they want on the next
generation (Caldwell, 1999). Lines (1993:1) refers to home schooling as the education
of school-aged children at home rather than at a school. Knowles et al. (1994) define
the home school as the site where home education occurs, whereas home education is
the process of parents teaching their children at home. Griffith (1998: ix) claims:
Holt originally used the word unschooling to describe the act of removing ones
children from school, but it soon became a synonym for home schooling
Over the past two decades, the meaning of the term has evolved and narrowed,
so that unschooling now refers to the specific style of homeschooling that Holt
advocated, based on child centred learning. (Griffith, 1998: ix)
Parents are independently engaged in home schooling and take responsibility
for the curriculum and evaluation of their childrens progress (Lines, 2000:160).
Home schooling can be seen as a practice in which the education of children is
clearly parent-controlled or parent-directed during conventional school hours (Ray,
2000:71). Ray (2002:35) provides a further definition of the philosophy of home
schooling as follows:
A high degree of parental involvement in their childrens lives, communityoriented education, success in academics and an emphasis on the transmission
14

RESEARCH CONTEXTS

of cultural values by family, friends and ones own religious community, rather
than by society at large or by a selected group of educators.
Moore (1999:1) defines home schooling as teaching in the home by one or more
parents of the children (see Wynn, 1985:7; Van Oostrum and Van Oostrum, 1997:1).
In the context of Australia, Barratt-Peacock (1997:14) claims that home education
occurs when the parents choose to educate their children from a home base
The total responsibility for home education rests with the childs parents. NCES
(2001:2) describes the concept of home schooling as follows: Students whose
parents reported them being schooled at home instead of in a public or private school
and if their enrolment in a public or private school did not exceed 25 hours a week,
and if they were not being homeschooled solely because of a temporary illness.
According to Russell (1994:2), home schooling refers to 75 per cent or more of
what the family considers to be schooling being provided by, or conducted under
the supervision of, the parents. In the home education process, parents are most
often the primary decision makers about the daily activities, whether academic or
social, of the children, and the majority of younger childrens time is spent with their
families (Ray 2000:276). In the view of Smith and Sikkink (1999), home schooling
refers to all types of non-public education, and home schooling, by closely uniting
home, family, education and (usually) religious faith, may be the practice which is
the most privatised and the most isolated from the concerns of the public sphere.
Safran (2008:36) provides a definition of home schooling in the UK context, stating
that home education is the full time education of a child in and around the home
where the parents or guardian are committed to their childrens education. Statistics
Canada defines home schools as a child participating in his or her education at home
rather than attending a public, private, or other type of school (Basham et al., 2007:6).
In the past few decades, as an important educational phenomenon, home
schooling has achieved rapid growth in the USA, UK, Europe, Australia, Canada
and China (Ray, 1999, 2000, 2003, 2004, 2009a, 2009b, 2010; McDowell and Ray,
2000; Rudner, 1999; Meighan, 1984, 1996; 1997; Luffman, 1997; Barratt-Peacock,
1997, 2003; Arai, 2000; Carper, 2000; Chapman and O Donoghue, 2000; Beck,
2002, 2006; Spiegler, 2003; Villalba, 2003; Brabant et al., 2003; Davies and Aurini,
2003; Rothermal, 2004; Glenn, 2005; Princiotta et al., 2006; Klicka, 2002, 2007;
Hopwood et al., 2007; Ray and Eagleson, 2008; Sheng, 2013a).
In the past few decades, there has been rapid and dramatic growth of home
schooling. As Collom (2005) asserts, in the USA home schooling has become an
increasingly popular alternative educational path to that of conventional school
education. Similarly Klein (2006) indicates that home schooling has become one of
many educational choices available to parents today in the USA. At the beginning of
the 1980s, up to 100 per cent of children and young people between the ages of 6 and
18 were in formal and institutional schools (Ray, 2000:73). On September 16th 1999,
the USA Senate passed a resolution designating the week of September 19-25, 1999,
as National Home Education Week (Basham et al., 2007). Isenberg (2007:390)
15

CHAPTER 2

claims that the best sources of information available for parents motivations to
home educate were found in the data of the National Household Education Surveys
(NHES). As Isenberg (2007:390) states, the data from the NHES surveys are large
enough to include a sufficiently large sample of homeschooled children and a
comparison group of children who attend a conventional school in the USA. Data
from the 1999 NHES stated that home schooling in the USA in 1999 was estimated to
involve approximately 850,000 students who were being educated at home (Bielick
et al., 2001), which was about 1.7 per cent of students nationwide aged from 5 to 17
in grades K-12 (Lawrence, 2007). For the 2001-2002 school year, the National Home
Education Network estimated that there were around 1.1 million American students
in grades K1 to 12 who were being educated at home (Lines, 1999; Dennis, 2000;
Houston and Toma 2003; Princiotta et al., 2004), which represents a 29 per cent
increase on the estimated number of home-schooled students in 1999 (Lawrence,
2007:2). Over the 2005-2006 school year it was estimated that between 1.9 and
2.4 million students were being educated at home in the United States (Ray, 2006).
However, the data from the 2007 NHES survey offered a different estimate: they
indicated that around 1.5 million students (1,508,000) were being home-educated,
which was about 2.9 per cent of the school-aged population in the USA (Princiotta
et al., 2004; Bielick, 2008). Compared to the data from the 2003 NHES survey, it
shows a significant increase from the estimated 1.1 million home-schooled children
in 2003 (Princiotta et al., 2004; Bielick, 2008). It is estimated that the number of
home-educated students grows by 10 to 15 percent each year in the USA (Lines,
2000; McDowell and Ray, 2000; Cai, et al., 2002).
In the USA, the rapid growth of the home schooling movement has inspired
academic researchers to exhibit a specific interest in studies of the phenomenon
(Knowles, 1991; Ray, 1994, 1997, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2009, 2010; Apple, 2000,
2005, 2006; McDowell et al., 2000; Gross, 2003; Sampson, 2005; Bunday, 2006;
Ellin, 2006; Princiotta et al., 2006). In the UK context, since the modern home
schooling emerged in the late 1970s, a growing number of British researchers have
paid attention on the rapid development of home schooling in the UK (Meighan
and Brown, 1980; Meighan, 1981; Rothermel, 1999, 2002, 2004, 2010, 2011;
Hopwood et al., 2007; Webb, 1989, 1997, 2011; Jennens, 2011). In Canada, several
studies have documented the rapid growth in home schooling and explored parental
motivations to home educate (Common and MacMullen, 1986; Luffman, 1997; Arai,
2000; Tator, 2001; Dahlquist, 2002; Fairchild, 2002; Brabant et al., 2003; Aurini and
Davies, 2005).
Who chooses to home school their children?
A number of studies have explored the demographic information regarding home
schooling families in the USA (Galen and Pitman, 1991; Ray, 1997; Lines, 2001;
Bauman, 2002; Princioltta and Bielick, 2003). A body of studies indicate that in
the USA context, the primary homeschooling educator is the mother (Lines, 1991;
16

RESEARCH CONTEXTS

Mayberry et al., 1995; Lyman, 1998; McDowell, 2000; Ray, 2000; Stevens, 2001).
Studies show that among most homeschooling families, fathers tend to work in
professional positions or be self-employed (Mayberry et al., 1995; Muncy, 1996;
Wagenaar, 1997, cited in Kapitulik, 2011:8-9). Several scholars have found that the
participants in the modern homeschooling movement in the USA context are white
and wealthy, with over 95 per cent being white middle-class families and only less
than one per cent, from black families (Galen and Pitman, 1991; Rudner, 1998; Ray,
2000; McDowell et al., 2000). As Lines (2001) describes, in the USA context, home
schoolers are from all ethnic, cultural and religious backgrounds. However, their
households seem to be conservative, religious, White, highly educated and twoparent families. Likewise Ray (2004) suggests that the homeschooling families are
predominately two-parent households, white, middle-class and Christian. Princiotta
and Bielick (2003) have observed that home-schooled students are more likely
to be White and less likely to be Black or Hispanic when compared with public
students. They also found that home-schooled children were more likely to be living
in families with three or more children (ibid.).
Rudner (1999) found that 94 per cent of home schoolers were white, and 0.8 per
cent were black and 0.2 per cent were Hispanic. In 1994, the data of the Current
Population Survey indicated that 91 per cent of the home schoolers were white, 2.8
per cent were black and 4.4 per cent were Hispanic (Henke et al., 2000; Bauman,
2000). The data of the 1999 National Center for Education Statistics show that 75.3
per cent of the home schoolers were white (Ray, 1999; Bielick et al., 2001). The
data from the 2003 NHES survey indicate that 77 per cent of home schoolers were
white and about 72 per cent of homeschooling families were living in urban settings
(Princiotta and Bieklick, 2006). Among the home schoolers, there are 9 per cent of
home schoolers were black and 5 per cent of home schoolers are Hispanic (Planty
et al., 2009). As Kunzman and Gaither (2013:11) argue, while anecdotal reports
frequently assert that the homeschool population is gaining racial diversity, the
percentage of white homeschoolers has remained steady at approximately 75 per
cent of the total population over the past twelve years of NHES surveys.
The data from the 2003 NHES survey indicated that 50.3 per cent of homeschooling
children were male and 49.7 per cent of homeschooling children were female. All
grades K-12 were represented. There were 67.3 per cent in Grades 3-8 and 18 per cent
in Grades 9-12. About 56 per cent of homeschooling children were aged between 9
and 13 years, with a total range of 5-18 years (Princiotta and Bieklick, 2006, cited in
Jorgenson, 2011:28). As Jorgenson (2011:30) asserts, although all grade levels are
represented, the majority of students continue to be concentrated in the elementary
grades, with decreasing numbers in the high school grades.
The literature focusing on the family structure indicates that the home schoolers are
almost exclusively two-parent families (Basham et al., 2007:12). Bielick et al. (2001:8,
cited in Basham et al., 2007:12) has observed that more than 52 per cent of homeeducated students have grown up in two-parent families in which only one parent
works outside the home, compared to 19 per cent of non-home-schooled children.
17

CHAPTER 2

The data of the 2003 National Center for Education Statistics Homeschooling Survey
indicated that 81 per cent were two-parent households, compared to only 66 per cent
of American families with children (US Census Bureau, 2003, cited in Basham et
al., 2007:12). The data of US Census Bureau (2003) showed that in the USA, 62
per cent of homeschooling families had three or more children compared to 44 per
cent of non-home-schooled families, while 56 percent of all American families with
school-age children have only one or two children (US Census Bureau, 2003, cited
in Basham et al., 2007:12). The data from the 2003 NHES survey showed that 88.8
per cent of homeschooling families were two-parent households, and 10.1 per cent of
homeschooling families had one child, 28 per cent of families had two children and 62
per cent of families had three or more children (Princiotta and Bieklick, 2006).
Luebke (1999) investigated 47 homeschooling families in the state of Wisconsin
and found that 42 per cent of the fathers held bachelors degrees or higher, 33 per
cent of the mothers holding a bachelors degree (as cited in Jorgenson, 2011:28).
Bieklick et al. (2001) provide further information about homeschooling families
in the USA. They found that about 25 per cent of parents had a bachelors degree
and 80 per cent of parents were two-parent families. Bauman (2002) found that on
average, homeschooling parents seemed to be more educated. Dahlquist (2005)
surveyed 205 homeschooling families in Minnesota and found that 44 per cent of
the homeschooling parents held a bachelors degree and 38 per cent had college
experience (as cited in Jorgenson, 2011:28). As Planty et al. (2009) indicate, the
data from the NHES survey showed that consistent with the findings of the previous
studies (Bielick et al., 2001), about 50 per cent of homeschool parents held at least
a bachelors degree, while 43 per cent of the parents whose children studied at
K-12 schools held a bachelors degree. Isenberg (2002) has observed that different
levels of educational background seemed to be closely associated with the varying
amounts of time that parents were engaged in the home schooling. The parents with
a higher educational background seemed to be engaged in home schooling for a
shorter time compared to those who held lower level of education. The data from
the 2003 NHES survey show that 24.5 per cent of homeschooling parents had had
no college education, 30.8 per cent of them had attended college and 44.6 per cent
of parents held a bachelors degree or higher (Princiotta and Bieklick, 2006).
In the USA, several researchers have explored the family incomes of the
homeschooling families (Rudner, 1999; Bielick et al., 2001; Belfield, 2002, 2004;
Princiotta and Bielick, 2006; Edward, 2007; Lips and Feingberg, 2008). As Ray
(2004) claims, 95 per cent of homeschooling families were two-parent households
with a typical annual income of between $25,000 and $49,000. Mayberry et al.
(1995) found that 57 per cent of households earned an annual income of between
$25, 000 and $50,000 (as cited in Stevens, 2001). Rudner (1999) found that the
annual income of the homeschooling families was likely to be higher compared
with that of non-homeschooling families. Bieldfield et. al. (2001:8) found that 65
per cent of homeschooling families had annual incomes of $50,000 or less. Green
(2005:9) states that the annual income of homeschooling families was on average
18

RESEARCH CONTEXTS

over $50,000 and 66 per cent of the families had between two and three children.
Edward (2007:73) found that homeschooling families were predominantly well
educated, Caucasian (81%), two-parents families (91%) living in a single-family
home (96%) in a suburban area (59%) with an annual income level of $50,000 or
more (68%) and fifty-eight percent of these households had two or three children in
the home. It was also recognised that the families with a higher annual income might
send their children to study at private schools (Belfield, 2004). Meanwhile, Belfield
(2004:5) has observed the families with lower incomes are less likely to choose to
home educate their children since they are less able to afford for one parent to leave
work to stay home with the children. As Belfield (2004:5) asserts, homeschooling
families are in the middle of the distribution of household incomes: when household
income falls below a certain threshold, both parents must work; when it rises
above a threshold, private schooling options can be financed more readily. Lips
and Feingberg (2008:3) found that children from families with annual household
incomes below $75,000 were more likely to be homeschooled than children with
families who earned more than that amount each year. In the USA context, Belfield
(2004:9) claims that the homeschooling families most capable of practising home
schooling for a reasonable length of time are typically two-parent, middle-income
families with mothers who are not in full-time employment. As Princiotta and
Bielick (2003) claim, homeschooling children were more likely to have only one
parent in the work force (54%) when compared to 20 per cent of public school
students. In Canada, Faris (2006:15) claims that almost 70 percent of Canadian
homeschooling families live with an annual household income of less than $ 65,000
and two-thirds of the homeschooling households report having only one income
earner. Van Pelt (2003:38) found that almost a third of homeschooling mothers
do generate income, and a full one-third of those women are employed more than
15 hours per week (Van Pelt, 2003:38, cited in Basham et al., 2007:12). The data
from the 2003 NHES survey revealed that 21.7 per cent of homeschooling families
had household incomes of about $75,001, 24.1 per cent of families had household
incomes of between $50,000 and $75,000, 28.4 per cent had household incomes of
between $25,000 and $50,000, and 25.8 per cent of families had household incomes
of less than $25,000 (Princiotta and Bieklick, 2006).
Several scholars have recognised the changes in the demographic diversity of
home schooling (Knowles, 1988; Wahisi, 1995; Welner and Welner, 1999; Nazareno,
1999; McDowell et al., 2000; Bielick et al., 2001; Princiotta and Bielick, 2003; Holt,
2004; Line, 2000; Stevens, 2001; Romanowski, 2006; Ray, 2007; MacFarquhar,
2008; Ray, 2010, 2011, 2013). The participants in home schooling are from a diversity
of cultural and religious backgrounds (Kaseman and Kaseman, 1999; Welner and
Welner, 1999; McDowell et al., 2000). Livni (2000) recognised that with the dramatic
growth of home schooling over the past decades, home schooling has changed from
being the exclusive preserve of the families with a Christian background. Van Galen
(1988) has observed that homeschooling parents range from those with liberal to
those holding strongly liberal ideological views and include atheists and libertarians.
19

CHAPTER 2

These non-religiously motivated parents have made the decision to home school
because they believe that they are able to provide better education for their children
than the school can. Princiotta and Bieklick (2003) noticed a change in terms of
demographic information associated with homeschooling families, with the addition
of parents who were less educated and were single parents. Line (2000) recognised
the rapid growth of home schooling among minority groups. As Holt (2004) states,
home schoolers are not only from cities, but also from country areas, suburbs and
small towns. Several scholars have found that home-schooled children came from
a diversity of family backgrounds: some of them came from wealthy and well
educated families, and some childrens families were not well educated or wealthy
(Farris and Woodruff, 2000; Bielick et al., 2001). Ray (2007:2) identified the fact
that not only Christians, but also agnostics, atheists, Buddhists, Jews, Mormons,
Muslims and New Agers all chose to educate their children at home. It was found
that Muslim-Americans seem to be among the fastest growing sub-groups of home
educators in the USA (Bauman, 2001; Byfield, 2001; USDOE, 2005; MacFarquhar,
2008). As Romanowski (2001:79) states, One of the most fascinating facts of this
educational movement is that todays homeschooling families represent a diverse
sampling of the American population.
The motivations for home schooling
An extensive body of literature has focused on the factors determining parental
motivation to home school in the USA (Knowles, 1988; Van Galen, 1988; Mayberry
and Knowles, 1989; Knowles et al., 1992; Knowles et al., 1994; Angelis, 1998;
Mondloch, 2000; Hadderman, 2002; Collom, 2005; Green and Hoover- Dempsey,
2007) and in Canada (Luffman, 1997; Arai, 2000). As Collom (2005) argues, the
literature in relation to home schooling illustrates the fact that parental motivations
to home school have changed over time. The literature from the 1980s supports
the claim that such motivations can be divided into two major groups: ideologues
(Van Galen, 1988) and pedagogues (Mayberry and Knowles, 1989). In the view
of Van Galen (1988), ideological homeschooling families emphasise both family
and conservative values; consequently, these families are in conflict with schools
in terms of values. As Mayberry and Knowles (1989) claim, pedagogical home
educators are likely to be motivated by a conflict with schools and they prefer to
educate their children using more desirable pedagogic approaches.
With the rapid and notable growth of the homeschooling movement throughout
the 1990s and 2000s, the literature indicates that parental motivations seem to have
become more diverse. In addition to pedagogical and ideological reasons, several
studies have found that many parents decision to home school is due to racism
(Caldwell, 1999; Romm, 1993; Safley, 1998; Ray, 1990, 1997, 2000). Romm
(1993) found that a variety of families in the USA were practising home education
in order to transmit specific ethnic values to their children. Mayberry (1988) and
Chopp (2003) have observed that home educators choose to home school because
20

RESEARCH CONTEXTS

home education is able to meet childrens physical needs, specific learning needs,
or the needs of gifted children (Lange and Liu, 1999; Pearson, 2002; Lubienski,
2003). Hadderman (2002) summarised the primary reasons for parents to choose
home schooling as follows: religion, promotion of a family bond, teaching what
the child wants to learn, the special needs of the child. Dahlquist (2005) claims
that despite religious motivation, other main reasons that homeschooling parents
reported include being unhappy with the socialisation in schools and having
the ability to apply more hands-on teaching and learning (as cited in Jorgenson,
2011:33). Collum (2005, cited in Anthony, 2009:10) has observed four main reasons
that parents choose to home educate, including dissatisfaction with public schools,
academic and pedagogical concerns, religious values, and family needs. Montes
(2006) recognises several important motivations for home schooling, which include
religious conviction, better education at home, and poor learning environment at
school. McKeon (2007:130) has observed that the primary reasons for parents to
choose to home educate include academic reasons (69.7%), efficacy (46.9%) and
religion (40.7%). Several researchers have found that a growing number of American
parents who choose to home educate had a desire to enhance the centrality of the
family and strengthen the parent-child relationship (Knowles, 1991; Steven, 2001;
Brabant et al., 2003; Dahlquist et al., 2006; Kunzman, 2009, 2010). As Knowles
(1991: 207) states, All were highly motivated to promote the wellbeing of family
and had strong community relationships, particularly within the context of their
religious interests. The literature summarises the parents primary motivations to
choose to home education with respect to four aspects, namely, pedagogical beliefs,
ideological beliefs, negative experiences with public schools and addressing their
childs learning needs and interests (Humphrey, 1999; Tator, 2002, McLoughlin and
Chambers, 2004; Valee and Boyd, 2004; Green, 2005).
The data from the 1999 NHES survey show that 49.5 per cent of parents reported
their primary motivation to home educate was to provide their children with better
education; 38.4 per cent reported religious reasons; and 25.6 per cent chose to home
school their children because their childrens poor learning environment at school
(Basham, 2001). Data from the 2003 NHES show that 30 per cent of home educators
stated that their primary motivation was to provide religious or moral instruction;
31 per cent were concerned about the environment of conventional schools (safety,
drugs, negative peer pressure); 16 per cent expressed dissatisfaction with academic
instruction at other schools; 7 per cent gave the reason that their child had physical
or mental health problems; 7per cent made the choice because their child had other
special needs (Princiotta and Bielick, 2006:14). The results of the surveys in relation
to the primary reasons that parents chose to home educate show that 85 per cent of the
parents reported that concern about the environment of other schools was related to
their decision, 68 per cent presented that dissatisfaction with academic instruction
was related to their choices, and 72 per cent answered that to provide religious or
moral instruction is relevant to their choices (Princiotta and Bielick, 2003:14). In
brief, three primary reasons that homeschoolers gave for choosing to home educate
21

CHAPTER 2

in the US were given, namely, concern about the institutional environment, desire
to transfer their own religious or moral values, and disagreement with the academic
instruction provided in schools (ibid.).
In the Canadian context, the primary reasons that parents gave for educating
their children at home included transferring specific values to their children; and
providing their children with the instruction which is suitable for their particular
learning interests and learning styles (Van Pelt, 2003:49). Brabant et al. (2007:11)
investigated the motivations of Canadian homeschooling families, and they found
that the parents commonly had the desire to pursue a family educational project; an
objection to the organizational structure of the school system; to offer curriculum
enrichment; and a preoccupation with their childrens socio-affective development
(Brabant et al., 2007:11).
In Australia, a number of scholars have examined Australians motivations to home
educate their children (Barratt-Peacock, 1997, 2003; Chapman and ODonoghue,
2000; Reilly et al., 2002; Harding, 2003; Stroobant, 2006; Jackson, 2009). The
primary reasons were categorised and documented as follows: disagreement with
formal institutional education, transmission of specific beliefs and values to their
children; maintenance of a close family relationship; the positive attractions of home
education; ensuring the achievement of high academic results; satisfying specific
educational needs of children and so on.
Scholars have found several major reasons, including dissatisfaction with public
schools, religious preferences, and because of racism (Ray, 1991; Caldwell, 1999),
transmitting specific cultural norms and ethnic values (Romm, 1993). Gladin (1987)
and Wartes (1988:46) refer to several other influential reasons, for example, to have
more control over what my children learn, to reduce the effect of peer pressure,
to improve the quality of our family life; to be able to spend more time with
my children, to avoid peer pressure, greater parent-child contact and to enable
better self concept (Wartes, 1988:46). Mayberry et al. (1995) summarised and
documented four primary motivations for parents to choose to educate their child
at home, which include religious, academic and social development and alternative
lifestyle. The results of the 2003 NHES survey reveals that the parents of around 31
per cent of home-schooled children chose to teach them at home because of their
concerns about such issues as safety, drugs or negative peer pressure, while 30 per
cent of parents reported the most important reason was to provide religious or moral
instruction (Lawrence, 2007:2).
Cai et al. (2002:372) summarise the major influential factors involved in the
process of parents decision-making and these include curriculum secularization,
family-school values conflicts, school harassment and violence, exposure to peer
pressure that advocates drugs and premarital sex, a desire to strengthen the family.
Collom (2008:3) categorises the motivations under four broad headings: academic/
pedagogical concerns, religious values concerns, general dissatisfaction with the
public schools, and family lifestyle reasons. Saba and Gattis (2002:1-2) list the primary
reasons that parents decide to home school as religious convictions, removing their
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RESEARCH CONTEXTS

teenage children from an uncomfortable environment, pursuing family togetherness

and spending a lot of time with children, pursuing educational excellence, helping
children with special needs, feeling that their children are underserved, and personal
educational philosophy. Basham et al. (2007:10-11) summarised several motivations
of Canadian and American home schoolers as follows: to cultivate a specific set of
beliefs and values; to achieve higher academic results through one-on-one instruction;
to develop closer and stronger parent-child relationships; to provide their children
with the chance of experiencing high-quality interaction with peers and adults; the
lack of discipline in public schools; avoiding negative peer pressure; the high fees
for private schools; a physically safer environment where children could study.
How to manage the home schooling?
A number of studies have focused attention on the exploration of the teaching style
used in home schooling (Meighan and Meighan, 1991; Medlin, 1994; Meighan,
1996; Thomas, 1998, 2000; Simich, 1998; Griffith, 1999; Anderson, 2000; Butler,
2000; Romanowski, 2001; Davenport, 2001; Lowe and Thomas, 2002; Pearson,
2002; Saba and Gattis, 2002; Huber, 2003; Trevaskis, 2005; Hoffman, 2006; Klein,
2006; McKeon, 2007; Anthony, 2009). Medlin (1994, cited in McKeon, 2007:36)
found that 61 per cent of the homeschooling parents surveyed reported that they
used the traditional methods and 82 per cent of them used structured approaches in
their practice of home schooling. Davenport (2001) conducted research to examine
the ways in which parents practise home schooling in New Jersey. Davneport (2001,
cited in McKeon, 2007:36) revealed that homeschooling parents primarily used
direct tutorial instruction or individual work activities. Lowe and Thomas (2002:45)
found that the majority of homeschooling families have periods of both informality
and structure in the arrangement of their home education. Ray (2002) reviewed the
relevant studies and claimed that the homeschooling parents adopted a diversity
of approaches in the process of practising home schooling. As Ray (2002:37)
explains, the learning programme is flexible and highly individualised, involving
both homemade and purchased curriculum materials. Lowe and Thomas (2002:10)
claim that the homeschooling parents use a variety of methods and approaches.
These range from formal, structured arrangements to informal approaches which
are completely child-led. Clements (2002) conducted an in-depth qualitative study
among three homeschooling families and explored their selection of curriculum
materials in their home schooling. Clements (2002) found that the homeschooling
parents reported using direct instruction in their teaching, however, it varied
depending on the needs of the child, educational goals and the age of a child. He also
identified the fact that the families surveyed used computerised and video curricula.
Clements (2002) also documented and summarised four primary types of curricula
that were commonly used by homeschooling families, including textbook-based
(prepackaged) curriculum, literature-based (parent-designed) curriculum, computerbased curriculum, video/satellite-based curriculum and unschooling curriculum.
23

CHAPTER 2

(as cited in McKeon, 2007:36). Huber (2003) found that some homeschooling
families used a teacher-structured approach or school-at-home approach in their
home schooling, while some families chose solely to use the learner-structured
approach which regards children as interest-driven learners and advocates that
they should develop their own learning experience (as cited in McKeon, 2007:37).
Hubers (2003) study also reveals several teaching strategies and approaches, namely,
instruction-based skills, traditional classroom instruction, classical education
writing instruction, learner-structured instruction and unschooling methodology
(as cited in McKeon, 2007:38). Holt (2004:3) provides further information about
how the homeschooling families practise home education on a day-to-day basis.
He states, Homeschooling children learn through reading, through conversation,
through play, through outside classes, through volunteer work and apprenticeships
(Holt, 2004:3). Klein (2006) states that while some home educators use a structured
teaching pedagogy, some parents prefer to choose a more relaxed and flexible
learning style.
Studies indicate that home educators have rich curricula which are available for
them to use in the process of practising home schooling (Martin, 1997; Knowles,
1991, Pearson, 2002; Anderson, 2000; Walsh, 2002; Holt and Farenga, 2003;
Princiotta and Bielick, 2006; Lips and Feinberg, 2009). Anderson (2000) found that
the rapid growth of modern home schooling had resulted in an increase in the curricula
of home schooling, ranging from independently created to packaged commercially
produced curricula (Holt and Farenga, 2003). Butler (2000) has observed that
parents can freely choose a teaching style and select curriculum which meets their
educational and personal objectives (as cited in Jorgenson, 2011:35). Lowe and
Thomas (2002) find that the home-schooled students played an important role in the
selection of the curriculum. Several other studies show that home-educated children
are able to be actively involved in decision making relation to the education (Werle,
2001; Lowe and Thomas, 2002; Ray, 2002). This argument is strongly supported by
the finding of studies in the UK, where, for example, as Meighan (1996:2) claims,
learner-managed learning (autonomous education) is at present more frequently
found in home-based education. McKeon (2007:40) reviewed the relevant literature
and claims that in home schooling, the majority of parents used direct one-on-one
instructional practices with their children.
Several scholars have explored the types of curriculum that were used in the home
school (Martin, 1997; Kozlowski, 1999; Scheps, 1999; Luebke, 1999; Duffey, 2002;
McKeon, 2007; Lips and Feinberg, 2009). Martin (1997) summarises the primary
resources from which the homeschooling parents can choose a curriculum, which
include home-school conventions, home-school magazines, state and local homeschool groups and books (as cited in Anthony, 2009:30). Ray (1997) investigated
1,657 families choices of curriculum and found that 71.1 per cent of the parents
reported that they designed their own curricula, while 24 per cent of them bought
a complete curriculum package. Kozlowski (1999) categorised the types of family
and their choice of curriculum into three groups: the homeschooling families, whose
24

RESEARCH CONTEXTS

children intended to return to public schools from the home schooling in the future,
were likely to use the same curricula and textbooks as those of the public schools;
some parents purchased and used published curricula; the unschoolers did not use
formal curricula but only materials which fulfilled their childs interests and needs (as
cited in Jorgenson, 2011:39). Luebke (1999, cited in Jorgenson 2011:39) found that
34 per cent of the parents used traditional textbooks and assignments when teaching
at least part of their curriculum, 13 per cent used Advanced Training Institute (ATI),
10 per cent used unit studies organised around a common theme, and 6 per cent used
unschooling in which curriculum was directed by a childs interests. Duffey (2002,
cited in Jorgenson, 2011:39) found that among the 121 families surveyed, 58 per
cent of the parents used a parent-designed curriculum, 23 per cent used a packaged
curriculum, 6 per cent used the curriculum provided by a public or private school
and 11 per cent used other types of curriculum.
The data from the 2003 NHES survey show that 78 per cent of the homeschooling
parents used a public library to obtain the teaching materials; 77 per cent bought
materials from a home-school catalogue, publisher, or individual specialist; 69 per
cent used a retail bookstore or other stores; 60 per cent used an education publisher
not affiliated to the home schooling; 41 percent of the parents used distance learning
(Princiotta and Bielick, 2006). McKeon (2007:92) recognised the close relationship
between homeschooling styles and the choices of curricula and found that the
majority of the homeschoolers surveyed used a balanced approach. However, it was
found that 56.8 per cent of traditional homeschoolers tended to use a structured
phonics curriculum, whereas only 2 per cent of unschoolers used a phonics
curriculum (McKeon, 2007:92). Anthony (2009:251) provides further information
about the selection of the curriculum, reporting that the primary resources that the
homeschooling families surveyed relied on were from the cooperative. In the view
of Anthony (2009:254), the cooperative was instrumental to the parents ability
to provide the classical education. It also helped address some of the problems
associated with home schooling.
Several researchers have attempted to document and summarise teaching
approaches that the homeschooling families usually employed in their day-to-day
home education (Griffith, 1999; Hoffman, 2006; McKeon, 2007; Anthony, 2009;
Taylor-Hough, 2010; Jorgenson). Ray (2000) lists out several teaching strategies
that have been successfully used in the home schooling (e.g. The Teaching Home,
2000), namely:
1. Classical. Parents teach specific tools in how to learn so that they may be used
when studying any subject;
2. Lifestyle of learning. Teaching and learning are seen as a natural part of living
within the community and nation;
3. Schooling at home. Teaching occurs with a high degree of structure and in a similar
manner to that of the public school where students complete daily assignments
and their work is evaluated and graded; subject areas are not integrated;
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CHAPTER 2

4. Structured/mastery learning. Material is presented in a sequential, step-by-step

format from booklets or the computer with an emphasis on immediate feedback
to the learner;
5. Unit studies. Proposes that all knowledge is interrelated and if presented and
studied in a related manner will be learned more easily and remembered longer;
teaching is centred around a common theme and subject areas are often taught
together;
6. Unschooling. Children are given freedom to explore and learn in areas of interests;
7. Worldview. The idea behind this approach is that education is value and belief
driven and therefore the curricula, materials and activities will integrate a
particular worldview.
(Ray, 2000, cited in Jorgenson, 2011:35-36)
Hoffman (2006) categorises home schooling into four types, that is: structured
learning, distance learning, eclectic learning and unschooling. McKeon (2007:15)
lists several teaching approaches used by the homeschooling families in the USA.
The popular homeschooling methods include unschooling, classical, traditional and
eclectic. McKeon (2007:15) describes them as follows:
1. Traditional. This style is also known as the box curriculum and is the most
common type of approach to homeschooling.
2. Unschooling. This style can be defined as one that focuses upon the choices made
by the individual learner.
3. Eclectic. This style is more relaxed or laid back type of homeschool. Parents
use a mixed combination of boxed curriculum, homemade curriculum, and/
or individualised curriculum. They can operate as borderline unschooling or
borderline school-at-home, or anywhere in between and be considered eclectic.
4. Classical. The core of Classical Education is the trivium, a teaching model that
seeks to tailor the subject matter to a childs cognitive development.
(cited in McKeon, 2007: 15-16).
Griffith (1999) states that the parents often use an eclectic teaching strategy when
they mix and match methods to meet the needs of the child (as cited in Jorgenson,
2011:36). McKeon (2007:81) found that 69.5 per cent of home schoolers surveyed
were identified as being eclectic home schoolers. As McKeon (2007:131) claims, most
parents preferred the eclectic style of home schooling to any other style, including
unschooling, traditional or classical. He also points out that eclectic home schoolers
were more likely to use the facilitative style (44%) of home schooling than any of the
other teaching styles (McKeon, 2007:134). McKeon (2007:132) also found that of
the 21 families interviewed, seven out of the 12 parents who started out as traditional
home schoolers had evolved into eclectic home schoolers. McKeon (2007:132) took
this point further, suggesting that the parents were changing teaching methods in line
with the perceived needs of their children. Anthony (2009) conducted an in-depth
26

RESEARCH CONTEXTS

study among four homeschooling families and explored the type of teaching and
curriculum used by them and found that the homeschooling families operated their
home schools using a combination of traditional and progressive methods. Through
their primary teaching strategies were traditional, they used them to achieve a
progressive end; the families created a menu of educational choices that they could
choose from to achieve their specific instructional objectives. The choices on their
menu included courses at the cooperative, online courses, courses taught by other
people in the community, video courses, and dual enrollment at community college;
The primary instructional method was reading. Reading accounted for 70 per
cent of the instructional day at home(Anthony, 2009:250-253). Jorgenson (2011:1)
investigated the type of curriculum used by homeschooling families in Iowa and
found that parents primarily chose a prepackaged curriculum for both reading and
math instruction, and the majority of the curriculum in all areas was largely faith
based (Jorgenson, 2011:1).
Several researchers focused on the relationship between home-educated
childrens academic achievement and homeschooling parents possession of a
teaching certificate (Wade, 1986; Rackestraw, 1988; Moore and Moore, 1988;
Wartes, 1990; Havens, 1991; Ray, 1991, 2004; Medlin, 1994; Duvall et al., 1997).
Havens (1991), Rackestraw (1988), and Ray (1991, 2004) found that there was no
significant correlation between home-schooled childrens academic achievement
and homeschooling parents possession of a teaching certificate in Texas, Alabama
and Oklahoma.
Academic outcomes of home-educated students
In the past few decades, the significant growth of home schooling in Western
countries has inspired increased interest in the performance of home-educated
students as compared with that of their peers studying in classroom-based schools.
A strong body of the literature has observed that home-educated students generally
score above the national average in standardised achievement tests in the Western
countries (Alaska Department of Education, 1984, 1985, 1986; Falle, 1986;
Delahooke, 1986; Ray, 1986, 1990, 1994, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2010; Scogin,
1986; Wartes, 1987, 1988, 1989, 1990, 1991; Rakestraw, 1987, 1988; Rudner, 1988,
1999; Forst and Morris, 1988; Richman and Richman, 1988; Havens, 1991; Calvary
et al., 1992; Van Galen and Pitman, 1991; Tipton, 1991a, 1991b; Medlin, 1994;
Witt, 1999; Page, 1997; Boulter, 1999; Rudner, 1999; Rothermel, 1999; Belfield,
2004, 2005; Cogan, 2010; Martin-Chang et al., 2011). Wartes (1988) found that
in Oregon, over 72 per cent of the scores were above the 51st percentile on the
national percentile ranking (as cited in Stevens, 2001:13). Ray (1992) observed a
similar finding and found that the majority of the home-educated children scored
between the 70th and 79th percentiles (as cited in Stevens, 2001:13). Rudner (1995)
conducted a comparative study between home-educated students and public and
private school students. He found that the home-educated students scored in the 70th
27

CHAPTER 2

to 80th percentile in every subject. Several other empirical studies have provided
further evidence about the higher academic attainment of home-educated students
as compared with that of their counterparts in public schools in Illinois (Frost and
Morris, 1988) and in Washington (Ray and Wartes, 1991). Harper (2006:1) found
that the home-educated children scored more highly than not only the students at
public schools but also the ones from private schools.
Ray (1993, 1999) has observed that home-educated students achieved at least
as well as public school students in the subject areas which are seen to form the
foundation of American education. He further contends that home-based education
has had a positive influence on students academic performance as compared to
the academic achievement of those who have been taught in the classroom-based
institutional schools. Line (1995:3) reports that virtually all the data show that the
group of home-schooled children who are tested is above average when compared
with their school-educated counterparts.When family background indicators are
controlled, the academic achievement of home-educated children is still better
than that of those in classroom-based schools (Rudner, 1988, 1999; Russell, 1994;
Ray, 1990, 1997). Rudner (1988:18) has observed that the median scores for home
school students are well above their public/private school counterparts in every
subject and in every grade. The findings of more recent studies persistently support
the claim that home-educated children score well above the national average level
(McDowell, 2000; Stevens, 2001; Belfield, 2005; Ray and Eagleson, 2008; Ray,
2009a, 2009b, 2010). A number of studies conducted in other countries have shown
the similar findings (Priesnitz and Priesnitz, 1990; Galloway and Sutton, 1995;
Priesnitz, 1996; Luffman, 1997; Rothermel, 1999; Harding, 2003). Jackson (2009)
found that Australian home-schooled children seem to achieve equal or higher
results than those of their counterparts educated at school.
With regard to their willingness to prepare themselves for higher education,
Galloway and Sutton (1995) have observed that home-schooled students show that
they are as well-prepared for the entrance examination for colleges and universities
and achieve similar academic achievement in universities as those who are educated
in conventional schools. This result has been evident in the findings of several other
studies (Gray, 1998; Jenkis, 1998; Mexcur, 1993; Jones and Gloeckner, 2004). Jones
and Gloeckner (2004:20) state that the academic performance analyses indicate
that home-schooled students are as ready for college as traditional high school
graduates and that they perform as well in national college assessment tests as
graduates of traditional high schools. Rudner (1999) has observed that the academic
achievement of home-educated students is exceptionally high when compared
with that of traditionally schooled students. There is much additional evidence of
high academic achievement on the part of the home-schooled. A growing body of
studies in the contexts of the USA and Canada (Ray, 1994, 1997, 2001; Rudner,
1999; Van Pelt, 2003; Wartes, 1991) have consistently supported the claim that
home-schooled children generally achieve scores in the 65th to 80th percentiles in
standardised academic achievement tests in comparison to the 50th percentile on
28

RESEARCH CONTEXTS

average for the school-educated students (Ray, 2005:4). The reasons that the homeschooled children can achieve better academic results are partly due to their wealthy
background and parents high level of education (Rudner, 1999). However, many
other researchers assert that home-educated students do not score above average
(Delahooke, 1986; Rackestraw, 1987, 1988). Delahooke (1986) suggests that there
are no significant differences in terms of intelligence and examination results
between the conventionally educated students and those taught at home.
Social development of home-educated students
In the past few decades many policy-makers, researchers, and educators have
asserted that home schooling may lead children to be isolated from their peers
and the outside world. Abundant studies have examined whether home-schooled
children experience healthy social, emotional and psychological development
(Garbarino, 1982; Rakestraw, 1987; Montgomery, 1989a, 1989b; Allie-Carson,
1990; Ray, 1994, 2003; Tillman, 1995; Layman, 1998; Smith and Sikkink, 1999;
Ensign, 2000; Medlin, 2000, 2006, 2013; Rivero, 2002; Francis and Keith, 2004;
Ray, 2005; Thomas and Pattinson, 2008). Several researchers have attempted to
examine the home-educated childrens social development, including their social
skills (Smedley, 1992; Medlin, 2006; Francis and Keith, 2004); their social behaviour
and leadership skills (Montgomery, 1989a, 1989b; Galloway and Sutton, 1995;
Sutton and Galloway, 2000; Webb, 2009); their skills in relation to social adjustment
(Delahooke, 1986; Moore, 1986; Shyers, 1992); their self-concept and self-esteem
(Taylor, 1986; Kitchen, 1991; Kelly, 1991; Smedley, 1992; Medlin, 1994; Tillman,
1995). Shyers (1992) found that there was no evidence that home-schooled children
were disadvantaged in terms of either self-concept or development of self-esteem.
There were no significant differences between home-schooled and non-homeschooled children. Similarly, Smedley (1992) found that home-educated children
were likely to be better socialised compared to the non-home-educated ones. Several
other studies have observed similarly positive results regarding home-educated
students social development (Taylor, 1986; Delahooke, 1986; Montgomery, 1989;
Kingston and Medlin, 2006). Kingston and Medlin (2006:1) found that homeschooled students achieved higher scores in the tests concerned with empathy and
altruism compared to non-home-schooled students.
The relevant literature shows that the social development of home-schooled
children is as good as, and usually better than, that of their counterparts who are
educated in conventional schools (Garbarino, 1982; Allie-Carson, 1990; Shyers,
1992; Smedley, 1992; Layman, 1998; Rothermel, 1999; Smith and Sikkink, 1999;
McDowell, 2000; Francis and Keith, 2004; Ray, 2005; Medlin, 2006). Smith
and Sikkink (1999) have observed that most home-schooled children are not at
all isolated. Ray (2005:6) found that college graduates of homeschooling held
significantly more leadership posts for significantly greater periods of time than
did the private school group. According to McDowell (2000: 198), homeschooling
29

CHAPTER 2

mothers reported that their children were positively influenced by home schooling in
terms of socialisation, family flexibility, and fewer racial tensions. This argument is
strongly supported by the findings of studies focusing on whether the home-educated
children enjoyed their experience of home education (Krivanek, 1988; Clery, 1998;
Thomas, 1998; Smith and Sikkink, 1999; Mattox, 1999; Livni, 2006; Gaither, 2009).
As Ray (2004:8) claims, in the USA homeschooling families are well networked
and they are actively involved in a variety of social and extracurricular activities.
For example, Mattox (1999) has observed that their participation in various social
activities, such as neighbourhood play and field trips, provided the home-educated
children with the opportunity to communicate with peers. In a similar vein, Gaither
(2009) found that many homeschooling parents advocated their childs participation
in various extracurricular and social activities. These activities include dance, sports,
church events and fine arts. Romanowski (2006:126) found that home-schooled
children took part in 5.2 activities outside the home on average, and 98 per cent of
children engaged in two or more activities.
Smith and Sikkink (1999) place a focus on the social and developmental outcomes
of home-schooled children. They suggest that far from being isolated, homeschooling
families typically have very good social networks and are quite active within the
community. Layman (1998: 8) argues that homeschooling families rely heavily on
support groups as a resource for planning field trips and maintain personal contact
with like-minded families. The significant majority of homeschooling families
depend heavily on support groups as a resource for planning field trips and maintain
personal contact with like-minded families (ibid.). The findings of the studies by
Ray (2001) in New Mexico and Ohio provide strong support for the results of
Smith and Sikkink (1999). Ray (2001, 2005) has observed that under the strong
influence of their parents who actively participate in civic affairs, home-schooled
children are more likely to be more highly involved in community life, civic
activities, democratic processes, and exhibit leadership traits and are decent, civil,
and respectful (Ray, 2005:12).
The findings of the studies conducted in other national contexts clearly support
the claim that home schooling has positively influences on childrens social
development and personal growth. As Basham et al. (2007:3) claim, the findings of
both Canadian and American studies that focus on the long-term influences of home
schooling illustrate the positive outcomes of home education. Canadian research
has found that adults in Canada who were previously home schooled possess
a higher life satisfaction score than their counterparts educated at conventional
schools (Basham et al., 2007:3). Van Pelt (2003:90) found that the majority of
home-educated students regularly participate in eight social activities outside the
home. Participation in these extracurricular activities provides more opportunity for
the home-educated children to interact with peers and adults. Van Pelt (2003) also
found that home-educated students enjoy a life satisfaction score higher than that of
their public school counterparts (Van Pelt, 2003, cited in Basham et al., 2007:16).In
the Australian context, several scholars have examined the social development of
30

RESEARCH CONTEXTS

home-educated students (Barratt-Peacock, 1997; Krivanek, 1985, 1988; Brosnan,

1991; McColl, 2005; Jackson, 2007, 2009). The positive outcomes of home-educated
children in terms of social development have been recognised in Australia, where
researchers have observed that home educators prefer to build up and create their
own support groups and small communities (Barratt-Peacock, 1997, 2003; Safran,
2008; Thomas and Pattinson, 2008).
Ray (2005:10) concludes that positive outcomes associated with home schooling
include high academic achievement, positive self-concept, and high voting frequency.
However, the research design and methods employed in the studies focusing on
outcomes of home schooling have been questioned by many researchers in the USA.
Several scholars stress that such studies are specially designed to show that the
quality of home schooling is better than that which public or private schools provide
(Welner and Welner, 1999; Rudner, 1999; Ray, 2000, 2005). Rudner (1999) and Ray
(2005) state that home educators are capable of providing an appropriate academic
environment in which home-schooled children can achieve better academic results.
The influential factors regarding home schooling
A number of studies have focused on the factors which account for the rapid growth
of modern home schooling (Knoles et al., 1992; Mayberry and Knowles, 1989;
Mayberry, Knoles, Ray, and Marlow, 1995; Montgomery, 1989; Van Galen, 1987;
Romm, 1993; Murrary, 1996; Ray, 1999; Basham, 2001; Neuman and Aviram, 2003;
Basham et al., 2007). Homeschooling parents who feel dissatisfied with the content
of public school curricula are categorised as ideologues (Van Galen, 1988), while
those opposed to the institution of schooling are referred to as pedagogues (Mayberry
and Knowles, 1989). Cai et al. (2002) summarise the major factors that influence
parents decision to home school, and these include curriculum secularisation, conflict
between family and school values, school harassment and violence, exposure to peer
pressure that advocates drugs and premarital sex, a desire to strengthen the family,
and a conviction on the part of parents that they can meet their childrens needs better
than the schools can. A strong body of studies claims that many parents decision to
home school is due to racism (Caldwell, 1999; Romm, 1993; Safley, 1998; Ray,
1990, 1997, 2000). Romm (1993) has observed that a variety of families in the USA
were practising home education to transmit specific ethnic values to their children.
Many researchers have examined the influential factors associated with the
academic achievement of home-educated students. There exists a number of studies
focusing on the motivations for home schooling in the USA (Knowles, 1991;
Mayberry and Knowles, 1989) and in Canada (Luffman, 1997; Arai, 2000). Several
major factors are involved. The statistically significant relationship between parents
educational background and students academic achievement are recognised (Ray,
1990, 1991). Runder (1999) has found that home-educated childrens academic
results were related to family income, parents educational background, the amount
of money spent on education, and the amount of television watched daily. It was also
31

CHAPTER 2

noticeable that family income and religious preferences played an important role in
parents decision to home school (Rudner, 1999; Wartes, 1990; Ray, 1991). Several
studies have paid specific attention to the reasons that parents make the decision
to educate their children at home, including dissatisfaction with public education,
religious preferences, because of racism (Ray, 1990,1991; Caldwell, 1999), and
to transmit specific cultural and ethnic values (Romm, 1993). Abundant studies
have revealed that there is a close correlation between family background and the
outstanding academic achievement of home-educated students (Ray, 1990, 1997;
Medlin, 1994). More recent literature has provided further evidence to support this
finding. Belfield (2005) found that the variations of students SAT scores are more
highly with students family background among home-educated students. Medlin
(1994) and Kunzman (2009) observed there is a close correlation between parental
educational background, in particular mothers educational background, and homeeducated childrens educational attainment.
Studies have observed the correlation between family incomes and parental
decision to home school (Ray, 2004; Belfield, 2001, 2004; Bauman, 2001; Goyette,
2008). Belfield (2004:5) asserts that homeschooling families are in the middle of
the distribution of household incomes. However, Goyette (2008) found that lowerincome families were statistically more likely to educate their children at home,
with 11.4 percent of those making less than $40,000 reporting home schooling as
compared to 1.3 percent of those families making between $40,000 and $ 80,000 and
no families who made more than $ 80,000 (as cited in Jorgenson, 2011:30).
Several major factors are involved, for example, a statistically significant
relationship between parents educational background and students academic
achievement has been identified (Ray, 1990, 1991). Ray (1991) suggests that such an
association exists between homeschooling parents educational attainment and their
childrens academic results. As Farris and Woodruff (2000:238) claim, parents who
conduct home education are likely to be better educated as a group in comparison
with the general population. Several studies have found a close correlation between
parents negative educational experiences and their choices to educate their children
at home (Knowles, 1991; Mayberry et al., 1995; Neuman and Aviram, 2003; Wyatt,
2008). Knowles (1991:223) conducted a case study of four homeschooling families
in Utah and found that the parents experiences of schools were usually negative,
and they did not want those experiences replicated in the lives of their children.
Mayberry et al. (1995:47) have observed that some parents decide to choose to
educate their children at home because of their own prior experience. Neuman
and Aviram (2003:136) took this point further, suggesting that the parents chose
to home educate their children as a result of three problems, namely, parents own
negative school experience as a child, negative family and marital experiences, and
negative experiences of the child at school (as cited in Anthony, 2009:18). However,
several other studies show that there are no differences between parents educational
attainment and the academic performance of home-educated children (Rakestraw,
1988; Havens, 1991). It has also been found that family income and religious
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RESEARCH CONTEXTS

preference play an important role in parents decision to home school (Rudner, 1999;
Wartes, 1990; Ray, 1991). For instance, Rudner (1999) has observed that the reason
that the home-schooled children are able to achieve better academic results is partly
due to their wealthy economic background and their parents high level of education.
Further, he contends that home schooling parents are wealthier than the general
population (Rudner, 1999:25). The above research studies have strongly influenced
my own research in relation to parental motivation to educate their children at home
in China.
There is a disagreement regarding the influential factors relating to parents
taking the decision to home school. Several scholars have observed there exists a
close correlation between parents own negative educational experience and their
decisions to home educate (Knowles, 1991; Wayatt, 2008). Lips and Feinberg (2008)
found that socioeconomic status may be a factor that influences parents to choose
to home education their children. They found that the home schoolers from families
with annual household incomes of less than $ 75,000 were more likely to choose to
home educate than those from the families with a higher annual income. However,
some researchers found that there is no demographic of homeschooling families,
and that socioeconomic status or family structure has no significant correlation
with parents choice to educate their children at home (Yang and Kayaardi, 2004;
Essenberg, 2004).
Several studies have paid particular attention on the home-educated students return
to public education from the home schooling in the USA (Kozlowski, 1999; Gordon,
2001; Isenberg, 2007; Lips and Feinberg, 2008). Kozlowski (1999) conducted a
survey among 80 homeschooling parents and has observed that the return to public
schools from home schooling due to a lack of certain classes ranked first or second
in 29 districts. Therefore, even though home schooling families suggested that they
are better prepared to teach their children, as noted above, they still realized their
limitations in certain areas, especially at the secondary level. (as cited in Jorgenson,
2011:33). In a similar vein, Anthony (2009:254) finds that although these families
had run successful home schools for many years, they still admitted that it was not an
easy thing to start or maintain. As Isenberg (2007:398) claims, as shown by the data
from the 1996 NHES surveys, there is a large quite rate in homeschooling after the
1st year; only 63 per cent of homeschooled students continue to the 2nd year. In order
to provide assistance with the homeschooling families that prepare to send their
children back to public school from the home schooling, some states in the USA now
allow home-educated children to dual-enroll with the public school system, which
makes it possible for the home-educated children to take specific classes or take part
in extracurricular activities at the local public school (Gordon, 2001; Princiotta, et
al., 2004; Lips and Feinberg, 2008, cited in Jorgenson, 2011:33). Princiotta et al.
(2004) and Isenberg (2007:398) states that as shown by the data from the 1999 and
2003 NHES surveys, 21 per cent of home-schooled children also attended a school.
Bielick et al. (2001) found that most of home-educated children attend a public
school for hours per week, while quite few home-educated children attend a public
33

CHAPTER 2

school for the majority of their study hours (as cited in Isenberg, 2007:398). As
Jorgenson (2011:34) claims, although dual enrollment is common, the regulations
regarding dual enrollment varies between states in the USA. In several states such as
Iowa, the home-educated students are permitted to dual-enroll in the public schools
and in Wisconsin, the public schools are legally required to admit home-educated
children to enroll in up to two courses per semester (Angelis, 1998; Dobson, 1998;
Luebke, 1999; Anderson, 2000; Dahlquist, 2005, cited in Jorgenson, 2011: 34). In
some states, such as Pennsylvania, the dual enrollment varies by school districts
(Nutrition Health Review, 2004, cited in Jorgenson, 2011:34). In some states, the
particular programmes have been developed in order to allow home-educated
students to work with public schools to gain access to additional resources (Line,
2000; Anderson, 2000; Gordon, 2001; Princiotta, et al., 2004; Lips and Feinberg,
2008, cited in Jorgenson, 2011:34).
Religious belief and home schooling
Home schooling in the USA is not new. It was very common in religiously
pluralistic colonial America in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries (Carper,
2000:8). At that time, a large number of families, including the wealthy, educated
their children at home (Hill, 2000:20). Until the late nineteenth century, education
was conducted in the home (Gordon and Gordon, 1990) and the family was the
primary unit of social organisation and the most important educational agency
(Carper, 2000; Spring, 2005). As Carper (2000:9) notes, in general, in that period,
parents - particularly the father in the 1600s - bore the primary responsibility for
teaching their children, mainly Christian doctrine, vocational skills and how to read.
At the end of the nineteenth century, the responsibility for educating children was
transferred from the parents to the compulsory school (Mintz and Kellogg, 1988;
Nemer, 2002; Farenga, 2002; Cai, et al., 2002; Gaither, 2008; Wilhelm and Firmin,
2009). Home schooling gradually disappeared because of the establishment and
expansion of institutionalised and formal school systems in the nineteenth and early
twentieth centuries (Carper, 2000; Hill, 2000), but it has experienced a renaissance
since the mid-1970s, and in the USA there has been a significant development. Now
it is regarded as an important educational alternative (Carper, 2000; Ray, 2005).As
Ray (2002) points out, the current movement towards home schooling arose from an
alternative school movement in the 1960s and 1970s.
The early education curriculum in America was comprised of religion, reading
and writing (Hiatt-Michael, 1994; Tyack et al., 2001; Algera and Sink, 2002). In
the 1960s, three Supreme Court decisions, namely, the Supreme Court Case Engle
v. Vitale (1962), Abington School District v. Schempp (1963) and Murray v.
Curlett (1963), removed religious education from the public schools (Carper, 2000;
Wilhelm and Firmin, 2009). In this context, some conservative Christians in the
USA who were very religious withdrew their children from conventional public
schools from which the religious education had been removed (Gaither, 2008:231).
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RESEARCH CONTEXTS

In the 1980s and 1990s in the USA, the public and parents felt dissatisfied with
the quality of education provided by government schools, which reinforced the
home school movement (Jeub, 1994; Carper, 2000). Because the court removed
religious education from the curriculum in school, many parents chose to educate
their children at home aiming to impart their religious beliefs and values to their
children (Van Galen, 1988). By the middle of the 1980s in the USA, the majority of
home educators in the early stage of home schooling movement were conservative
Christians eager to transmit the teachings of the Bible and its values and doctrine to
their offspring (Carper, 2000; Van Galen, 1988; Ray, 1997, 2000, 2004; Cai et al.,
2002; Basham et al., 2007; Planty et al., 2008).
A number of studies have recognised the close relationship between the religions
and the growth of the homeschooling movement and several studies have examined
the role of religion in the modern homeschooling movement (Carper, 2000; Stevens,
2001; Gross, 2003; Lois, 2013). In this research, the role of religious beliefs in
relation to home schooling might be categorised as follows: the role of religious
beliefs in home educators motivations to home educate (Mayberry et al., 1995;
Martin, 1997; Grubb, 1998; Ray, 1999; Chapman and ODonoghue, 2000; Stevens,
2001; Abell, 2002; Brabant et al., 2003; Princiotta et al., 2004; Dahlquist, 2005;
Liao, 2006; Edward, 2007; Planty et al., 2008; Gaither, 2008; Smith and Williams,
2009; Kunzman, 2010); the influence of religion on the role of the parent as educator
(Lockerbie, 1994; Mayberry et al., 1995; Steven, 2001; Kapitulik, 2011); and the
effects of religion on gender role within the family (McDowell, 1995, 2000; Stevens,
2001; Apple, 2006; Yuracko, 2008; Fields-Smith and Williams, 2009; Gaither, 2009;
Lois, 2009, 2013; Kunzman, 2009, 2010; Kapitulik, 2011).
Studies show that the modern homeschooling movement has been occupied by
the religiously minded people throughout the world (Van Galen, 1988; Mayberry
et al., 1995; Ray, 1997, 2000, 2009, 2010; Carper, 2000; Livni, 2000; Basham et
al., 2007; Edward, 2007; Planty et al., 2008). By the late 1990s, it was estimated
that 75 per cent of American home educators were practising Christians (Livni,
2000; Basham et al., 2007). The National Center for Educational Statistics (NCES)
(2006) claims that the majority of families choose to home educate because of their
particular interest in moral and religious instruction. Planty et al. (2008: 135) states
that 83 per cent of respondents who educate their children at home reported that they
provide religious or moral instruction. Kunzman (2010:19) asserts that conservative
Christians comprise the largest subset of home educators in the USA.
A growing body of studies has paid attention to the role of religion in home
schooling, focusing on the motivations of home educators (Mayberry et al., 1995;
Ray, 1999; Chapman and ODonoghue, 2000; Stevens, 2001; Brabant et al., 2003;
Liao, 2006; Edward, 2007; Planty et al., 2008; Gaither, 2008; Smith and Williams,
2009; Kunzman, 2010). As Ray (1999,2000) indicates, religiously motivated parents
are eager to teach specific philosophies and religious values, control their childrens
exposure to undesirable social contacts, develop close family ties, and ensure high
academic achievement for their children. Knowles et al. (1994) identified the reasons
35

CHAPTER 2

that the parents decided to home school were the conflicts between public schools
and Christian families regarding religious beliefs and values. Mayberry et al. (1995)
suggest that for the significant majority of home educators, their religious and spiritual
convictions directly affect their decision to provide home schooling for their children.
Carper (2000) and Klicka (2002) have found that parents chose to home educate because
they had a desire to educate their child in an atmosphere in which their religious beliefs
can be enhanced. Drawing on the findings of their survey, Chapman and ODonoghue
(2000:24) summarised a range of motivations, for example, religious motivation,
views that conflict with those of traditional schools, protection from unwanted
influences, avoidance of negative schooling experiences, maintenance of the family
unit, views on childs development, new age influences. Fairchild (2002) found that
the homeschooling parents surveyed regarded religious beliefs as a primary motivation
to choose to home educate but admit that the decision was more complex than being
explained by a single reason. Several researchers have observed that contemporary
culture in public schools has had a certain negative influence on the values and
beliefs parents would like to cultivate to their children (Lines, 2001; Stevens, 2001;
Holt and Farenga, 2003; Green and Hoover-Dempsey, 2007). In a similar vein, Liao
(2006) found that for conservative Christians, home schooling provided them with a
private realm in which to impart their conservative religious beliefs to their children.
Apple (2005) and Gaither (2008) found that conservative Christians are likely to have
negative attitudes towards institutional authority and expertise.
More recent literature provides further information about the role of religious belief
in parents decision-making process. Edward (2007) found that the primary motivations
for parents to home educate is religion. Smith and William (2009:379) conducted
a qualitative research study and they found that among 24 parents, 21 reported that
religious beliefs influenced their decision to home educate their children. Fifteen of
the 24 reported that they saw home education as complementary to, and supportive
of, their religious beliefs (ibid.). Six out of the 24 admitted that God had led them
to home educate their children. McKeon (2007:129) claims that 57.3 per cent of the
home schoolers surveyed were European Americans with either Protestant or Catholic
backgrounds. This result is consistent with the findings of Rudner (1999) and Bashman
(2001). Kunzman (2009, 2010) claims that in the eyes of conservative Christian home
educators, the parental role as an educator is not only a right but a responsibility that is
given by God. From this perspective, in line with their Christian beliefs, conservative
Christian home schoolers are likely to form their childrens personality by using an
academic curriculum with a Christian worldview (Kunzman, 2010).
Kunzman (2010: 20-24) categorised the primary motivations of Christian who
home educated as follows:
1. Defiant attitude towards contemporary culture (Stevens, 2001; Smith, 1998; Liao,
2006; Balmer, 2007; Yuracko, 2008);
2. Mistrust of institutional authority and professional expertise (Ammerman, 1991;
McDannell, 1995; Moss, 1995; Moore, 1999; Khalili and Caplan, 2007; Geither,
2008; Kunzman, 2009);
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RESEARCH CONTEXTS

3. Emphasis on parents control and centrality of the family (Martin, 1997; Knowles
et al., 1994; Carper, 2000; Van Galen, 1987; Valee, 1998; Carpter and Ray, 2002;
Holt and Farenga, 2003; Martinez, 2009; Meink, 2004; Hall, 2007; Sun, 2007);
4. Integration of academic and religious views (Cizek, 1994; McDannell, 1995;
Vale, 1998; Kunzman, 2009)
5. Support for the civic conversation (Blacker, 1998)
As presented above, several scholars found that some parents regarded religion
as the main motivation for choosing to educate their children at home. For these
parents their motivation for initiating such a decision was religious. In their process
of making choices, their priority was to impart religious beliefs and values to their
children (Rudner, 1999; Basham, 2001; Chopp, 2003; Van Pelt, 2003; Edwards,
2007; Field-Smith and William, 2009). However, some scholars have observed that
some parents did not identify a religious motivation. Religion is not the primary
motivation for parents to home educate (Harrison, 1996; Welner and Welner, 1999;
Cleaveland, 2001; Tator, 2001; Brabant et al., 2003). As Basham et al. (2007: 10)
point out, the decision to educate children at home is not made solely because of
conservative religious views (Cleaveland, 2001). Brabant et al. (2003) found that
in Quebec the religious, philosophical, or anti-state views did not dominate home
schoolers decision-making process.
It is recognised that Christian cultures advocate that parents have an educational
role in the lives of their children (Lockerbie, 1994; Mayberry et al., 1995; Carper,
2000; Steven, 2001; Kapitulik, 2011). As Carper (2000:6) asserts, a number of home
schoolers have abandoned institutional education for home schooling in an attempt
to restore what they believe to be education in its purest form parents teaching their
own children (Carper, 2000:6). Mayberry et al. (1995) have observed the important
role of religion in the parents decision-making: they refer to the majority of religious
home educators orthodoxy as a belief in the existence of an external authority, an
authority that guides their moral decisions, including the decision to educate their
children at home (as cited in Stevens, 2001:11). Stevens (2001:18) found that
home schoolers who described themselves as Christians often reported that home
schooling is a fulfillment of Gods command that parents take responsibility for
their childrens education in general, or of Gods will for a particular mother to stay
home. As Stevens (2001:95) asserts, many home schoolers mentioned the story of
their own journeys to home education in terms of Gods will. Kapitulik (2011:132)
claims that religious parents describe their children as special, unique and in need of
strong but loving adult guidance. Klicka (2002:124) states that in home schooling,
parents can fulfill the commands in scripture to teach their children Gods truth
throughout each day.
A number of studies in the USA context have observed the strong influence of
religions on gender role (Stevens, 2001; Gaither, 2009; Lois, 2009, 2013; Kunzman,
2009, 2010). In particular, in view of the stratified gender roles, the mothers are
expected and encouraged to take on the primary responsibility for parenting and
educating their children within the home. Kapitulik (2011:132) found that it
37

CHAPTER 2

was the mother who did the majority of the homeschooling labour. As Kapitulik
(2011:97) asserts, by following conventional gender roles, including embracing
the notion of homeschooling as womens work, religious homeschoolers are
satisfying the teaching of their religion and the wishes of their higher power. He
also noticed that the homeschooling parents provided different explanations for
their gendered division of home schooling: religious parents talk about the will
of God and secular parents invoke the wisdom of nature (Kapitulik, 2011:74).
More recent studies have focused on the role of mothers in conservative religious
home schooling (McDowell, 1995, 2000; Stevens, 2001; Yuracko, 2008; FieldsSmith and Williams, 2009; Gaither, 2009; Lois, 2013). Many researchers have
observed that the homeschooling parents, in particular mothers, reported that they
should take the primary responsibility for parenting and educating their children
(Stevens, 2001; Howell, 2005; Green and Hoover-Dempsey, 2007; Gaither, 2009;
Jackson and Allan, 2010; Lois, 2013). Furthermore, Stevens (2001) identifies the
correlation between this conviction and conservative Christianity. Stevens (2001)
and Gaither (2009) note that conservative Christian home schooling, to some extent,
promotes traditional gender roles. Emerson and Hartman (2006) have observed
that fundamentalist Christianity promotes traditional gender roles and increases
patriarchy in the family. In a similar vein, Lois (2013:57) finds that the Christian
mothers identification with Christianity, in particular the evangelical form, seemed
to inculcate in them more traditional ideas about gender role. As a result, as Stevens
(2001) and Gaither (2009) point out, the majority of conservative Christians regarded
rearing and educating their child as a God-given right and responsibility. Kapitulik
(2011:132) found that the homeschooling mothers surveyed rejected the liberal
feminist ideal of simultaneously maintaining a career while practicing intensive
mothering (Hays, 1996; Williams, 2000). He has also observed that unlike current
and former professional women (Blair-loy, 2003; Stone, 2007), the homeschooling
mothers surveyed had chosen not to pursue a career in the first place (as cited in
Kapitulik, 2011:132).
Several scholars also recognised the significant contributions that the mothers
made to the homeschooling movement. For example, women as homeschooling
mothers have become the prime advocators who promote the rapid development of
home schooling in the USA (Stevens, 2001; Gaither, 2009). Stevens (2001) indicates
that home schooling is actually considered to be womens work, thus it is women
who are carrying out the largest amount of homeschooling work. In a similar vein,
Lois (2009) and Kunzman (2009) have observed that home-shcooling parents, in
particular mothers, are primarily responsible for the lives of their children on a dayto-day basis.
Additionally, several scholars have identified the fact that a familys religion was
strongly associated with the types of teaching style that the parents used (Hood,
1990; Huber, 2003; McKeon, 2007). McKeon (2007:136) found that a parent
religion was strongly associated with the style of homeschool a parent runs, the type
of teacher he or she is, and the reading method used in the homeschool. He suggests
38

RESEARCH CONTEXTS

that parents with a strong faith may use that faith to determine the ways in which
they choose to manage their home schooling. It has been found that those parents
professing to be Catholic or Protestant engaged in either authoritative type teaching
styles or delegative styles more frequently than those categorised as adherents of
religions (McKeon, 2007:93).
Social class, gender and home schooling
Abundant studies have paid specific attention to the exploration of social differences
as it relates to the process of home schooling in Western countries. Several studies
from the USA support the claim that homeschooling families are largely middleclass, relatively rich and highly educated (Ray, 1990, 1991; Rudner, 1999; Stevens,
2001). Rudner (1988, 1999) found that the parents who home schooled their
children possessed a higher educational level compared to that of parents in the
general population. Studies show that the participants of the modern homeschooling
movement in the USA context are white and wealthy, with over 95 per cent being
white middle-class families and only less than one per cent black families (Rudner,
1998; Ray, 2000; McDowell et al., 2000). Mayberry et al. (1995) have observed that
homeschooling parents tend to be mothers who are white, middle-class and welleducated. However, several scholars have noticed the diversity in terms of homeeducated childrens family background (Knowles, 1988; Rothermel, 1999; Arai,
2000). Arai (2000:209) has observed that in Canada homeschooling parents are from
diverse educational and class backgrounds, likewise Barfield (2002) indicates that
home schoolers are a diverse group of individuals who are characterised by a variety
of educational, economic and religious backgrounds. The exploration of the people
who are practising home schooling in China has been neglected in the literature.
In this book, I intend to examine whether social-class differences impact on the
decision-making process concerning home schooling in the context of China.
An extensive amount of literature has focused on the factors which have
accounted for the rapid growth of modern home schooling in Western countries
(Knowles et al., 1992; Mayberry and Knowles, 1989; Mayberry et al., 1995;
Montgomery, 1989; Van Galen, 1987; Murray, 1996; Ray, 1999; Basham, 2001;
Neuman and Aviram, 2003). However, just a small proportion of the studies have
paid attention to the role of gender in the home education process (Ray, 1991;
Rudner, 1999; McDowell, 2000; Stevens, 2001; Lois, 2006, 2013; Fields-Smith and
Williams, 2009). Ray (1991) and Rudner (1999) identify the fact that the majority of
homeschooling parents are mothers. Mayberry et al. (1995) found that 78 per cent
of mothers reported homemaker/home educator as their occupation, while nearly
all the mothers who reported different occupations indicated that they worked at
home (as cited in Stevens, 201:11). More recent literature persistently supported
the claim that the mother is the parent who is primarily responsible for practising
home schooling (McDowell, 2000; Steven, 2001; McKeon, 2007; Morton, 2010;
Lois, 2013). McKeon (2007:129) found that 97.5 per cent of mothers make up the
39

CHAPTER 2

significant majority of the primary homeschooling parents. Stevens (2001) observed

the naturalised view of motherhood when he studied nature mothers and their childrearing philosophies. Stevens (2001) indicates that home schooling is actually
considered to be womens work, thus it is women who are carrying out the largest
amount of homeschooling work. Steven (2001:76) states that as a part of a larger script
of idealised family relations, motherhood is a lead role in Gods plan for autoritarian
populist religious conservatives. Several researchers have paid attention on how
homeschooling mothers negotiate with the challenges when they move between the
roles as a mother, a homemaker and an educator in the process of practising home
schooling (Stevens, 2001; Lois, 2006, 2013; Fields-Smith and Williams, 2009). As
Lois (2013:95) suggests, gender inequalities in home schools are evidenced by the
emotional burnout experienced by a significant number of home schoolers because
the teacher role was such a considerable time investment. Lois (2013:95) has found
that mothers experienced what sociologists have called role strain, where they had
difficulty meeting the demands of their other family roles, such as wife, homemaker,
and mother to other children. Lois (2013:103) further contends that in the operation
of a home school, role conflict arose because the goals of the teacher role often
contradicted those of the mother role; the homemaker role, however, brought about
role overload because mothers had too much housework to do in the time available
to them. As a result, a series of problematic emotions arising from their role strain
often culminated in emotional burnout (Lois, 2013:95). Bank et al. (2007:182)
claims that through the ideology of intensive mothering, mothers commitment
to the home school supersedes any emotional conflicts that might arise with their
expanded workload. As Bank et al. (2007:182) asserts, critics of equating home
schooling with liberal feminism warn that the actual work of most home schooling
mothers serves to reinscribe traditional family values. Fields-Smith and Williams
(2009) have observed that for the majority of the mothers, the decision to leave work
and stay at home with children was made with difficulty, and the mothers did not
have a predisposition to nature motherhood. Rudner (1995) found that there were no
significant differences in terms of academic results by gender among the male and
female home schoolers. However, the literature focusing on gender differences in
home schooling has been largely ignored in the educational context of China.
Critics of home schooling
In the past few decades, there has been constant criticism of home schooling as an
educational phenomenon since its renaissances in the mid-1970s. The rapid growth
of the modern homeschooling movement was critiqued by scholars and sociologists
of education in the USA (Lubienski, 2000, 2003; Reich, 2002, 2005; Evans, 2003;
Apple, 2000, 2005, 2006) and in the UK (Monk, 2003, 2004, 2009). Many policymakers, school administrators, researchers, and parents have generally questioned
whether the parents, in particular those without any formal teaching qualification,
are capable of teaching their children properly. In the UK context, Monk (2003) felt
40

RESEARCH CONTEXTS

doubtful about the rights of parents to home educate their children. And in his work
of 2009, he claimed that home education should be regulated by the government.
In the USA context, Reich (2002, 2005) questioned whether parents have the right
to educate their children at home in the manner that they prefer. Concern has been
raised by the public and researchers as to whether home-educated children will be
well socialised since they are absent from conventional schooling (Romanowski,
2001; Monk, 2004). As Arai (1999:2) argues, most of the concerns regarding home
schooling seem to concentrate on whether home-educated students will grow up to
be good citizens.
In the USA, several other scholars have expressed their criticism and focused
on cultural issues in the modern homeschooling movement (Lubienski, 2000, 2001
2003a, 2003b; Evans, 2003; Apple, 2000, 2006). For instance, Lubienski (2000)
is concerned about the erosion of democracy in terms of tolerance, understanding
and exposure to differences. As Lubienski (2000:211) asserts, home schooling
undermines public educations singular potential to serve as a democratic institution
promoting the common good. Further, Lubienski (2000:220) argues that home
schooling denies democratic accountability and disenfranchises the community
from its legitimate interest in education. The lack of socialisation is regarded as
the primary drawback of home education (Romanowski, 2001:2). Romanowski
(2001:4) summarises several of the main criticisms relating to issues of socialisation
as follows: home schooled children are isolated from the outside world and socially
handicapped; by being sheltered from the real world, children are seldom presented
with the opportunities to learn sorely needed social interaction skills; homeschooled
children seldom are exposed to the diversity of beliefs and backgrounds that
they would encounter in most public school classrooms (Romanowski, 2001:4).
Furthermore, Romanowski (2001:4) argues that although home-educated children
are involved in various activities outside of their homes, such as field trips and
other activities with fellow home schoolers, the participants usually are a very select
group of students who for the most part share similar values, background, and social
class. In this context, Romanowski (2001:4) is concerned that the home-educated
children are less likely to be exposed to differing viewpoints, values, beliefs and
backgrounds. Apart from the issues of socialisation, Romanowski (2001:4) also lists
several limitations of home schooling, which are summarised as: acadmically, the
lack of peer interaction in the classroom is detrimental to a home school students
education; the instructor may lack the resources or facilities to deliver a wellrounded curriculum; most parents who home school are well meaning and highly
motivated, but they may lack the ability and professional preparation that they
need to provide effective instruction; Another concern is the scope and depth of
knowledge required in some content areas as home school children move into the
secondary level. (Romanowski, 2001:4).
In a similar vein, Apple (2000, 2006) provides a comprehensive critical analysis
of the homeschooling movement in the USA. Apple (2000:257) points to the fact
that home schooling potentially erodes public responsibility. He is concerned that the
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CHAPTER 2

modern home schooling movement might generate a classification in the American

society, with a selfish and anti-public agenda (Apple, 2000:257). Further, Apple
(2006) criticises parents religious convictions since, in his view, the homeschooling
movement has resulted in a general move in society towards a private consciousness,
namely a kind of suburbanisation of life and education (see Cooper, 2005:xiv). From
the sociocultural perspective, Apple (2006) is very concerned about the potential
threat to the sense of community, the health of the public sphere and home schoolings
potential to bring about societal stratification and racial separation (see Cooper,
2005:xiv). However, some scholars disagree with the arguments of Lubienski
(2000, 2003a, 2003b) and Apple (2000, 2005). As Hardenbergh (2005:98) argues,
the findings of Apple (2000, 2005) and Lubienski (2000, 2003) were built on the
unexamined hypothesis that public schools function as the glue of our society and
therefore necessary in order to promote common values. Ray (2005:12) summarises
the primary critiques associated with home schooling in terms as follows:
1. Homeschooling parents are selfish for choosing to educate their children at home
(Lubienski, 2000, 2001);
2. Homeschooling parents are anti-state (Apple, 2000, 2005);
3. Homeschooling parents and their children are removing themselves from basic
and essential participation in the democratic processes of the USA republic and
they are neglecting their social responsibilities (Lubienski, 2000, 2001; Reich,
2002, 2005);
4. The home educated will be socially isolated and may not learn to be decent, civil
and respectful, and may be unable to work and live well with others from diverse
backgrounds (Evans, 2003; Reich, 2002, 2005).
THE CONTEXTS RELATING TO HOME SCHOOLING

Home schooling is not a new educational phenomenon. In the history of China, the
use of home schooling, Shishu, the phenomenon of an old-style home school with a
private tutor, initially developed in the Spring and Autumn Period (770-476 B.C.),
more than 2,000 years ago, and has continued to exist apart from a temporary cessation
during the Qin Dynasty. Shishu has been divided into several types, for example
the one set up by tutors, or that sponsored and developed by wealthy families. The
system of Shishu gradually became eroded at the end of Qing Dynasty. Since 1949,
the government has gradually reformed and replaced it. In the middle of the 1950s,
this old-style education pattern was entirely eliminated. Since 1978 Chinese society
has been experiencing a period of transition, which has resulted in great changes in
income inequality and social stratification in China. As indicated previously, after
the end of the 1990s, a new middle class emerged. The rapid economic growth and
the emergence of the Chinese middle class have led to diversity in terms of parental
choice regarding their childrens education (Sheng, 2012a, 2012b, 2013b). In this
respect, modern home schooling, as an educational phenomenon, has emerged in the
big cities of China, such as in Beijing and Shanghai (Sheng, 2013a).
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RESEARCH CONTEXTS

Before the end of the 1990s, a significant majority of the participants in home
schooling could generally be considered to be passively involved in home
education. Some of the parents, particularly mothers, were forced to practise home
schooling, since their children had study problems or psychological disorders, such
as MBD (Minimal Brain Dysfunction) or ADHD (Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity
Disorder), which made it impossible for them to receive conventional classroombased education at school. However, since the beginning of the new century, a small
group of parents, who are mainly Christian, have been enthusiastically practising
home schooling for their children.
Generally speaking, the modern development of home schooling in China is at
an early stage. It is a marginal educational phenomenon within the education system
of China. According to the estimate offered by the organiser of a homeschooling
training programme in a church, the maximum number of homeschooling parents,
with a religious background, is less than 40 in Beijing. According to a relevant report
in the media, there are small groups of homeschooling families in Shanghai.
Since the mid-1970s, the homeschooling movement has achieved significant
growth in a number of countries in terms of both number and size. At the beginning
of the 1980s, home schooling was illegal in 30 states in the USA, however, it has been
legal in all 50 states since 1993 (Basham et al., 2007). Unlike the dramatic growth
in the USA and Canada, the development of modern home schooling in China is
still at an early stage, and is a small, isolated and parent-led effort. As an extreme
marginal educational phenomenon, the perception of the public of home schooling is
quite low. As home schooling has developed, there have been escalating tension and
hostility between homeschooling families and educational officials. Prior to 2011,
there was no special law relating to home schooling in China. In July 2006, the
homeschooling sector was made illegal and closed down by the local educational
authority in Shanghai. The educational authority states that the act of practising
home schooling contravenes the provisions of the China Compulsory Education
Law with regard to Items 2, 4 and 35. Items 2 and 4 require that parents should be
responsible for sending their school-age children to receive compulsory education at
school. According to Item 35, educating children at home contravenes the specific
principles regarding the school curriculum, teaching content and curriculum setting.
LEGAL SITUATION OF HOME SCHOOLING IN WESTERN COUNTRIES

Home schooling has experienced a transition in Western countries from being illegal
to being legal over recent decades. Prior to 1993, home schooling was illegal in 30
states in the USA. Since 1993 home schooling has been legal within all 50 states
(Buss, 2000; Somerville, 2001; Tyler and Carper, 2000; Bauman, 2001; Reich,
2002; Bailey and Karp, 2003; Belfield, 2004; Neal, 2006; Basham et al., 2007).
However, there are specific rules regulating home schooling in each state (Beato,
2005). (Basham et al., 2007:6) and the different states vary in the extent to which
they require homeschooling parents and their children to report to the educational
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CHAPTER 2

authorities (Stevens, 2001:13) in order to ensure that the quality of home education
reaches the necessary standards. According to Brandly (1997), the regulations of the
individual states of the USA may be divided into three levels, namely, high, moderate
and low regulation. As the data from HSLDA (2008), in the USA, 10 states have no
regulations, 14 states have low regulation, 20 states have moderate regulations, and
6 states have high regulations (HSLDA, 2008). The homeschooling parents within
high-regulation states are usually required to inform the local educational authority
when they plan to start the home schooling. Additionally, the homeschooling
curriculum must be approved by the state. The parents are required to have periodic
visits to the home for standardised tests to be administered. Parents must also be
certified teachers, a requirement often drawn up by state legislatures to satisfy the
demands of teachers unions in order to discourage home schooling (Basham et al.,
2007:7). Within the moderate-regulation states homeschooling parents are generally
required to send notification and provide test scores and/or professional evaluation of
the students progress. By contrast, homeschooling parents in low-regulation states do
not have to maintain any contact with the state (Basham et al., 2007:7). In particular,
in the USA, the National Homeschool Association (NHA) and the Home School
Legal Defence Association have acted politically on behalf of home educators at the
federal level (Ray, 2000; Stevens, 2001).
In Canada, as stated by the Charter of Rights and Freedoms (1982), every child has
the right to education and their parents have the right to direct that education at home
according to their conscientious beliefs (Cooper, 2005:62). In all the 10 provinces
of Canada home schooling is legal; however, in each one the regulations permit
home education under a variety of specific conditions. The majority of the provinces
require homeschooling parents to adhere to the Education Act, and parents have
to register their home schooled children with the local school or school board. As
indicated by Hepburn and Van Belle (2003:6), in three Canadian provinces (Alberta,
Newfoundland and Saskatchewan), homeschooling parents are required to submit an
application before being permitted to educate their children themselves (Basham et
al., 2007:6). In Alberta, homeschooling families are paid expenses up to 16 per cent
of the expenditure that each pupil would be allocated in the public school (Basham
et al., 2007:6). Alberta is also the only province in which homeschooling children
are required to be tested. In Canada, eight provinces publish curriculum guidelines
for homeschooling families, but the curriculum does not need government approval
(Basham et al., 2007:6).
According to Petrie (2001:483), legislation regarding home schooling in the
Western European countries can be divided into four categories, as follows: firstly,
those countries, including Belgium, Denmark, Eire, France, Italy, Luxembourg,
Norway, Portugal, most of Switzerland, and the UK, accommodate home educators
and have always done so; secondly, countries, such as Austria, which have not
permitted home education in the past but now do so; thirdly, several countries,
such as Spain, Greece, two Swiss cantons, the Netherlands and Germany, which
do not permit home schooling in terms of the law, but are likely to allow individual
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RESEARCH CONTEXTS

instances. In Portugal, according to the law, education is compulsory for each child
under 15; however, the regulation also permits home education and has always done
so (Cooper, 2005:62). In England and Wales, the Education Act 1944 states that
education is compulsory for all children, but home schooling is permitted providing
specific conditions are fulfilled, and the law requires that local education authorities
monitor the progress of children being home schooled (Cooper, 2005:62). In Austria,
the compulsory education requirement may be met by either the child attending
school or receiving equivalent instruction, including home schooling (ibid.). In
Ireland, article 42.2 of the 1937 Constitution states that Parents shall be free to
provide this education in their homes or in private schools or in schools recognized
or established by the State. However, it is stipulated that the state has the right to
monitor home education (Cooper, 2005:61). In France, according to the law of 1882,
it is required that the child shall acquire the elementary skills of reading, writing and
calculation, and the parents are permitted to provide appropriate education which is
similar to that which a child of the same age would receive at school. The regulation
allows parents to educate their children at home as long as certain conditions are
fulfilled. The law requires the progress of children being home educated to be
supervised at the regional level (Cooper, 2005:61). In Italy, homeschooling parents
may educate their children at home, with state supervision and the approval of the
principal of the local school. The law stipulates that the state has the right to modify
the level of competence reached by means of examination (Cooper, 2005:61).
In the Australian context, the law permits parents to be free to educate their
children at home in all states and territories; however, the government retains
the power to regular what parents do in the process of home educating (Harding
and Farrell, 2003; Cooper, 2005). As Harding and Farrell (2003) assert, state and
territorial government in Australia disagree that for home schoolers education is
solely the domain of the family. The government requires the home schoolers to
register their children for home schooling. Each jurisdiction has its own regime for
resisting the home education of children. In Australia, the optional educational path,
including home schooling, is permitted if parents are able to provide an appropriate
education programme, although certain conditions apply. For example, district
education officials have a duty to inspect and approve home tuition programmes
(Cooper, 2005:62).
In New Zealand, home schooling has been legal since 1914, originally because
some rural families were living in remote situations (Cooper, 2005:63). Parents in
Russia have the right to make alternative choices for their childrens education,
including home schooling (Cooper, 2005:63). In the Philippines, home schooling is
actively encouraged in urban areas. It is available for those children who are unable
to attend school and also relieves the overcrowding of school facilities (Cooper,
2005:63-4). According to the Chilean Constitution, home schooling is legal, although
there is no specific law regulating it (Cooper, 2005:64).
In brief, it seems that there is inconsistency among home shcoolers and the
government decides whether education is parental responsibility or the responsibility
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CHAPTER 2

of the state. A common feature of the critiques of home schoolers is that education of
children is the right and responsibility of the family. By contrast, governments do not
agree that education is solely the domain of the homeschooling family. In this context,
during the initial period of the development of the homeschooling movement, it was
common to see that there existed a tension between the education authority of the
government and the home schoolers (Ray, 1997, 2000). With the development of the
home schooling, the home schoolers have persistently and continuously negotiated
with the government regarding how much state supervision might be proper for
the home educated students. Several scholars suggest that the state should reduce
its involvement and oversight regarding home schooling (McIntyre-Bhatty, 2007;
Badman, 2009; Rothermel, 2010).
In the USA, the different states have different levels of control over home
schooling. In general, there exist different degrees of regulation, which have been
categorised as follows: low regulation, moderate regulation and high regulation
(Brandly, 1997; Ray, 1997, 2000). Stewart and Neeley (2005, cited in Jorgenson,
2011:24) found that in the USA, 13 states had weak regulatory status, 17 states
had low regulatory status, 13 states had moderate regulation and 7 states had high
levels of regulations for home schooling. In Australia, the government permits home
schoolers to educate their children themselves; however, the government still retains
the legal power to regulate home-educated students. It is through registering homeeducated children that the government can legally monitor what home schoolers do
in the process of educating their children.
In Europe, some governments have a lower level of control over home schooling,
for example, Potugal, Romania and Poland where home schooling is legal; however,
home education must be regulated by educational authorities in these countries
(Klicka, 2007; Nordmann et al., 2009). In some countries, such as Germany and
Sweden, the government exerts strong control over home education (Donnelly,
2009; Donnelly and Neubronner, 2009; Unruh, 2010). In England, home schoolers
retain the legal right to educate their children at home and there is no government
regulation relating to this right (Education Otherwies, 2010a, 2010b, 2010c).
LEGAL SITUATION OF HOME SCHOOLING IN CHINA

In 1951, the Chinese government published a law entitled The Decision on the
Reform of the Education System. Since then, the education system in China has
gradually developed into a complete system which comprises four stages: pre-school
education (three years), junior education (six years), middle education (six years),
and higher education (four to ten years) (Chen, 2000). Pre-school education refers to
that which children aged 3 to 5 receive in kindergarten/nursery school (ibid.). Junior
education is the education which students aged 6 to 12 receive in elementary schools
(ibid.). Middle education refers to the educational process which students aged 13
to 18 receive in junior secondary schools (three years) and senior secondary schools
(three years) (ibid.). The time spent in elementary education and junior secondary
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RESEARCH CONTEXTS

education forms the period of compulsory education in China, the duration of which
is nine years (ibid.). When the nine-year period of compulsory education has been
completed, the next stages comprise both mainstream education and vocational
education (Chen, 2000). The regular education system is comprised of senior
secondary schools, mainstream college undergraduate education, and technological
academies and institutions of higher education (ibid.).
Prior to 2014, there was no special law relating to home schooling in China.
Home schooling in China is illegal because it contravenes the provisions of the
China Compulsory Education Law. In July 2006, the homeschooling sector was
made illegal and closed down by the local educational authority in Shanghai. The
educational authority states that the act of practising home schooling contravenes
the provisions of the China Compulsory Education Law with regard to Items 2, 4
and 35. Items 2 and 4 require that parents should be responsible for sending their
school-age children to receive compulsory education at school. According to Item
35, educating children at home contravenes the specific principles regarding the
school curriculum, teaching content and curriculum setting.
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

Research strategy
As Strauss and Corbin (1998) stress, it is essential to determine which research
approaches will be appropriate before carrying out a research project. The strengths
and weaknesses of qualitative research approaches were therefore considered
in the context of the specific circumstances of this research. As presented in the
introduction, this research study aims to examine social differences in terms of
social class and gender in relation to parents involvement in their childrens home
schooling. In order to fulfil the research purposes of this research study, the attitudes
and motivations of parents who were determined to educate their children at home
were explored. It is well accepted by educationalists and sociologists that using a
qualitative research method may contribute to a better understanding of individual
attitudes and motivations (Strauss, 1998; Bell, 2005). A qualitative research
technique was therefore employed in order to offer in-depth understanding of the
class and gender differences in current China.
Miles and Huberman (1994) assert that a qualitative strategy emphasises how
people make sense of the world and experience events. This has been confirmed by the
work of Willig (2001), who states that a qualitative approach, such as interviewing,
attempts to understand what it is like to experience specific conditions or the ways
in which people manage special situations. In other words, it is designed to explore
the subjective feel of a particular experience or situation.
A qualitative approach is likely to be interpretative, stressing meaning and
searching for an understanding of the respondents world (Creswell, 1994). Bell
(2005:157) suggests that the interview method can help researchers follow up ideas,
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probe responses and investigate motives, attitudes and feelings to provide in-depth
information that a written response would conceal. Bell (2005:157) also claims
that questionnaire responses may only elicit face value information, but interview
responses can offer clarified information. The interview can generate abundant
first-hand material, which usually puts flesh on the bones of the questionnaire
responses (Bell, 2005:157).
In this research I took the view of Ritchie and Lewis (2003) who argue that the
key factor which determines whether qualitative methods should be the principal
research method depends on the objective of the research. Accordingly, having
considered the existing studies in relation to differences in terms of gender and class,
I decided that it would be more effective to conduct semi-structured interviews with
parents and students. The use of interviews was intended to develop an extensive
and comprehensive understanding of the practices and experiences of the research
subjects with an emphasis on the relationship between social class and parents
choices to home educate.
While qualitative approaches have weaknesses, they can provide the reader with
sufficient information to gain in-depth insights. However, certain criticisms are
levelled at interviews, such as the fact that they are small-scale investigations, timeconsuming, highly subjective and have subjective bias (Cohen, Manion and Morrison,
2000). According to Denscombe (1998), the researchers own identity, background
and beliefs also have a significant impact on the creation and interpretation of the
data.
According to Strauss and Corbin (1998), before carrying out a research project,
it is important to decide which research approaches are appropriate. This study
adopted secondary research and qualitative methods in order to fulfil the purpose
of the research. Qualitative methods, such as semi-structured interviews, provided a
rich description of attitudes and aspirations and allowed me to elicit the attitudes and
motivations of mothers.
Pilot study
A pilot study was conducted to provide necessary information for the design of the
interview schedules with parents. Firstly, the pilot research examined whether the
content of interviews reflected the research purposes sufficiently well. Secondly, it
tested whether the content of the interview with parents would fulfil the aims of this
research. The findings of the pilot study contributed to the modification of the design
of interview schedules.
As a result of the replies of the respondents, several measures were adjusted, such
as the investigation schedules regarding mother involvement in their childrens
home schooling on a day-to-day basis. Based on the interview data obtained from
parents, the questions covering several aspects, such as educational background of
parents, family economic income, motivations for home schooling, the process of
practising home schooling on a day-to-day basis, religious beliefs and their influence
48

RESEARCH CONTEXTS

on educating children at home, textbooks for home schooling, teaching context, and
academic and social outcomes of home schooling. Several respondents reported that
in the decision-making process of choosing home schooling, fathers attitudes were
as important as those of mothers. Consequently questions regarding fathers attitudes
relating to home schooling were added. There has been considerable reference to
parental involvement in childrens education in Western countries and therefore
questions regarding differences between mothers and fathers were also included.
Secondary research
Most researchers will be involved in all stages of their research, from the initial
identification of research issues to the analysis of data and reporting of final findings.
However, in the social sciences there exists the opportunity quite legitimately to base
ones research on work that has been carried out by others, incurring a huge saving in
time, effort and money. This is secondary research (McQueen and Knussen, 2002).
As Frankfort-Nachmias and Nachmias (1996:304) state, secondary research refers
to research findings that are based on the data collected by others.
Secondary research has an intellectual tradition in the social sciences, especially in
comparative studies. For example, Durkheim examined official statistics on suicide
rates in different areas and found that the suicide rates in Protestant countries were
higher than in Catholic countries. Marx used official economic statistics to document
his class struggle thesis and argue for economic determinism. Weber studied the
official ideologies of early Protestant churches and other historical documents to
rebut Marxs analysis by suggesting that religion rather than economic determinism
was the source of socio-political behaviour (Frankfort-Nachmias, 1996:305).
As Hyman (1987:24) claims, in research on more contemporary issues the
investigator searches through a wide range of materials covering different areas and
eras, which may result in greater scope and depth than is possible when using a
single primary data source. He also suggests with regard to survey research that
secondary analysis of a series of comparable surveys conducted at different points
in time provides one of the rare avenues for the empirical description of long-term
changes, and for examining the way phenomena vary under the contrasting conditions
operative in one society at several points (ibid). In my research there exists some
transverse comparative analysis on the basis of the cross-national cultural and social
settings. With the aid of secondary sources I was better able to understand the social
and cultural context; by analysing data collected at different times on similar issues,
I was also able to describe and explain changes.
Secondary research has an intellectual tradition in the social sciences, especially
in cross-cultural and multi-cultural studies. For this research I read a large number of
books, journal papers and material in relation to Bourdieus theoretical framework,
social stratification, social class and educational inequality in the context of Chinese
and Western countries: all of these provided a strong theoretical foundation for the
following empirical study, as well as an insight into the relevant research issues. In
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particular, this research pays specific attention to changes in social structure and
social classification in the context of Chinese transitional society and the consequent
impact on Chinese education. Moreover, the study has also benefited from access to
the results of research studies carried out in Western countries, which have provided
a better overview and understanding of the homeschooling movement in the Western
countries.
Secondary research was chosen to allow me to acquire a broad overview of literature
in relation to the studies relevant to home schooling, which provided this research
with a strong foundation for both empirical fieldwork and theoretical analysis. As
Hyman (1987:24) claims, in research on more contemporary issues the investigator
examines a wide range of materials covering different areas and eras, which may result
in greater scope and depth than is possible when the focus is only on primary data. In
particular, secondary research has been adopted to collect media reports and documents
concerning case studies of home schooling in Shanghai. Because of limited research
funds, an empirical research study was conducted with a sample of 24 homeschooling
mothers and eight fathers in Beijing. The data sources for cases of home schooling in
Shanghai were primarily media reports on the websites relating to Meng Mu Tang.
Semi-structured interview
The interviews were conducted with both mothers and fathers. My interview with
parents covered a diversity of topics relating to their educational background,
their childrens experiences before home schooling, the decision-making process
regarding home schooling, the motivations for home schooling, the process of
practising home schooling, religious beliefs and their influence on home schooling,
teaching approaches, teaching content, academic outcomes, social outcomes, the
labour division regarding home schooling and so on. Interviews were conducted by
myself and lasted on average from 1.5 to 2 hours, with the longest interview lasting
3 hours. These interviews were conducted face-to-face in childrens homes or the
church, except for a few that were conducted over the telephone at these parents
requests because of scheduling constraints.
Sampling
Snowballing techniques (Biernacki and Waldorf, 1981; Babbie, 1999) were
employed to select the qualitative sample. The sampling process began by selecting
a small number of parent respondents who had been interviewed. At the end of the
interview, the respondents were encouraged to suggest suitable additional participants
(Babbie, 1999:174). The participants discovered in this way were then asked for
names and contact details of further parents. The process was repeated until there
was no additional new information available from the sample parents (Cooper and
Emory, 1995; Babbie, 1999). Eventually 24 homeschooling mothers and eight fathers
participated in the semi-structured interviews which I conducted.
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RESEARCH CONTEXTS

Qualitative methods, including semi-structured interviews and on-the-spot

observation, were employed in order to provide a rich description of the demographic
characteristics of home schooling, and the motivations for, and practice of, home
schooling. All of the homeschooling parents (24 mothers) who registered for the
training programme in Beijing were chosen to be interviewees for this research.
Additionally the research was designed to provide an in-depth analysis of the
ways in which fathers are involved in their childrens home education. I therefore
interviewed eight fathers whose families were practising home schooling.
Interview practice
The semi-structured interviews with parents took the form of individual interviews,
focus group interviews (three parents in each group) and telephone interviews. As
Lederman (1990) indicates, the focus group interview, which uses a structured group
conversation, is the best procedure for obtaining peoples feeling and opinions. This
method was utilised to obtain verification in interpreting data and to increase the
generalisation of the information provided by the one-to-one interviews (Vaughn et
al. 1996: 6). The on-the-spot observations were also utilised in the home schooling
training activities. The qualitative techniques of description and interpretation were
adopted in this study.
According to Kvale (1996), when conducting an interview, it is essential for
a researcher to create a context in which the participants can be stimulated and
encouraged to participate in the research topic. As Kvale (1996:147) asserts, the
experienced and effective interviewer is not only knowledgeable about the subject
matter, but also should be an expert in terms of interaction and communication.
Because home schooling occupies a marginal place, some people would not have
liked to talk about the actual situation regarding the home schooling that they were
practising. For example, in the pilot study, I conducted my interviews with parents
following a designated structured interview schedule. However, some participants
were reluctant to provide detailed information about their motivation to educate
their children at home. I therefore changed my previously scheduled interviews to
semi-structured interviews. In the interviews, I purposely established an atmosphere
which contributed to the development of a more friendly research relationship. This
allowed parents to voluntarily express their actual opinions on a range of issues
relating to their motivation for home schooling.

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PARENTAL MOTIVATION: WHY DO PARENTS

PRACTISE HOME EDUCATION?

Generally speaking, the primary participants in home education in China can be

divided into two groups, namely, the passively involved and the actively involved.
Prior to the end of the 1990s, most of the home schoolers in urban China could be
referred to as being passively involved in home schooling. Some of the parents, in
particular the mothers, were forced to practise home schooling, because their children
had problems with studying or suffered from psychological disabilities, such as MBD
(Minimal Brain Dysfunction) or ADHD (Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder),
which made conventional classroom-based education at school impossible for them.
The other type of homeschooling family was one in which the parents had usually
had long periods of overseas study or work experience. When they returned to China,
their children were already teenagers and found it difficult to adapt to conventional
school education. To some extent, these middle-class parents were forced to choose
to educate their children at home. As outlined previously, after China entered the
new century, a growing group of parents, who had a strong religious background,
were enthusiastic about practising home schooling for their children and became
actively involved in it.
Tina was a middle-class mother of a daughter and a son. She was a full-time
housewife whose husband was a famous professor at a top university in China. Tina
went to study economics in the USA at the beginning of the 1980s together with her
husband. After graduation, she and her husband worked in the USA for years, and
when she returned to China, her daughter was 13 years old and her son was around
3 years old. Since Tinas daughter did not adapt well to school education in Beijing,
she asked her mother to educate her at home. Then when she was 16 years old, she
returned to the USA and studied at a boarding school. When her son was 6 years old,
Tina was determined not to send him to school but to educate him at home.
Interviewer: Why did you decide to conduct home schooling for your
daughter?
Tina: In fact I gave a serious consideration to several aspects before I decided
to conduct home education for herAt the beginning (of the home schooling) I
thought a lot about her English. She went to the USA aged 4 and grew up there...
Originally she could speak English very fluently, and her oral English is very
fluent. After we returned to China, her level of oral English seemed to drop
Her English level is my first concernI hope that she can maintain her current
level of English in order to ensure her admittance to an elite university in the
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USAI prefer for her to continue her academic success in the USAThe
teaching at school cannot provide her with the appropriate English teaching that
she needsanother reason is that she finds it difficult to adapt to the teaching
content and teaching styles at school hereWe have chosen several top schools
and she has tried each of these. However, after a couple of months, she has
found it too stressful to continue her study thereSince our return to China, she
has always asked me to conduct her secondary education at home. She was also
very willing to go back to the USA and continue her higher educationI have
no choice but to do it (Tina, middle-class mother, housewife)
Tina was a mother who had studied and worked overseas over a period of two decades.
Because she had grown up and had been educated in the USA, her daughter found it
challenging to adapt to the teaching content and teaching methods in the mainstream
secondary schools in China. She was therefore eager to ask her mother to provide her
secondary education at home in order to ensure that she would be able to continue her
higher education in the USA. Consequently, Tina was apparently obliged to practise
home schooling as her daughter was excluded from conventional school education in
Beijing. To some extent, Tinas decision could be seen as a sort of forced choice or
passive involvement in home schooling. This study was also particularly interested
in the reason that Tina was determined to home school her son, despite the fact that her
decision was strongly resisted by her husband and other influential family members.
The following interview transcripts provide an in-depth description:
Tina: In fact, I felt uncomfortable with the current education system in
China Nothing is important in the eyes of the school and the teachers but the
academic resultsAs to my childrens school education, I would like them to
grow healthily in both body and mind. Also I hope that they can be educated
in some good values and norms. Without these, a childs achievement of
good academic results is nothingIn China, I felt that the elite universities
only emphasise examination resultsIn particular, I resisted the idea that
the examination result is seen as the sole criterion for a university to select
and recruit a young person. In my view, education does not mean the results.
It should be regarded as a kind of comprehensive education, including
knowledge, values, communicative ability and the creativityThis is why I
am determined to educate my son myself at homeMy decision to educate
my younger son at home has been resisted by my husband and my relatives
in the most difficult time, I prayed and asked for guidance from GodFinally,
I have received direction from GodI was told that everything is okay, my
son will be okay, I can educate him well, and the result will be good (Tina,
middle-class mother, housewife with a PhD degree)
Tina had negative attitudes towards, and perceptions of, conventional education
at school in urban China. She strongly disagreed with the educational goals and
teaching patterns of the contemporary examination-oriented education system.
Unlike the forced choice in the case of her daughters home education, the decision
54

PARENTAL MOTIVATION: WHY DO PARENTS PRACTISE HOME EDUCATION?

to home school her son was taken willingly and with enthusiasm. Tina believed that
the teaching aims and styles in conventional schools would be harmful to her sons
well-being. Obviously her values regarding childrens education were significantly
different from those held by schools. Her decision was representative of the fact
that most of the middle-class mothers who practised home schooling felt greatly
dissatisfied with the examination-oriented education system and were teaching their
children at home in order to ensure a better education than conventional schools could
provide. In the context of the present education system in China with its emphasis on
examinations, the significant majority of students and their parents have to contend
with fierce competition among peers and strong pressure to study in conventional
schools. To some extent, the schools may lose sight of moral concerns, and may
just focus on the standard examination results. Many middle-class parents like Tina
believed that home schooling could provide a positive learning environment in which
students could be encouraged to acquire in good values and norms (Luffman, 1997).
This was consistent with the findings of Romm (1993) in the USA, suggesting that
a variety of families were practising home education in order to transmit special
ethical values to their children
As outlined above, many middle-class parents had chosen home schooling for
their children because they were strongly dissatisfied with the teaching aims of the
contemporary examination-oriented education system. The interview with Emma
contributed an insight into this.
Emma:when I was pregnant I started to practise special antenatal training
designed by experts. It includes listening to particular music and classic
stories and literature in EnglishI think that every child is talented. As a
parent what we must do is just to help them to make the most of their gift
as a mother, we are responsible for helping them to make use of 100 per cent
of their giftI believe that parents different ability to educate and bring up
children may result in the different levels of academic achievement on the part
of the childrenMy son was born in Canada. In his early years, I sent him to
study in a Montessori training programme... Also I participated in the parents
training courses provided by Montessori specialistsAt the age of 7, he had
already completed the curriculum courses for Year FourIn the Montessori
school, one teacher only teaches three or four children. And my son adapted
well to this teaching style and achieved good academic resultsI believe
that since God has given my son these talents, I should follow the guidance
of God and provide him with appropriate education in order to give him a
chance to make the most of his talentsAs a parent, I wanted what was best
for my childrenAfter our returning to China, I was determined to educate
him myself at homeI was not satisfied with the school education in Beijing.
They only focus on whether a student can achieve an excellent academic result
or notMy husband fully supports me in doing sowe believe that under the
guidance of God, a good tree definitely will bear a lot of good fruit(Emma,
middle-class mother, owner of a business)
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Emma had high expectations regarding her sons education. She believed that
parental involvement and the cultural atmosphere that a family provides seemed to
be strongly associated with the level of childrens academic achievement. In order
to provide her son with the best education, Emma voluntarily carried out several
types of teaching experiment, including participating in antenatal training, sending
her son to a Montessori training programme, and taking part in the training courses
for parents. Clearly, she had invested heavily in her sons education in terms of
time, energy and money. Her powerful and effective involvement had led to her
sons above-average academic achievement. Emma felt uncomfortable with the
contemporary education system, which only focused on a childs academic results
rather than on educating him/her in how to develop his/her values and real abilities.
She believed that she could provide a better education for her son than the school
could. This finding fits with what has already been found in the Western context
(Romm, 1993; Luffman, 1997; Ray, 1999, 2000). The middle-class parents in the
sample, like Emma, made such a choice because they thought that as a result of
the examination-oriented policy schools did not always work for their childrens
benefit. All the homeschooling parents in the sample believed that their children
were unique and talented; however, conventional schools could not adequately serve
their childrens individual needs.
Additionally as a Christian, Emmas religious beliefs played a role in her
decision-making process. This was evident in her quote: I believe that since God
has given my son specific talents, I should follow the guidance of God and provide
him with proper training and teaching in order to give him a chance to demonstrate
his talents, and A good tree definitely will bear a lot of good fruit. As far as she
was concerned, her decision represented the fulfilment of Gods command that
parents are responsible for educating and developing their childrens potential (Ray,
1999; Stevens, 2001). However, unlike the other Christian mothers, Tina and Jenny,
Emmas choice of home schooling for her son was primarily framed by the serious
conviction that she could provide a better education than the school could. In making
the comparison, the transmission of religious values and knowledge was not the first
concern. Many homeschooling parents like Emma believe that through practising
home schooling, they could give their children a better education than they would
receive at school and would thus ensure that their sons and daughters could achieve
better academic results. An additional factor was that they wanted to transfer their
religious values to their children. In other words, for these parents, their decision to
home school was primarily governed by the priority they gave to academic concerns,
while their focus on the transmission of religious belief took second place. At the
same time they wanted to transmit their religious values to their children through
home schooling.
Zoe:I sent my son to study at a key-point school before I practised home
schoolingmy son is very smart. He is the kind of child who always has
questions about something he is interested in. In particular he prefers to find an
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PARENTAL MOTIVATION: WHY DO PARENTS PRACTISE HOME EDUCATION?

answer in a creative way rather than just following the teachers instructions
However, the teachers do not like him since he always questions the teacher
in the classroomthe teacher sometimes blamed him in front of the other
classmatesthis makes him dislike going schoolI spent a lot of time and
energy in teaching my son how to fit into a certain environment, which he
did not always adapt toI tried to communicate with the school teachers
and asked them to give personal attention on my sons educational needs and
interestsThe teachers and school only focus on whether a student can achieve
excellent academic results, but they pay less attention to a childs individual
educational interestsmy son always felt doubtful and puzzled about the
negative assessment from his school teachersGod tells us that parents should
take responsibility for their childrens educationA parent should provide
appropriate education and create a good learning environment to help a child to
make the most of his potentialI have a duty to offer him the best education
finally I withdrew him from school and educated him myself at home (Zoe,
middle-class mother, owner of a company, with a masters degree).
Like Emma, Zoe felt uncomfortable about the education provided by conventional
schools. She had chosen home schooling because she believed that she was able to
fulfil her sons educational needs and interests better than the school could. This
result confirmed the findings of studies in the USA (Mayberry and Knowles 1989;
Mayberry et al., 1995). Mayberry and Knowles (1989) argue that parents oppose
the institution of schooling because they believe the structure of public education
is pedagogically unsound. The above two quotes revealed that the decision to home
school for the vast majority of middle-class parents in the sample was primarily a
result of their academic and pedagogical concerns. The other focus, the transmission
of religious values, appeared to be less strongly implicated in their decision-making.
Elena:Most of my friends also felt very uncomfortable with the conventional
school educationhowever, nobody really made any changes in their childrens
or their own livesthey only complained loudlyHowever, the complaints
cannot help me to choose who my childs teachers are and what kind of values
they educate my child inI do not agree with themI decided to home school
because I wanted to provide a different education for my own childI do not
want to complain all the timeI would like to give my son the best myself
in my eyes, home schooling has helped me to change something in relation to
my childrens education with which I am dissatisfiedthe reason that I want
to educate my son myself is to make him excited about learning and educate
him to become a young person who is capable, polite, responsible and selfsufficient(Elena, a middle-class mother, housewife with a masters degree)
As noted previously, the significant majority of middle-class parents in the study felt
dissatisfied with conventional school education. Most of them had invested heavily
and taken advantage of their privileged cultural, social and economic resources in
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order to ensure their childrens entry to an elite school. However, many parents,
like Elena and Jenny, preferred to make the changes themselves in relation to their
childrens education as a result of their dissatisfaction with it.
Conclusions
This study has revealed that all the homeschooling parents in the sample had
negative attitudes towards, and perceptions of, conventional education at school.
They felt strongly dissatisfied with the educational goals and teaching patterns in
the contemporary examination-oriented education system. The main issues reported
by the homeschooling parents in the sample were dissatisfaction with the teaching
purposes and educational goals of conventional institutions, lack of moral concerns
on the part of schools, failure to meet childrens particular learning needs including
those related to giftedness, desire to provide a better education for their children and
a wish to transmit their own religious beliefs and values.
The data indicated that parental motivation was diverse. The majority of the
sample parents had chosen to home school their children for a mixture of pedagogical
reasons and religious preferences. Consistent with the findings of Collom (2005),
the motivation of many parents surveyed in this study to choose home schooling
was primarily framed by their academic and pedagogical concerns. The other focus,
namely, the transmission of religious values, seemed to have been less important
in the decision-making process. It was noticeable that, as Christians, some parents
religious beliefs played an important role in their decision to educate their children at
home. In their home-education journey, their decision represented the fulfilment of
Gods command that parents should be responsible for educating their children and
developing their potential (Ray, 1999; Stevens, 2001). Some parents choice to home
educate was primarily framed by the priority they gave to academic concerns, while
their focus on the transmission of religious belief took second place. It was noticeable
that all the homeschooling parents surveyed in this study reported that their children
were unique and talented; however, conventional schools could not adequately serve
their childrens individual needs. This finding supports the arguments of Ray (1999)
and Van Galen (1988), who have observed that some home educators believe that
they can meet their childrens needs better than the schools can.
Generally, home schooling in China is small-scale, unguided, unorganised and
largely unnoticed. The Chinese parents, who are engaged in home schooling, are
middle-class and Christian, wealthy and highly educated. This finding is different
from those that appear in the literature from the USA and the UK, which argues
that home schooling is not homogeneous (Rothermel, 1999; Arai, 2000). Parents
decision to practise home schooling can be seen as a kind of investment, because
home education must be dependent on their means in terms of time, energy and the
sacrifice of a second family income. For these middle-class mothers, their investment
in their childrens home schooling and cultural enrichment can be seen as a useful
means by which they can maintain or improve upon their current social position
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PARENTAL MOTIVATION: WHY DO PARENTS PRACTISE HOME EDUCATION?

(Bourdieu, 1977:495). In line with Bourdieus (1977) ideas, homeschooling parents,

who possess the knowledge and skills to decipher the code of education and culture,
are working hard to acquire the maximum benefit for their children by providing
them with home education. I therefore suggest that middle-class parents have the
means to invest in their childrens education in an optimum educational setting,
namely, by providing their child with home schooling in order to reproduce their
familial cultural, social and economic advantages.

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CHAPTER 4

PARENTAL INVOLVEMENT IN HOME SCHOOLING

As a marginal educational phenomenon in the educational context of China,

academic researchers have neglected to explore the development of home education
in China. This chapter aims to provide an in-depth description of the ways in which
parents are involved in their childrens home schooling on a day-to-day basis. In this
chapter I seek to unpack the teaching process and experiences of homeschooling
families through document review, observations and various forms of interview. In
what follows, I use the qualitative data collected by means of the semi- structured
interviews with the homeschooling families to illustrate how parents are coping with
their daily teaching at home. This deals with in eight main aspects: who are the
teachers? their teaching responsibilities, teaching materials, technological assistance,
teaching style, teaching process, influence of religious belief, and the outcomes of
home schooling.
THE TEACHERS: WHO THEY ARE?

The parents who are managing home education for their children are mothers of the
pupils, who are highly educated and relatively wealthy. With occasional exceptions,
the significant majority of mothers are only teaching their own children. Two (out of
the 24) parents in the study were providing home education for their nieces/nephews
or the children of their relatives as well as for their own child. This result fits with
the findings of the literature (Galen, 1988; Stevens, 2001), which argues that nearly
all homeschooling parents are mothers and almost all parents teach only their own
children. The data indicate that all middle-class mothers are likely to have high
aspirations for their childrens education. They are very conscious of the crucial role
of maternal involvement in educating their children. The homeschooling mothers in
the sample were consequently investing heavily in terms of time, energy and money,
as well as providing the mental and emotional support for their childrens education
and cultural enrichment (Brantlinger et al., 1996). Their willingness to make such
investment was generated by their strong sense of responsibility as mothers for their
childrens education.
Homeschooling families are distinctive not only in terms of high academic
achievement, but also family characteristics (Rudner, 1999). Drawing on the
interviews with the sample parents, this research study has revealed the following
primary characteristics of homeschooling families: the mothers were fulfilling the
role of teacher or educator in the homeschooling setting; the majority of parents
were dissatisfied with contemporary school education in China; the majority of the
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mothers possessed a privileged educational background; most of the parents were

Christian, with strong religious beliefs; religion had an important influence on their
everyday teaching at home; and all the home schooling families came from the
middle classes, and were relatively wealthy and highly educated. In addition, all the
home-schooled children in the sample came from two-parent families in which the
mother was almost always the parent who stayed at home and was managing the
home schooling. This result is consistent with the findings of Rudner (1999) who
indicates that 97.2 per cent of homeschooling families are led by a man and woman
who are married to each other, which is 25 percentile points higher than the national
average. The data from the 2003 NHES survey in the USA showed that 88.8 per cent
of homeschooling families were two-parent households.
TEACHING RESPONSIBILITIES

In the process of decision-making and the initial period of managing home schooling,
the majority of the parents are concerned about their own teaching responsibilities.
None of the home educators involved in this research study had any formal teaching
experience or professional teaching qualifications. In the course of the interviews,
I was impressed by parents anxious statements, such as I am a little scared, I am
not sure, I have doubts about whether I can manage it or not and It is a bit scary
since I did not know how to teach in an appropriate way, which occurred quite
commonly. The majority of middle-class mothers reported that they felt very unsure
and uncertain in the early stages of practising home schooling. The extract below
clearly illustrates a mothers concern regarding her ability to teach her child.
Sheila:At the beginning, I was very nervous about my own ability to
teachAs a mother, when I started home schooling, I doubted whether I
would be capable of doing itI doubted whether I was capable of educating
my own children myself or whether what I was going to do would do certain
harm to the future of my children I felt puzzled about how to teach my
childI have no professional training as a teacherSometimes I felt very
concerned about whether I might hold back the development of my children
My husband does not encourage me, since he believes our son is so smart that
he can be successful either in the USA or China. Also most of my relatives,
including my sisters, my mother-in-law, and my own parents resisted my
teaching my son at home. They believed that the school is the professional
educational environment. And in school there are professional teachers who
have undergone the official professional teaching training at normal colleges
and universities. And having received specialist teaching training, so many
teachers are able to work together to provide educational qualifications for
your children, which ensures that the quality of education will definitely be
better than what you yourself can offer your own childrenall of them felt
doubtful about whether I was really capable of teaching my son. Actually, most
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PARENTAL INVOLVEMENT IN HOME SCHOOLING

of my friends and relatives believed that home schooling is a type of education

which isolates you from society and the outside world. On the one hand, they
think the lack of direction or guidance from professional teachers may result
in a disaster for the education of the child. On the other hand, they believe
that the insufficient opportunities to play with other children might result in
deficiencies in the ability of the children to communicate (Sheila, middleclass mother, housewife)
Sheilas decision to home school encountered significant resistance from her
husband, extended family members and friends. She accordingly felt puzzled,
stressed, conflictual, and even a certain amount of pain in the decision-making
process. Most of her relatives disagreed with her decision to provide home schooling
for her children because they believed that the school is the environment in which
professional education should be provided for the children. In contrast, in their view,
home education is likely to take the children away from society. They believed
that the lack of direction or guidance provided by professional teachers may lead
to the failing in his/her education. Furthermore they were very concerned about
the childs ability to participate in proper and healthy social communication. The
primary concerns of Sheilas relatives are summarised as follows: they questioned
Sheilas capability to provide a professional level of education and were concerned
about the negative influences of home schooling on the childs social development,
for example, the ability to participate in proper social communication. Also Sheila
herself felt doubtful about whether she was capable of teaching because she had no
professional training as a teacher. In particular, since the status of home schooling is
illegal in China, it seems that relatives and friends were much less likely to provide
support on which Sheila could rely. This appears to be similar to the circumstances
that homeschooling mothers in the USA faced in the 1980s when the legal status of
home schooling was more precarious, homeschooling households fewer in number,
and positive media coverage hard to find in the USA (Stevens, 2001: 32).
There is evidence that there is no significant correlation between home-schooled
childrens academic achievement and parents possession or otherwise of a teaching
certificate. A growing number of studies have focused on whether homeschooling
parents in the USA are government-certificated teachers. The findings of such studies
illustrate that there is no significant correlation between whether or not parents
possess teaching qualifications and a students academic achievement (Havens,
1991; Rackestraw, 1988; Ray, 1990, 1991, 1994; Medlin, 1994; Duvall et al., 1997).
For example, drawing on the findings of their empirical study, Duvall et al. (1997)
observed that the special-needs children were successfully home educated by their
parents, none of whom was a government-certified teacher. The results of studies
by Havens (1991), and Ray (1991) reveal similar outcomes in Texas, Alabama and
Oklahoma. Another homeschooling mother of two states:
Ella:At the beginning I found myself filled with self-doubt about whether I
could handle it wellIt is a bit scary because I did not know how to teachI
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did not have any teaching training beforeHowever, through the co-ops and
tutorials, I met with several American mothers, one of whom was practising
home schooling for her four childrenTwo of hers have achieved quite good
academic results and have been admitted to a top universityI felt much
better. I tell myself that I do not need to worry about things so much. There are
already successful cases around meThey have got so much experience and
taught so many lessons. What I need to do is just to learn and implement them
into my own teachingMy son likes them very much. With the guidance of
God, everything seems to be in the right place (Ella, a middle-class mother,
housewife)
Ella felt doubtful about her ability to teach her son in an appropriate way. Since
she had no formal training in teaching, Ella was a little concerned about whether
she was capable of teaching the entire curriculum. This is in accord with Stevenss
(2001:32) argument, which asserts that for those parents who have no formal
training or experience of teaching, it is necessary for them to trust themselves to
manage a range of tasks which are understood to be the purview of experts. None
of the homeschooling mothers in the sample had received any professional teacher
training. They reported similar concerns regarding their academic responsibilities.
The relevant research literature in the USA indicates that all the resources available
to home educators help to make parents academic teaching easier. Unlike their
counterparts in the USA, since home schooling in China is in its initial stages, Chinese
parents could not themselves obtain access to a wide range of teaching resources
and are therefore more likely to be worried about their academic responsibilities
with regard to childrens education. However, as a Christian, Ella was able to obtain
support from her church group and other home educators in terms of participation
in co-operatives, which provided her with knowledge relating to home schooling
and educational skills. This led her to trust her own ability to take on the role of
professional teacher and manage her sons education successfully. The benefits of
joining a homeschooling co-operative are illustrated by the example below:
Herbe:...In the co-ops organised by the church, each time two or three
homeschooling parents will arrange to give a presentation about their successful
experiences or lessons in the process of practising home educationThrough
these activities we have learned that as homeschooling mothers, we must be
brave enough and trust ourselves to be capable of educating our own children
wellGod will lead us to a good result eventuallythrough this, each mother
can communicate information about choosing the curriculum, choosing
teaching materials, and up-to-date teaching methods or approachesI felt that
I was not alone. Like me, there are so many families who are striving to provide
a quality education for our childrenWhenever I have difficulties, I share
my struggles, accomplishments, and burdensYes, joining the co-operative
activity once a week is very important for me, as well as my childrenThey
always remind me on the day before the date of the co-operative Mom,
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PARENTAL INVOLVEMENT IN HOME SCHOOLING

tomorrow I can see Tom in the co-operative, and please do not forget to take
my tennis racket. I will have a match with him (Herbe, a middle-class
mother, owner of a company)
It is through the activities purposely organised by the cooperative that the
homeschooling mothers are trained to trust their own capability to educate their
children. In the co-operative a group of homeschooling parents are able to share
up-to-date teaching approaches or teaching materials. As Topp (2008:1) asserts,
in the context of the USA, homeschooling parents who join the co-operatives or
attend tutorials are likely to obtain access to resources of useful ideas, teaching tips,
teaching guidance and so on. By joining a co-operative, an individual home educator
may fill the gaps resulting from their lack of time to search for material on the
Internet (Topp, 2008:1). It is through this specific process that the homeschooling
mothers can communicate with each other in terms of how to choose an appropriate
curriculum, teaching methods and teaching content, and this helps them to practise
home education themselves successfully. Membership of a homeschooling cooperative makes it possible for them to be with like-minded people who have
the same goals. This helps an individual parent to develop strong self-belief and
self-confidence. More recent literature in the Western context indicates that home
schoolers are likely to rely on certain networks in which like-minded parents can
support one another (Layman, 1998; Smith and Sikkink, 1999; Safran, 2009, 2010).
Sara:Some of my friends always say that I have sacrificed a lot. However, I
do not think soActually I enjoy myself in this process (of home schooling). It
also represents great progress in my own lifeI always feel very luckyI can
educate my child myself as I hoped to. I am very happy that I can do something
for my childs educationI want to give him the bestThis is very important
in my current lifeI have learned a lot from learning together with my son
In fact, the process of my teaching or accompanying my son can itself be seen
as my own process of self-education (Sara, middle-class mother, housewife)
Saras account shows that she, like most of the homeschooling mothers in the study,
enjoyed educating her child at home. As Taylor and Petrie (2000:64) describe,
mothers find deep meaning and contentment in their roles both as mothers and home
educators. The interview below with another middle-class mother reveals similar
feelings:
Tina:I have been working all the time in the USA. Even when I gave birth
to two children, I did not have a break and chose to continue my work. After
returning to China, in order to ensure the quality of the childrens education,
I did not work and started to stay at homein my view, I think the childrens
education is much more important when compared with my job. If the company
or the whole of society does not have me, I believe that it will not make any
difference. However if I am not with the children at home, I think it will make
a great differenceIn these years I can read books and share in the growth of
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my child. This process also represents great progress in my own lifeI never
regard it as a task, but a happy lifestyle of learningIn the course of this, I
have learned a lot from studying together with my younger son, in particular,
the aspects of science that I had never been in touch with before.In my own
childhood, it was the time of the Cultural Revolution in China, I had no access
to so much knowledge relating to culture and science. Even after growing up
and pursuing two masters degrees in the USA, there were still a lot of things
which I was not familiar with. During the time that I have been teaching my son
at home, I have learned a lot. In fact, the process of teaching or sharing in my
sons growth itself seems to have been a process of my own self-growth. Yeah,
you can call it common growth (Tina, middle-class mother, housewife)
Tina mentions the salient role that the mother plays in childrens education and
academic attainment. As a middle-class mother herself, Tina recognised the
important role of parental involvement, in particular maternal involvement, in
childrens education. It is noteworthy that many middle-class parents, like Tina, who
are highly educated, believe that for a parent to be involved in his/her childrens
school education can be seen as a kind of important responsibility. In her view, If
the company or the whole of society does not have me, I believe that it will not make
any difference. However, if I am not with the children at home, I think it will make
a great difference. The interview with Tina indicated that the mothers were strongly
committed to their maternal role in the course of their childrens education. Ray
(1997) and Rudner (1999) indicate that the parent who conducts the home education
is almost always the mother. In order to ensure her children were able to obtain a
good education Tina resigned from her job and became a full-time housewife. In
other words, she gave up her successful career in order to ensure her childrens
academic success. This is evident in her quote: I think the childrens education
is much more important when compared with my job. Tina sacrificed her success
in her career so as to practise home schooling to make sure that her children would
receive a high-quality education. However, Tina regarded the process of home
schooling for her child as a kind of happy experience of common growth, rather
than feeling regret at having sacrificed her own career and time. As Page (1997:48)
asserts, the parents are not merely educating their children, but they are themselves
being both formed and educated in the process.
TEACHING MATERIALS

The research literature focusing on home education in Western countries has observed
that the teaching materials are varied and home schooling follows no standard pattern
(Van Galen and Pitman, 1991; Ray, 1999; Stevens, 2001). In this section, I devote
special interest to the exploration of the ways in which the parents in the sample
had chosen their teaching materials and taken advantage of teaching resources. The
example below provides in-depth information about how Tina had selected textbooks.
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PARENTAL INVOLVEMENT IN HOME SCHOOLING

Tina: One of my church friends introduced me to an American textbook and

this was the first textbook I used. However, my daughter disliked them very
muchLater I took part in the training programme organised by the church
regarding home schooling. Many church friends introduced me to another
set of textbooksFrom then on I started to use them. My daughter likes
them very much since the content is suitable for her character and learning
needsShe says that it is very helpful to those children who like thinking
and questioning, or who like literature...This textbook emphasises literature,
reading and history, which is very important in training a child to become a
good person with their own ideasThe textbook is very easy for the parent
and student to useThe parent can follow the instructions in the textbook and
easily organise the teaching of every subjectThere are clear instructions on
how a question should be posedA parent does not need to spend so much
time on preparation. My daughter took special interest in this text. When her
younger brother started his home schooling, I continued to use this textbook.
The courses for my son, the lower grade student, never needed any preparation
time. The process of choosing this text seems to have been a little magicin
my view everything is Gods ideaI follow it and then the positive outcomes
turn up in the form of my son and daughter (Tina, a middle-class mother,
housewife)
Obviously, as far the textbooks were concerned, the church and Tinas church
friends provided her with strong and effective support. For example, suggestions
from home schoolers who were already practising home schooling helped Tina in
terms of her choice of textbook. The majority of the mothers in the sample had
chosen American Christian home-education textbooks. Some of them had also
selected Confucian materials or classical Chinese literature for extracurricular
reading. The everyday teaching was usually conducted in English as the textbooks
were English editions.
Kate: I regularly participate in the training programme for home schooling
once a weekAt the beginning I felt very worried about what I should teachI
have tried to order some teaching materials and textbooks from the websites
However, there are too many materials, I do not have enough time or energy
for searchingLuckily in the co-operative organised by the church I got to
know about a set of textbooksThe American textbooks I was introduced to
by one of my church friends are very helpful in my everyday teaching now
(Kate, a middle-class mother, housewife)
Twenty-two (out of 24) homeschooling parents chose the American Christian
homeschooling textbooks. As shown in the example above, the influence of the
church and church friends played a crucial role in the selection of the textbooks.
It is noticeable from the qualitative data that the parents who conducted
Christian home education in China were much more likely to choose and purchase
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a comprehensive set of the American textbooks as their primary curriculum teaching

materials. There were only two (out of 24) mothers who were teaching their children
without textbooks. Nearly all the textbooks were written in English. Two-thirds
of home educators were utilising the Internet and computer software to assist in
their daily schooling, and half of the home educators used the American textbooks,
but with some modifications. For instance, several parents added certain teaching
content obtained from homeschooling websites, which provide some teaching
material and workbooks in electronic form.
TECHNOLOGICAL ASSISTANCE

Apart from the textbooks, a significant majority of parents used the Internet and
other technology to support their daily schooling, as shown in the quote below:
Zoe:As well as the textbooks, my church friends and I also prefer to find
relevant knowledge and information through the InternetIn particular we
prefer to search for up-to-date teaching materials or teaching approaches
from the specialised websites provided by the worldwide homeschooling
organisationsAlso my son is also fond of searching for information relating
to art history and geography (Zoe, a middle-class mother, owner of a
company)
Like Zoe, the vast majority of homeschooling parents reported that the Internet
provides abundant teaching resources, which made it easier for them to achieve better
teaching outcomes. In particular the benefit of the Internet to home schooling in China
lay in its provision of abundant teaching resources, generated by the homeschooling
movement in the USA or Canada. Farris and Woodruff (2000:246) have observed
that the Internets primary benefit to home schooling is the near-instant access to
information and knowledge that it provides. Basham (2001) highlights the crucial
role that modern technology, such as the Internet and computer software, plays in
helping the growth of home schooling: this is also evident in the findings reported
in the literature (Basham, 2007). As Basham et al. (2007:4) suggest, the widespread
use of the Internet has facilitated home schooling families development of social
interaction and pedagogical resources.
Emma:I have learned French and German during my own overseas
postgraduate studyI taught my son French and German myself with the
assistance of the language softwareHe shows a talent for language study
Since he is very interested in it, during the break time I permit him to study
French or German, using the learning software, for a whileThe software is
very well designed, and he likes it very much and studies as if he is playing
games(Emma, a middle-class mother, owner of a business)
Emma mentioned that the computer and computer software for learning languages
have assisted her greatly in her teaching at home. The interview data indicate that the
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majority of home educators felt very challenged in the course of teaching children a
foreign language (apart from English). Technology, such as multimedia and computer
language software, has provided homeschooling parents with useful and effective
tools to teach their children, which has given the children opportunities to learn
flexibly on their own (Trejos, 2000). The Chinese homeschooling families seemed to
be much more dependent on the support from online teaching and learning resources
when compared with their Western counterparts, mainly because the home schooling
in China is in its initial stages and the teaching resources are relatively scarce. This
confirms the claim that appropriate computer software can allow homeschooling
parents to concentrate their time on the aspects of home schooling that are most
beneficial and enjoyable (Farris and Woodruff, 2000:246). Klein (2006) states that
online curriculum, courses, websites, databases, academies and other interactive
learning activities have become common tools and resources which enhance the
quality of home education in the USA.
Susan:Actually the development of the Internet technology has given us so
much support in our present home educationYou know, some of the courses
that we cannot teach ourselvesSeveral (homeschooling) mothers invited the
experts to give a lecture in relation to foreign languages, Chinese classical
literature, classical English literaturethe talks about the law, first aid, and
safetyAll these courses have been uploaded to the established websites or
blogsWhenever the parent needs these materials, they can download them
and teach their children at homeWe also exhibit and communicate the upto-date activity pictures or teaching materials through the blogsThe blogs of
some parents act as a support centre(Susan, a middle-class mother, owner
of a company)
Like the use of the Internet in the USA, online distance-education courses help
Chinese homeschooling parents to teach their children that they themselves are not
skilled enough to teach. Most of the homeschooling families reported that they have
found it difficult to provide teaching in all of the subjects which are offered by
schools since they may be less skilled in teaching certain subjects themselves. In this
context, it is the online courses that compensate for their lack of essential teaching
resources. As Trejos (2000) argues, the online courses are able to assist in filling the
gaps in certain skill areas that home schooling parents lack. Similarly Yarnell (1998)
indicates that technology, such as the Internet, computers, computer software and
distance-education courses, has commonly been utilised by homeschooling families,
offering a useful solution to the problem of teaching difficult subjects which would
otherwise not be taught.
In line with the findings of Richards (2000), I would argue that technology
contributes significantly to the development of home schooling in China, which
can be summarised as follows: firstly, the broadband connections to relevant
homeschooling websites facilitate Chinese home educators access to abundant
educational resources originating in the USA and Canada. Secondly, the Internet
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makes it possible for home-schooled children to receive instruction in subjects

that their parents cannot teach themselves in the form of online courses in their
own home. For instance, experts have been invited by parents to give lectures on
classical Chinese literature, first aid and safety over the Internet for homeschooling
children. This is in accord with Trejoss (2000) argument, indicating that the Internet
provides online courses especially in those subjects that home schoolers do not feel
qualified to teach. Thirdly, the application of multimedia and computer software,
such as language learning software, is very helpful in serving the learning needs
of homeschooling families. Finally, blogs facilitate communication between home
schoolers about teaching approaches, teaching materials and teaching experience
in the home education process. Some blogs established by homeschooling parents
have taken on the role of support centres, which is a convenient way of organising
the relevant co-operatives or tutorials.
As noted in the previous chapters, since home schooling is still at an early stage,
most of the teaching materials have to be purchased from the USA. Obviously the
abundant educational resources available from the USA and Canada help Chinese
home educators to solve the problem of the lack of teaching resources. All the
homeschooling families in the sample possessed their own computers and had access
to the Internet for educational purposes. Twenty-three (out of 24) used a range of
technologies to assist their daily schooling. This is also evident in the findings of the
studies in the USA, which indicate that a large number of home schoolers now have
access to a computer (Ray, 2000, 2001) and the application of the technologies helps
homeschooling parents to customise the curriculum according to their childrens
individual needs (Ray, 1997, 2001). However, too much time spent using different
types of technology has been criticised since, to some extent, it replaces the face-toface interaction between the mother-teachers and the children. Several scholars in
the USA have warned of the potential risks relating to the imbalance resulting from
the overuse of technology (Trejos, 2000; Ray, 2002). Trejos (2000:16) quotes the
chairman of the Home School Legal Defence Association in the USA who has stated
that I think (the online courses) are great for supplemental activities. But I am not
sure it is the best thing to sit in front of a computer for 4 hours a day. I argue that as a
result of the social circumstances associated with the dramatic growth in technology,
such resources as computers, notebooks, online education and distance-education
are widely used by homeschooling families for the purposes of both entertainment
and education. It is essential to employ the range of technologies properly in the
homeschooling process, while recognising that the interaction between parents and
children is key to the success of home schooling.
TEACHING STYLE

Much of the research literature on the USA context focusing on homeschooling

teaching patterns has consistently supported the claim that the primary teaching
style can be divided into two categories: a structured teaching style and a flexible
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teaching style. Many of American parents are likely to educate their children using
a structured teaching style, which includes a schedule and planned teaching content.
Most parents adopt a type of teaching pattern which is entirely child-centred. Klein
(2006) asserts that while many homeschooling families employ a very structured
pedagogy for teaching their children, others may choose a more relaxed and flexible
learning style. To explore the teaching styles of the home educators is one of the foci
of this research. I have paid specific attention to the ways in which homeschooling
parents, who have no formal training as teachers, educate their children at home.
Emma:My son takes a specific interest in mathematics. I therefore adjust my
teaching content and place great importance on the subject of mathematics
Based on the level of his study of mathematics, I purposely chose a highergrade textbook for him. Now he is studying the content at secondary-school
levelActually in the initial stage I designed a very strict study schedule every
day; now I no longer do so. I prefer to adapt to his situation and gradually adjust
my teaching content and teaching paceThe design of curriculum teaching is
a little challenginghowever, I am happy that my son and I work together to
find appropriate content for usWhen he shows an interest in certain specific
content, he does not want to be interrupted. I will let him go on with it and
do not interrupt himI feel that home education can provide my son with
many more opportunities to learn something he is really interested inThis is
definitely not available from the teaching at school(Emma, a middle-class
mother, owner of a business)
Emmas account provides a glimpse into the lives of homeschooling families. It is
clear from her comments that compared with the classroom-based teaching at school,
the home schoolers used a variety of teaching methods and a flexible approach in
terms of teaching curriculum content. In the process of practising home schooling,
Emma primarily followed the interests and needs of her son, rather than strictly
adhering to any formal teaching schedules. Her informal and unstructured teaching
pedagogy permitted her son to set the pace of teaching and decide the direction of
the learning process. For instance, when she found that her son was taking a special
interest in mathematics, Emma purposely selected a curriculum at secondaryeducation level. It is clear that home schooling allows parents, like Emma, to adapt
and customise the curriculum according to the childs learning capabilities. This
result is evident in the findings of other research studies in the USA, suggesting
that it is through a variety of teaching patterns that home-schooled children in
these circumstances are thriving in terms of their learning activities (Tayler, 1986;
Rudner, 1999; Ray, 2000, 2001; Medlin, 2000; Saba and Gattis, 2002). Saba and
Gattis (2002:2) have observed that when children demonstrate a special interest in a
particular subject, homeschooling parents can help them to progress to higher levels
of work as soon as they are ready. Thus home education can be adapted to one childs
specific study interests and personality, so as to optimise his/her academic talents or
educational potential.
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It has been noted that a flexible pedagogy has led to better academic results in both
subject study and other areas in which a child is interested. In the homeschooling
process, Emmas son was able to actively participate in the decision regarding
teaching and learning. In this way a child can be deeply involved and can take a
leading role in the learning activities, which helps to develop his/her talents. This
fits with Werles (2001) argument that children are active participants in decisionmaking relating to education, and accordingly the childs learning needs become the
centre of learning. At the same time, unlike conventional education in the classroom,
home schooling can reduce the stress that is generated by competition from peers.
In addition, as demonstrated in the previous chapter, home schooling in China is
only just beginning, which is like the early years of home schooling in the USA. The
interviews illustrate that the home schoolers felt challenged when designing their
teaching of the curriculum and thus decided to pool their teaching resources. This
finding fits with those of Davis (2005:86), who argues that in the earlier stages of
home schooling, home educators are more likely to be operating in isolation. The
interview with a middle-class mother of two provided in-depth information about
the transition that occurred in her selection of curriculum content.
Tina:In the home education of my daughter I primarily relied on the
curriculum designed by the textbooks. I followed the instructions of each unit
when teaching herHowever, I have learned much about what real learning
is from the first year of my sons home schoolingonly if was he interested
he would work hard and achieve better academic results than I expectedFor
him learning is a process in which he is self-motivated by his own interests or
needsAlso home schooling permits me to monitor him and provide him with
instant and appropriate assessment of his daily progressMy son can have
100 per cent of personal attention and instant assessment of his progress
This helps him to have strong self-motivation in his own everyday learning
activities, which leads him to better academic attainment(Tina, a middleclass mother, housewife)
It is clear from the quote above that when she started to educate her daughter at home,
Tina employed the traditional teaching approaches generally used in group teaching,
including fixed schedules and teaching plans. After several years of educating her
son at home, she decided to use a flexible pedagogy, which allowed her son to decide
the pace of learning and lead the learning activities. This helped the child to become
strongly self-motivated, inspired by his study interests. There is evidence that home
education permitted Tina to focus in greater depth on the subjects that her son was
really interested in, which has eventually positively influenced her sons achievement
of better academic results. The changes in their teaching strategies indicated that the
values and attitudes that home schooling parents had acquired as a result of their
own conventional school education had negatively influenced their initial choice of
teaching methods for home education. Most of the homeschooling families in the
sample reported a similar pattern, as shown by the example below:
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Sara: When I started home schooling, I strictly followed the guidance and
structure of the textbooksAfter one year of study, I am now able to make
my own decisions in relation to the curriculum on the basis of my sons study
interests and learning needsHe feels happy about going on with his study
in the subject of mathematics without interruptionIn the home-education
process, the great fun for me has been to find out that my son can clearly voice
his own views regarding what he is really interested in or what he wants
Gradually he is able to participate and work with me to make decisions about
the curriculumAs an old saying says, interest is the best teacherWhatever
he is interested in, the outcome is definitely goodI am happy to see that
through my endeavour, my sons God-given talents have been developed
(Sara, a middle-class mother, housewife)
It is worth noting that the majority of home schoolers, like Sara, had experienced
a transition from a commitment to a fixed structure laid down by the textbooks to
making their own curriculum decisions according to their childrens capabilities
and learning needs. Clearly, the homeschooling parents were capable of adapting
the curriculum in order to meet their childrens personal learning styles and
study needs. The home educators commonly practised teaching which followed
the guidance in the textbooks. As the year progressed and on the basis of the
experiences and skills that they had acquired from their daily teaching, they were
likely to engage with the design and planning of a curriculum which was much
more relevant to their childrens individual needs and interests. This individual
curriculum was helpful in terms of exploring and developing childrens talents.
Furthermore, this freedom to select the curriculum provided the children with
many more opportunities to achieve better academic results. This argument is
consistent with the findings of Lowe and Thomas (2002:43) that the one-to-one
nature of home education makes it possible for parents to discover and use the
ways of learning which are most natural and rewarding to each child. You can
find out how your child learns best simply by observation and by asking yourself
questions.
Emma:When I look back to the home schooling over the past years, I feel
that home schooling has provided my son and me with a new life styleYou
can say that it is a learning lifethe teaching can happen under a varieties of
circumstancesOnce I took my son with me when I had to make a business
visit to an international exhibition of aeroplanes in GermanyHe took a
special interest in the knowledge and information relating to the aircraft and
planeswhen he found that there were lots of instructions written in French
or German, he asked me to teach him French and Germanat the beginning
I thought he might lose interest soonHowever, to my surprise, he devoted
most of his break time to learning French and GermanI found that he can
learn best when he is really interested (Emma, a middle-class mother, owner
of a business)
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Unlike the well-structured teaching style used in the classroom, the teaching
situations and settings for home educators are much more flexible, allowing
childrens interests and passion for learning to be maintained. As the sample mothers
reported, they preferred to choose flexible teaching approaches and strategies which
obviously increased their childs interest in studying and resulted in better academic
performance. Similarly, it has been recognised by studies in the Western context
that there exists a diversity in terms of approaches in the process of educating the
children at home (Meighan, 1996; Thomas, 2000; Ray, 2002). This supports the
argument of Saba and Gattis (2002:2), who have observed that, the home educators
are able to capture their childrens real interest and run with this, allowing their
children to learn more than would be possible in a conventional classroom. The
quote above illustrates that the flexibility permitted by home schooling inspires
childrens interest in, and their passion for, learning.
Lily:In the early weeks when I started home schooling, I noticed that
actually I taught my son in a way that children were taught in the form of
group schooling in classes at schoolIt was well designed and scheduled with
a fixed structure and teaching materialsLater I realised that I did something
wrongIt was perhaps that I automatically imitated the teaching styles that I
had been educated with during my school yearsMy son also felt puzzled
He always needed me to tell him what to do nextI had to explain to my
son that the reason that we practise home schooling is that I hoped he could
enjoy himself in studying and would not have to be forced to do something
all the timeI changed my way of teaching entirelyAfter half a year we
worked it outNow I have learned that it is not group schooling, it should be
flexible and led by my sonI still need the structure of textbooks, but I will
use them flexibly or in a way that meets the learning interests and needs of
my sonWhen he is interested in studying a certain subject, I will usually not
break up the teachingI would like to continue to teach this section without
interruption for several hoursyes, my son is leading the everyday learning
He does not feel any stress about the process of learning something new
It seems to be a kind of game and he does not need to compete with others
(Lily, a middle-class mother, housewife)
It is interesting to find that it may take a certain amount of time for both parents
and the child to complete the transition from a way of teaching that works at school
to a flexible pedagogy with a focus on the central role of the child. Not only do the
children need to adjust to a new teaching style when they are educated at home,
but the parents also have to overcome the influences resulting from their own
educational experiences at conventional schools during their school years. During
the transition from the structured teaching pattern to the unstructured one, many
sample mothers felt very dissatisfied and frustrated, even finding it painful. Home
schoolers are generally committed to a flexible pedagogy which is child-centred.
This is considered likely to provide the parents with many more opportunities to
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explore and develop their childrens potential. Similarly, in the context of Australia,
Simich (1998:155) recognised that as time progressed the parents found planned
and structured content did not fit with their philosophy of natural learning and they
turned to unplanned learning without any formal preparation of content. The finding
of McKeons (2007:132) study in the USA confirms the above argument. McKeon
(2007:132) found that of the 21 families interviewed, seven out of the 12 parents
who started out as traditional home schoolers evolved into eclectic home schoolers.
As McKeon (2007:132) suggests, the homeschooling parents are changing teaching
methods with the perceived needs of their children.
The flexibility in teaching and the one-to-one instruction can serve the learning
needs of students. For instance, the home educator can spend more, or less, time
on teaching a subject in order to satisfy the childrens interest and ensure that they
understand it well. As Saba and Gattis (2002:11) suggest, unlike the teaching pattern
in the classroom, home educators can adjust the amount of time spent working on
different subjects according to the learning needs of their children. The majority
of the home educators in the sample had experienced a similar transition from a
traditional approach in the form of group teaching to a flexible pedagogy with a
focus on the childrens individual learning needs. It allowed the home schoolers
to decide the curriculum on the basis of the interests and learning needs of their
children. This is consistent with the teaching styles of home educators in the 1980s
in the USA. As Van Galen (1988) stresses, in the home education process, many
families in the USA move from structured to unstructured teaching programmes in
order to allow the children to become more self-directed.
TEACHING PROCESS

As noted in the previous chapter, the literature focusing on how the home education
is conducted in China is minimal. In this research, I have been particularly concerned
with how home schooling has been conducted in the context of Christian home
education in China. Further questions arise: What is taught during the day? How
are the learning activities managed? The transcripts provided by a homeschooling
mother, Emma, indicate how she and her son would spend a typical homeschooling
day, as shown below:
Emma:On week days, we start our lessons at between 8 and 9 oclockI
usually arrange one or two study units on a particular subject every day
During his break time between each study unit, I will allow him to do something
he likesNow he is interested in learning to play the piano. Every week, he
spends one and a half hours at itin the afternoon I often arrange a certain
amount of time for sport, such as swimming, playing tennis or playing soccer
in the sports club near to our residenceEvery Thursday my son and I take part
in the training programme. And then we will participate in a family gathering.
My son usually plays the piano, plays games or soccer with his peersOn
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Saturday our family usually chooses a place near Beijing and travels there
together (Emma, a middle-class mother, owner of a business)
Emmas account indicates that the curriculum teaching was likely to be very flexible.
In particular, the parents were keen to ensure that the home-schooled children had
opportunities to interact with their peers through participation in the co-operative,
tutorials and family gatherings organised by parents. According to Bourdieu (1977:
488), it is mothers who work hard to transmit the cultural heritage to their offspring
through effective pedagogic actions within the home. This confirms the findings of
Stevens (2001: 90), who states that a mother usually is homeschooling more or less
on her own while her invisible partner earns the wages the household requires. As
Stevens (2001: 88) suggests, in the process of home schooling, the mother constantly
keeps a watchful eye on the childrens progress, answering questions and asking new
ones, as well as making sure that younger ones eat and sleep adequately, taking them
to the doctor when necessary.
Emily:We regularly meet and communicate about the lessons and
experiences in our daily teaching in the home schooling training programme
organised by the churchThrough these activities organised by the programme,
we can share new curriculum, the new programmes, approaches and ideas in
relation to home educationThe ideas of other mothers always give me great
encouragement in my own schoolingLast week a mother just introduced
me to and lent me a new kind of mathematics computer programmeThe
training programme is more likely to be a support centre for usIn the training
programme some parents and children will give a presentation in which they
will share their successful experiences with othersThrough the co-ops and
tutorial activities I get to know about many home-education approaches
Then I choose some useful elements to use in my own teaching(Emily, a
middle-class mother, housewife)
Like Emily, the majority of homeschooling parents reported that the home-education
co-operatives and tutorials offered by the church had provided them not only with
material support, such as knowledge and educational skills relating to home schooling
and the selection of textbooks, but also strong emotional support. As illustrated by
the interviews with other home schoolers, in a co-operative training activity, it was
often arranged that home schoolers would give a presentation or listen to a lecture
relating to their areas of expertise. In this context, the advisory service offered by the
church worked as a support centre for the homeschooling families, supplying them
with a wider range of resources for use in their own classes at home.
Sara:The co-ops and tutorials organised by the church or other homeschooling
parents have provided us with a lot of help in the homeschooling process
Some parents sometimes felt very challenged when they had to teach foreign
languages, advanced mathematics courses or practical scienceThe parents
participating in the co-ops take advantage of their social networks and invite
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teachers or experts to give relevant lectures in the co-opsThese lectures

are also recorded and uploaded to the websites or the blogsThe brother
of a homeschooling parent who is an associate professor at a top university
has volunteered to offer instruction and facilities in relation to science
experimentsHis lecture was so interesting and wonderful that every child
was inspired with great interestThese teachers have professional knowledge
and educational skills that neither we nor our husbands possessmy son
always told me that he has learned a lot from the others in the co-ops(Sara,
a middle-class mother, housewife)
As shown in the example above, the co-operatives benefit home schooling by
bridging the gap between the special skills required by the curriculum and the inferior
teaching skills that the homeschooling parents possess. Most of the homeschooling
mothers in the sample reported that they felt challenged when they had to engage
with some curriculum subjects, such as foreign languages, advanced mathematics
and scientific experiments. Furthermore, it was through the lectures and activities
organised by the co-operatives that the home-schooled students were able to have
access to resources and parents could ensure their children were taught subjects with
which they themselves were not familiar by people who possessed skills that they
lacked. It is clear that the co-operatives and tutorials that were organised by the
church played a crucial role for both parents and children in the process of home
education. This is also evident in the findings of studies in the USA (Stevens, 2001;
Topp, 2008). Stevens (2001:44) reports that the most common items on the agenda
of support group meetings concerned such topics as choosing curricula, coordinating
the learning of children of different ages, working with special-needs children, and
more open-ended trouble-shooting exchanges. Topp (2008:13) concludes that in
the USA the benefits of belonging to a homeschooling co-operative include group
learning, sharing teaching experiences, encouragement, and fun.
INFLUENCE OF RELIGIOUS BELIEF

Apart from the advisory services provided by the church group, the qualitative data
for this research study indicate that the influence of parents religious belief played a
crucial role in the process of home schooling. The interview with one of the mothers
provides an insight into this:
Tina: In my most difficult time of providing home education for my son
when I almost gave it up a church friend told me about the homeschooling
training programme hereThen I took part in this training programme once
a week. In this programme I got to know about the textbooks and up-to-date
teaching methodsIn the co-ops we can communicate about information,
ideas, experiences or lessonsWhen you look back on the whole process of
my home schooling, you know that everything has always been instructed by
God. I especially felt this so much in the process of teaching my son...Now
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I realise that it is the instruction and guidance from God that have brought
about the changes in my son and contributed to my childs growth...Yes, God
guided him a lot during his study. I feel that the great changes in my son could
not have been achieved by a person, and it must have been God who did it...It
would be an impossible mission for a person to change a child, in particular, to
change his personality(Tina, a middle-class mother, housewife)
As shown in the quote above, Tinas religious faith had had a significant influence
on her practice of home schooling. In her interview, she always mentioned home
schooling in terms of divine will. This is evident in Tinas quote when she talked about
the whole procedure of conducting home schooling for two children, Everything
has always been instructed and guided by God and it was the instruction and
guidance of God that conducts a lot of work and contributed to my childrens lives.
For instance, when she felt puzzled about the decision to conduct home schooling,
the belief and support of her church friends helped her greatly. The church and her
church friends also provided her with appropriate textbooks and a relevant training
programme on home schooling. This fits with the findings of Stevens (2001), who
observes that for those Christian homeschooling parents home schooling is a
fulfilment of Gods command that parents take responsibility for their childrens
education in general, or of Gods will for a particular mother to stay home (Stevens
2001, 18). Similarly, Smith and Sikkink (1992) have observed that home schooling
can be seen as a practice which, by closely uniting home, family, education and
(usually) religious faith, might seem the most private and isolated from the concerns
of the public sphere. It is clear from the quote above that religious faith usually
plays an important part in the process of home schooling. The influence of religion
can be seen as an important factor that affects homeschooling parents decisionmaking. When I asked how she became a home schooler, a middle-class mother of
two explained:
Lucy: Since I am a Christian, I have a lot of Christian friends. In the
residential area where I am living now, about six or seven families are American
Christian. They are all conducting home schooling for their children at home
My husband and I always have regular communications with our neighbours
and exchange information in relation to childrens parenting and education
through the communications, I have received a good understanding about the
viewpoints and values of home schoolingin my view, the fact that I choose
home schooling for my son is not an accidentall seems to be guided by
God(Lucy, a middle-class mother, owner of a company)
For Lucy, communication with those who were already committed to home education
led her to make the decision to practise home schooling. It is noticeable that the
influence and support of her church and church friends played a crucial role in her
journey towards taking this decision. As she indicated, her first introduction to home
schooling was due to her church friends who were already educating their children at
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home. It was through contact with these friends that she started to get to know about the
values and norms of home schooling. Her church friends provided her with information
about how to find appropriate textbooks, and the special training programme run by
the church offered her the essential information and skills relating to how to practise
home education effectively. It is clear that the decision of parents interviewed for
this research to educate their children themselves was closely connected with their
religious beliefs. The interview with a middle-class mother, Jenny, illustrates how she
viewed her own homeschooling journey in terms of guidance from God.
Jenny: In my view, my choice of home schooling is not an accident. All
seems to be guided by GodWhenever I am in difficulties, I can feel Gods
guidanceGod is always with meYou can say that under the guidance of
God, I got know about the home schooling, and then my church friends told
me where I could buy text books, and where I could obtain training regarding
home schoolingIt was very difficult for me to make the decision to home
schoolI could not sleep for a while and then I prayed at nightOne day God
told me that everything will be fine and I was doing something rightI felt
that the decision to practise home schooling was not controlled by myself
God knows what is the best for my son, and what I can do is just to follow the
guidance of God(Jenny, a middle-class mother, owner of an IT company)
Jennys account illustrates the fact that her decision to teach her children at home
was strongly impacted by her religious beliefs. She describes her practice of home
schooling as a matter of divine will. The vast majority of parents revealed that their
decision to educate their children at home was a fulfilment of Gods command
(Stevens 2001:18). The data from this research indicate that the influence of religious
beliefs played a vital part in the whole process of decision-making, choosing the
appropriate textbooks and participating in the relevant training programme. In
particular, when these parents felt uncertain about their decision to home school
their children, their strong religious beliefs were probably the only motivation
helping them to move forward to the current stage. Lines (2000) and Mayberry et al.
(1995) argue that many parents provision of home schooling is guided by religion.
The quote below provides an in-depth description of the ways in which religion
contributed to Tinas practice of home schooling.
Tina: In the process of practising home schooling, I feel scared about
whether I am able to teach my son in a proper way. I did not know how to teach
my children Whenever I met with these problems and conflicts, I would
pray and put my questions to God. I would ask God whether I am going to do
it or not. To my surprise, after I prayed to God, I would have a certain kind
of feeling or emotion, which made me feel that I should continue to home
school my childMy friends in the church also prayed for me and my child.
They have provided me with great support in both mental and material ways
(Tina, a middle-class mother, housewife)
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Tina was particularly uncertain about whether or not she should choose to practise
home schooling. Strong mental and emotional support from church friends helped
her to overcome the difficulties when she started educating her children at home. The
majority of parents in the sample who were practising home schooling were affiliated
to Christian churches. Clearly, Tinas Christian religion played an important role in
her choice to teach her children at home. The other homeschooling mothers likewise
reported a close correlation between their decision to home educate their children
and their religious faith.
THE OUTCOMES

As discussed previously, there exists great disagreement among academics as to

whether the outcomes of home-educated children are positive or not. An extensive
body of literature recognises the positive influences of home education on childrens
academic attainment (Wartes, 1987, 1988, 1989, 1991; Havens, 1991; Ray, 1997,
1999, 2000). However, some other studies disagree with this (Delahooke, 1986;
Rackestraw, 1987, 1988). Consequently one of the main foci of this chapter is to
examine the outcomes of childrens home education among Chinese home schooling
families. In what follows, firstly, I provide a focused discussion on the academic
outcomes of home-educated children. Secondly, I provide an analysis of how home
schooling affects the development of childrens character and social skills. The
interview with a mother of two refers to the quality of her daughters academic
results, having received home schooling for several years, as shown below:
Tina: I can say that the results of my daughters home education are good
When my daughter started her study at secondary-school level, I found that I
always followed what she was readingIn fact, she always reads much faster
than me, her teacherUsually she had already read the content several times, I
was still a little behind and caught up with her. You know, generally the reading
speed of the teacher should be ahead of that of her student.To our surprise,
we completed the curriculum, which generally needs one year or longer, in
around eight monthsFinally, she had relatively good examination results in
her yearShe was admitted to an elite college of her choice in the USA
(Tina, a middle-class mother, housewife)
Tina reported that her daughter had achieved excellent academic results having
been home educated. The other homeschooling families reported similar outcomes.
Much of the literature recognises that students who are taught by their parents at
home consistently scored above the national average in all academic areas with the
median score at about the 67th percentile on national norms (Wartes, 1987, 1988,
1991; Falle, 1986; Ray, 1990). One of the concerns of people who resist home
schooling is whether a child will be at risk of being isolated from his peers (Ray,
1990). Emma reported similar positive results from her sons home education, as
shown below:
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Emma:In my view, home schooling helps me to develop my sons talents

over the past two years, my son has taken a special interest in his study of
foreign languages and mathematicsBased on the flexibility in the selection
of curriculum subjects, I am able to help my son to explore and develop his
talents in the area of mathematicsNow he is studying a mathematics course
at secondary-education levelHe is good at English, as well as French and
German.I felt that my homeschooling endeavour has been very worthwhile
(Emma, a middle-class mother, owner of a business)
Emma recognised the positive outcomes of her sons subject studies, in particular
mathematics and foreign languages. The freedom to choose the curriculum helps
home educators to develop their childrens potential and study interests. Thus
children are strongly self-motivated to engage in their daily learning activities,
which ensures that they achieve better academic results. And this might not have
been possible in the conventional classroom because of the fixed and structured
nature of the curriculum. The majority of the homeschooling parents in the study
mentioned that this kind of flexible and individual teaching pattern helped them to
develop their childrens potential and fulfil their individual study needs, which in
turn promoted the childrens ability to achieve good academic results.
Emily:My son liked watching television in the evening before I practised
home schooling for himIn the process of home schooling over the past
years, I have usually asked him to switch off the television in the evening and
instead talk with his father and me about the books he has read, problems that
he has solved during the day, or the things that he has taught me in relation to
astronomyNow there are so many changes that have emergedHe is fond
of reading, rather than continuously playing computer games or watching TV
or cartoon videos for hoursI am very proud of the changes that have taken
place in himUnder the direction of God, I know that I am doing the right
thing (Emily, a middle-class mother, housewife)
It was noticeable that there had been significant changes in the life of Emilys son.
During the time when he attended a conventional school, because his parents were
both too busy to be involved in his studying, he usually watched television or played
computer games for hours continuously after school. Having been home educated
for one year, he had taken on a new lifestyle, allowing him to communicate much
more with his parents who shared in his daily learning activities with him. During
this period, Emilys son had developed appropriate reading and study habits, as well
as having established a new lifestyle. As Emily indicated, practising home schooling
had had a significantly positive influence on her son, helping him to develop
appropriate reading and study habits, and on establishing a stimulating learning
environment. The primary home characteristics of this home schooling family
included daily study routines, self-discipline, reading, watching less television and
cartoon videos, limited playing of computer games, good communication between
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children and family members, and parents placing emphasis on the values and
importance of knowledge and learning. The above positive influences contributed
to the boys academic progress and resulted in his outstanding academic results. The
positive outcomes in terms of character development of a home-schooled child are
clearly described in the quote below:
Tina: My son has got certain deficiencies in his character. He is much
more wilful and does not like to listen to his parents instructionsIn the
initial period I found it quite difficult to practise the teaching every day
Sometimes my son and I could not work together and even quarrel with each
other loudlyAt the most difficult time, I chose an elite primary school and
registered him at this school, paying high fees in order to ensure he would have
the opportunity to study at the school in the futureThis is mainly because I
was not sure about what was going on and what the result of it would be
Following the suggestion of another parent, in my teaching I purposely chose
content that related to character buildingin the homeschooling course, I
purposely taught Gods commandments to my sonwhen we studied different
subjects, I often discussed faith with himOn the wall I pasted up a number
of sheets of paper on which some good values or sayings from the Bible were
writtenHe can see them everywhere in the houseIn less than one year
some positive changes, particularly in his personality, emerged...It seems that
he suddenly understood some principles. I believe it must have been directed
by God. It is the guidance from God that has made him much more obedient
and easy goingI felt very satisfied with these changes in his personality
(Tina, a middle-class mother, housewife)
When Tina started home schooling her son, her husband and relatives raised questions
about socialisation, and they were concerned as to whether the child would become
isolated. Surprisingly, after one year of home schooling her son had achieved obvious
progress in terms of the development of his character. For example, because of the
deficiencies of her sons character, such as having a short concentration span and
being disobedient, Tina and her son could not work well together in the initial period
of home education. However, Tina purposely taught her son Christian values and
religious beliefs in order to facilitate his development of character. After one year,
the boys character had changed greatly for the better. This finding echoes Seagos
(2012:3) observation that homeschooling parents in the USA usually reported that
they found positive changes in terms of their childrens personality after practising
home schooling even for only a short time.
This case also provides further evidence regarding the positive influences of
religious values on the development of the home-educated childs personality. As
Kingston and Medlin (2006) assert, the home educators seem to have paid specific
attention to cultivating their childrens values, religious beliefs and character. This
unexpected social development of her son became a strong motivation for Tina to
continue with home schooling. As she stated:
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Tina:I want to talk about what I felt in the process of home schooling with
my little son in the past year. Within less than one year, I found that there were
great changes in the mind and body of my son... In particular, his personality
seemed to be much more mature. I felt very satisfied with it. It seems that he
suddenly clearly understands a lot of principles and rules... Before the home
schooling, he was much more wilful, and did not like to listen to his parents
instruction. Later I tried to search for books about character building. I found
several books about the peoples characteristics, and personality. These books
in particular were used as the reading comprehension materialsNow I have
found that he has made great changes. If I evaluate him in this way, it might be
seen as a kind of mothers biasYou know, my friends and relatives knew that
I provided home schooling for my son. A friend at church also noticed the great
changes happening in the body of my son. Yes, I think that home schooling is
good (Tina, a middle-class mother, housewife)
Tinas son had achieved significant positive development of his character and
appropriate behaviour. She had purposely trained her sons reading and study habits
by choosing specific reading material and teaching particular content which were
concerned with character development. In Tinas view, such textbooks and reading
material played an important role in her sons progress. Tinas accounts illustrate
how home schooling provided her and other parents with more opportunities to help
with the development of their childrens character, paying particular attention to
their moral character. This confirms the positive findings regarding home-educated
children in the UK (Rothermel, 1999). Rothermel (1999) asserts that generally
home-educated children are competent social beings who have the ability to interact
with others, both adults and their peers. The literature from the USA reveals similar
results (Taylor, 1986; Shyers, 1992; Smedley, 1992). Taylor (1986: 160-161) has
observed that few home-educated children are socially deprived, and Smedley
(1992:12) notes that children taught at home are more mature and better socialised
than their counterparts studying at school. The example below provides further
details about this:
Jenny:Every Thursday my son and I take part in a home-education training
programmeJoining the co-op activities once a week is very important for my
son and meAfter this, in the afternoon several friends and I usually choose
to visit a family and have a gathering there. Through this the children can be
together. They have made good friends with each otherThey most often play
games, tennis, soccer or basketball, or play the piano. The parents usually cook
a nice dinner together. During the cooking time, we can have a good talk and
share the happiness or difficulties in our everyday teachingEvery week, my
son cannot wait for the coming of the co-opHe looks forward to meeting up
with his peers and playing games with his friends in the co-operativeWe also
often organise some picnics or family travel togetherIf there are some good
classical music concerts or art exhibitions, we will book tickets and go there
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togetheras I said, at the beginning, I was worried whether my son would be

isolated from his peersNow most of my friends and relatives see noticeable
changes in my sons character. He has become much more active, polite and
energetic (Jenny, a middle-class mother, owner of an IT company)
Jennys case demonstrates that many homeschooling families purposely took part in
some activities arranged by church groups in which their children could play games
together and the mothers could make friends with each other. The co-operative and
the activities organised by the training programme provided the home-schooled
children with opportunities to learn as a group and play games together, which
contributed to the development of their character and social skills. The activities,
such as co-operatives and family gatherings after church offered a chance for the
homeschooling children to play games and travel together, which was helpful for
the social development of the children. As Layman (1998:8) argues, in the USA,
homeschooling families rely heavily on support groups as a resource for planning
field trips and maintaining personal contact with like-minded families. Smith and
Sikkink (1999) have similarly observed that parents who educate their children
at home frequently attend local, state, and national home school seminars, events
and conferences. The communication with other homeschooling parents provides
a kind of mental and emotional support for a parent who is a member of the cooperative. Topp (2008:19) has observed that the motivation for a homeschooling
family to participate in a co-operative is the desire to seek out social opportunities
and interaction in groups for their children. Many of the homeschooling parents
in the sample were keen for their children to make friends with others from their
peer group who came from like-minded Christian families. Since home schooling
in China is only just beginning, the number of home-schooled children is small.
Communication and social interaction between home-schooled children only takes
places between the participants in the training programme. By contrast, the dramatic
development of the homeschooling movement in the USA has resulted in the
emergence of more and more homeschooling sports leagues, musical performances,
clubs and classes. Through these activities, the children have greater opportunities
to participate in social interaction with their peers from different age groups. For
similar reasons, many families organise family trips with other home educators.
The following extract from an interview with a mother of two provides an insight
into it.
Ariana:I care very much about the social development of my childrenI
purposely make sure they attend all the extracurricular sports events and
other varieties of activity organised by the training programme or the other
homeschooling familiesI often take my son to take part in the tennis coaching
given by an expert, while my daughter is usually sent to learn dancing at a
clubI always organise family gatherings or parties and invite many of their
peers to play together in my houseI encourage them to make friends with
other homeschooling children, public-schooled childrenI am happy to see
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that they have friends to share their secrets with or play together(Ariana, a
middle-class mother, an owner of a company)
The quote above illustrates the fact that the majority of home schoolers in the sample
ensured that their children were not isolated from their peers. They regularly took
part in the weekly training activities organised by the church, through which they
were able to communicate well with each other. The home schooling parents also
purposely created or organised activities every week in order to ensure that their
children had more opportunities to play games together. Findings of the relevant
literature in the Canadian context also provide strong evidence for the above
argument. Basham et al. (2007:3) assert that the average Canadian home-schooled
student is regularly engaged in eight social activities outside the home. This is also
evidenced in the following quotation from Smith and Sikkink (1999):
In fact, most home schoolers are not at all isolated. Indeed, most are embedded
in dense relational networks of home schooling families; participate in local,
state, regional, and national home schooling organizations; and engage in a
variety of community activities and programs that serve the education of their
children. Home schooling families meet together at playgrounds; frequent local
libraries, museums, and zoos; organize drama productions, science projects,
and art workshops; enrol their kids in YMCA soccer and swimming classes;
organize home school association picnics and cook outs; and much moreFar
from being privatized and isolated, home schooling families are typically very
well networked and quite civically active. (Smith and Sikkink, 1999:18-9)
There is evidence that the homeschooling mothers in the sample all paid particular
attention to their childrens social development. Accordingly, they invested heavily
in terms of time and energy in order to create an appropriate environment, which
would help their children to communicate with others from their peer group.
Similarly, Smith and Sikkink (1999) find that most home-schooled children
participate in sports events in the community, local drama and theatre performances,
art fairs and community service projects. Layman (1998: 8) observes that the USA
homeschooling families rely heavily on support groups as a resource for planning
field trips and maintain personal contact with like-minded families.
CONCLUSIONS

The data from this study show that none of the homeschooling parents had
undertaken any teacher training or possessed teaching qualifications. The majority
of the homeschooling parents reported that in the case of any doubts or uncertainties
on their part about the process of practising home schooling, they anticipated that
they would be able to obtain support from advisory services concerned with home
schooling. However, since the practice of home schooling is illegal in China, no
such advisory service is provided by the local educational authority. Accordingly
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the homeschooling training programme provided by the church works as a support

centre and plays a crucial role in the development of home schooling in Beijing.
The data for this study revealed that the cooperative played an important role
in the whole process of practising home schooling. Nearly all the homeschooling
parents reported that the home-education cooperatives and tutorials organised by
the church had provided them not only with material support, such as knowledge
and educational skills relating to home schooling and the selection of textbooks,
but also strong emotional support. When the homeschooling families encountered
difficulties, it was through the activities purposely organised by the cooperative
that the parents were trained to trust their own ability to educate their children. The
cooperatives benefited home schooling by bridging the gap between the special skills
required by the curriculum and the inferior teaching skills that the homeschooling
parents possessed. It was also noted that in the cooperatives the parents in the
sample were able to share up-to-date teaching approaches or teaching materials.
The homeschooling families in the sample selected their curriculum primarily on
the basis of advice and information from the cooperative. This is consistent with
what Topp (2008) and Anthony (2009) found in the USA context. As Topp (2008:1)
asserts, the homeschooling families who joined cooperatives or attended tutorials
obtained access to resources which provided them with useful ideas, teaching tips,
teaching guidance and so on. Anthony (2009:251) has observed that the primary
resources that the home schoolers depend on come from the cooperative from which
they receive the majority of their curricular materials. Anthony (2009:60) states
that the homeschooling families used the cooperative to address several problems
associated with home schooling, such as the difficulty of preparing and teaching
all of a childs classes and social isolation of the children. Many homeschooling
mothers in the study felt a sense of enjoyment when educating their children at home
and experienced this process as one of common growth. Similarly, Page (1997:49)
suggests that one thing that all of the parents who were deeply involved in home
schooling had discovered was a new joy in learning; this was matched by their own
childrens joy in discovery.
It has been noted that the majority of the mothers who conducted Christian
home education in China had chosen a comprehensive set of American textbooks
as their primary curriculum teaching materials. Some of them had also selected
Confucian materials or classical Chinese literature for extracurricular reading. The
daily teaching was usually conducted in English since the textbooks were English
editions. Most of the homeschooling parents in the sample reported that the Internet
provided abundant teaching resources, which made it more convenient for them to
achieve better teaching outcomes. Two-thirds of home educators were utilising the
Internet and computer software to assist in their daily schooling. In the process of
practising home education, homeschooling mothers followed the interests and needs
of their children, rather than strictly following any formal teaching schedules. It
was noticeable that in the selection of the curriculum, the home-educated children

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took part in the decisions regarding learning and teaching. This echoes the finding
of Lowe and Thomas (2002), who report that home-schooled students played an
important role in the selection of the curriculum. Several other studies show that
home-educated children were able to be actively involved in decision-making
relating to education (Werle, 2001; Lowe and Thomas, 2002; Ray, 2002).
As shown by the interview data for this study, the majority of the parents in
the sample had experienced a transition from a commitment to the fixed structure
provided by the textbooks to making their own curriculum decisions according to
their childrens capabilities and learning needs. Many parents in the sample reported
that in the initial period they employed traditional teaching approaches, including
fixed schedules and teaching plans. As the year progressed and on the basis of the
experiences and educational skills that they had acquired from their daily teaching,
they were likely to engage with the design and planning of a curriculum that
aimed to meet their childrens individual needs and interests. They usually used a
flexible pedagogy, which allowed their child to decide the pace of learning and to
lead the learning activities. In a similar vein, McKeon (2007:132) found that of the
21 families interviewed, seven out of the 12 parents who started out as traditional
home schoolers had evolved into eclectic home schoolers. McKeon (2007:132) took
this point further, suggesting that the parents were changing teaching methods in
line with the perceived needs of their children. In the transition from the structured
teaching pattern to the unstructured one, many sample mothers reported that they felt
very dissatisfied and frustrated.
The parents interviewed in this study reported that their Christian religious beliefs
had had a strong influence on their practice of home schooling. There is evidence that
the influence of their religious beliefs, the church and their church friends played an
important role in the whole process of their practice of home education, including the
initial decision to home school, the choice of textbooks and participation in relevant
training programmes. Many mothers reported a close correlation between their
decision to educate their children at home and their religious faith, and mentioned
home schooling in terms of divine will. As Tina stated, Everything has always been
instructed and guided by God and it was the instruction and guidance of God that
contributed to my childrens lives. The vast majority of mothers mentioned that the
training programme provided by the church had greatly assisted them in educating
their children at home.
Twenty out of 24 parents in the sample reported that their children had achieved
excellent academic results as compared with their peers who had been educated
at conventional schools. It was noted that the flexible curriculum, the broad range
of teaching materials and one-to-one teaching style were better able to meet a
childs learning needs and interests than classroom-based school education could;
this helped home-educated children to achieve better academic results. As well as
its beneficial influence on childrens academic performance, the positive impact
of home education on childrens social development has also been recognised. As

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indicated in the policy context, since home schooling is illegal in China, homeeducated children are not permitted to register at public schools while they are
receiving education at home. In this context, five out of 24 home-schooled students
had achieved good academic results and been admitted to universities in the USA.
However, for those children aged under 15, there might be a risk that they will not
have the opportunity to continue their secondary education and higher education in
China.

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CLASS STRATEGY AND HOME SCHOOLING:

WHY DOES SOCIAL CLASS MATTER?

The literature from the Western context has observed that there is extensive
disagreement as to whether or not parental involvement is classed. Several studies
show that the participants in the modern homeschooling movement in the USA are
White and wealthy, with over 95 per cent being white middle-class households and
only less than one per cent black families (Ray, 1990, 1991, 2000; Rudner, 1998;
McDowell et al., 2000; Stevens, 2001). Drawing on the findings of his empirical
studies in the context of the USA, Stevens (2001:17) also points to the fact that
home schoolers are predominantly white and middle-class; in addition many are
conservative and espouse the Protestant faith. However, many other scholars
recognise that home schooling is not homogeneous (Knowles, 1988; Rothermel,
1999; Arai, 2000; Rothermel, 1999; Apple, 2006). A growing number of research
studies have observed that home educators come from a mixture of socioeconomic
classes (Arai, 2000; Farris & Woodruff, 2000; Barfield, 2002; Apple, 2006). Farris
and Woodruff (2000) have noted that although homeschooling parents seem to be
better educated as a group when compared with the general population, some had
not received a high level of education. Arai (2000:209) has observed that, in Canada,
home schooling parents are from diverse educational and class backgrounds; likewise
Barfield (2002) indicates that home schoolers are a mixed group of individuals who
are characterised by a variety of educational, economic and religious backgrounds.
This chapter intends to examine whether social class differences in China impact on
the decision-making process to educate children at home.
CULTURAL CAPITAL AND HOME SCHOOLING

The interview data for this research illustrated that mothers educational attainment
played a crucial role in the process of decision-making and practising home
schooling, as shown by the quote below:
Emma:I think my own educational background has provided me with
confidence when I am practising home educationIn particular my foreign
language skills, such as French and German, make it possible for me to teach
my son myselfyes, my own educational experience is very important for me
to home educate my son (Emma, a middle-class mother, owner of a business)
It was clear from Emmas comments that parents educational levels played a
crucial role in terms of their involvement in their childrens home schooling. This is
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consistent with the argument of Bourdieu and Passeron (1977), namely, that the social
differences in volumes of cultural capital strongly influence the opportunities for the
achievement of success by virtue of the culturally selective effects of the demands
placed on educational success. Rudner (1999:25) indicates that parents who conduct
home education are more likely to be better educated as a group in comparison
with the general population. Along similar lines, Ray (1990, 1991) has observed
that there are statistically significant relationships between parental educational
achievement and childrens academic results. I suggest that homeschooling parents
privileged educational and wealthy economic background ensure that they have the
means in terms of time, money and cultural resources to make the choice to educate
their children at home. For middle-class parents who practise home schooling, as
Bourdieu (1977) suggests, the possession not only of rich cultural goods, but also
of the means to decipher and take responsibility for their childrens education can
assist them in managing their offsprings educational success. The example below
provides further evidence of this:
Helen: I went and studied in Australia in 1983. After a one-year stay, I went
to the USA in 1984. In fact I studied computer science in the USA; however,
after graduation I did not go to work. I studied for my second masters degree
in accounting. When I graduated, I entered Price Waterhouse which is one of
the eight accounting companies in the USA. Later I felt no interest in the area
of accounting and I returned to the area of computer science and worked as a
computer engineer for over 10 years, focusing on program design (Helen, a
middle-class mother)
Helen seemed to have had a very successful educational history. On the basis of her
excellent academic achievement, she had achieved success in her career, which had
given her higher socioeconomic status. Clearly, her successful educational history
seemed to have resulted in high aspirations for her childrens education. At the same
time her own success in the sphere of education had provided her with a sense of
entitlement and confidence in her ability to practise home education for her children.
As shown by the interview data, the majority of parents engaged in home education
were almost always the mothers, relatively rich and highly educated. These mothers
were the owners of private businesses or were full-time housewives. Their abundant
free time or flexible timetable made it possible for them to engage in their childrens
home education. This accords with the findings of Rudner (1999:25), who argues
that people engaged in home education are overwhelmingly White, more often
than not evangelical or fundamentalist Protestant Christians, relatively wealthy,
and well educated. It supports Bourdieus (1973) claim that social class and family
background primarily determine the sources of cultural knowledge and skills to
which a child can gain access. According to Bourdieu (1973), in the eyes of these
parents, cultural capital is a kind of property that they can transmit to their offspring
which substitutes for the transmission of their privileged economic capital, thereby
maintaining cultural privileges and social class positions across generations.
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It was clear from the qualitative data that in the process of home schooling the
middle-class mothers utilized their privileged knowledge and class strategies to bridge
the gap between familial cultural capital and their childrens educational attainment.
The participants in this research study comprised 24 middle-class mothers and eight
middle-class fathers. All the parents involved in the semi-structured interviews were
highly educated. Of the 24 mothers, 14 possessed a PhD degree, while 10 were the
holders of a masters degree. Of the eight fathers, 75 per cent had a masters degree (6
out of 8) and the other two had a PhD degree. This is consistent with the findings of
Rudner (1999), who has observed that parents who practise home schooling are likely
to be better educated as a group as compared with the general population (Ray, 1990;
Rudner, 1999). The interview data for this study revealed that the privileged cultural
capital and economic resources of the middle-class homeschooling parents in the
sample provided them with the means, knowledge, and educational skills to practise
home schooling because they possessed the time, energy, and ability to stay at home.
Emma:I strongly dislike the values and teaching goals of the current
examination-oriented educational systemthe most important thing for a
child is not to achieve superior academic results, but to possess certain values
and a healthy and positive viewpointI hope that my son can have religious
beliefs and then have an appropriate viewpoint on the society and the worldI
always told my son that you can buy a computer, but if you want to become an
expert in the area of computer science, you cannot get it by moneyyou have
to study hard and gain the knowledge and techniques relating to computers
similarly if you want to be talented in a certain area or a gentleman in society,
it definitely cannot be obtained through moneyThis is the main reason that
I decided to teach him at home myself(Emma, a middle-class mother, an
owner of a business)
In addition to pursuing the achievement of outstanding academic performance, a
significant majority of Chinese middle-class parents paid particular attention to
the development of their childrens values, norms and views of the world. In this
context, the middle-class homeschooling families invested heavily in their childrens
education, in particular in terms of cultural enrichment, in order to transmit their
cultural privileges. In their view, the transmission of cultural capital was seen as a
useful means to help them reproduce their social status across generations.
ECONOMIC CAPITAL AND HOME SCHOOLING

It was noticeable that all the parents in the sample came from a privileged economic
background. And it was their economic resources that made it possible for the mother
to stay at home and educate the children there.
Emma:my husband and I together own a high-tech companyBefore
my son was born I was a typical professional businesswoman. Every week
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I almost always spent most of my time in flying from one city or country to
another and dealing with the business of our company. However, after I gave
a birth, I gradually saved much more time so as to be with my son. Now I am
only working one or two days in the company every two weeks. During the
weekdays I practise home education with my son and play games with him.
My husband is mainly responsible for the business and he has to undertake all
the business travel in order to ensure I am able to stay with my son at home
of course, if you decide to practise home education, you must have a very good
economic income. For example, there are the fees for the teaching materials,
including the series of textbooks and the related teaching guidance books, the
teaching software, the cost of the extracurricular activities(Emma, a middleclass mother, an owner of a business)
The transcripts of Emmas interview indicated that her privileged economic capital
contributed significantly to her decision to home school her son. As Emma stated,
the decision of middle-class parents to educate their children at home is mainly
dependent on the strong of support of privileged familial economic capital, which
ensures that one parent - always the mother has the time to stay at home (Ray, 1999;
Rudner, 1999). As Bourdieu (1977) argues, by virtue of their privileged economic
resources, middle-class parents will have the free time to ensure their accumulation
of cultural capital for their children. Meeting the cost of home education also depends
on a wealthy economic background. Houston and Toma (2003:923) comment that
households that choose home schooling must pay the cost of educational materials
such as books, curriculum planning guides, and extracurricular activity fees and
continue to pay the tax for the public school.
Unlike Jenny and Emma, Annes motivation to provide home schooling for
her son was primarily governed by her expectation of becoming a member of a
privileged class, as shown below:
Anne:I have learned about home schooling from several friends of mine
who are practising home education for their childrenI have taken part in this
training programme several timesnow my son is about six and a half years
oldI am very interested in home education. Actually I am planning to practise
home education for my sonbut our family economic conditions do not allow
me to do so nowAlthough my husband and I are both administrative staff and
we have relatively good salaries, our economic situation cannot be compared
with that of Emma or Jenny who are the owners of businesses. They are able
to have a flexible timetable or take on the role of a full-time housewife
We still have a large amount of mortgage to be paid per monthNowadays
different groups of people can provide their children with different levels of
educationLike Emma and Jenny, their resources permit them to stay at home
and home school their child. I believe that their children will definitely lead a
much more privileged life as compared with their peersNow I am engaged
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in preparation work about home schooling. First, my husband and I plan to

join the Christian church next month. Meanwhile we are working hard to earn
much more money. And then I can resign and stay at home to educate my
child(Anne, a middle-class mother, administrative staff)
Annes decision to practise home education was primarily framed by her decision
to prioritise her pursuit of membership of a privileged social group. In her view,
educating her son at home might help her to distinguish herself as a member of a
specific social class and to maintain a certain distance from other groups in Chinese
society (Sheng, 2012a, 2012b, 2013a). Anne believed that practising home education
was a privilege belonging to the middle class, and would ensure her child likewise
achieving a privileged life. In order to pursue the advantages generated by home
education, Anne and her husband planned to become Christian and acquire a better
economic situation allowing Anne to stay at home. In her view, home schooling
was a kind of goods, which could be regarded as a worthwhile investment in order
to gain membership of a privileged social group (Bourdieu and Passeron, 1977).
From this perspective educational establishments can be viewed as mechanisms for
generating social profits (Bourdieu and Passeron, 1977). The middle-class parents in
the sample, like Anne, were likely to regard their choice of home schooling as a kind
of cultural symbol that embodied their specific social position (Bourdieu, 1984).
Additionally, Anne was one of two participants who had enrolled in the training
programme although she was not actually educating her child at home. I therefore
took particular interest in her reasons for only undertaking the training. As Anne
pointed out, her relatively inferior economic capital did not allow her to stay at home
to educate her child at home. I suggest that the volume of economic capital can be
seen as a determining factor which strongly influences the decision-making process
regarding home schooling. One can clearly see the link between economic and
cultural capital, which is established through the mediation of the time needed for
acquisition (Bourdieu, 1986: 253). In accordance with Bourdieus (1986) argument,
in the process of practising home schooling, economic capital is at the root of all
the other types of capital, such as cultural capital and social capital, and that these
transformed. Without the strong support of parents privileged economic capital, it
may be impossible for a mother to stay at home and carry out home schooling for
her children. The length of time that an individual can use for his acquisition process
depends on the amount of time which his family can give him free from economic
necessity, which in turn is a precondition for the initial accumulation of cultural
capital (Bourdieu, 1986:246).
In other words, the transformation of economic capital into cultural capital
presupposes an expenditure of time that only is made possible by possession of
economic capital (Bourdieu, 1986:252). For middle-class mothers, like Emma
and Jenny, their privileged economic capital and cultural capital allowed them
the means, in terms of time, knowledge and superior economic support, to be
able to make such a decision. However, unlike Emma, Annes relatively inferior
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volume of economic capital prevented her from choosing home schooling for her
son in practice. As Lubienski (2000:209) notes, parents decision to home school
their offspring represents a significant sacrifice on their part in terms of time and
energy, and requires them to relinquish the opportunity for a second income. He
also contends that the ability to conduct home schooling is dependent on having the
means - the time and resources - to make such a sacrifice, which can be deemed a
kind of investment in ones child (Lubienski, 2000:209). Annes account illustrates
the fact that there exist internal class differences within the Chinese middle classes
(Sheng, 2012a, 2012b, 2013a, 2013b), and I therefore suggest that the differing
volumes of economic capital that parents possess have resulted in their varying
responses to the choice to practise home schooling.
It is noticeable from the quotes above that for the homeschooling families the
privileged familial economic capital could be seen as an important factor affecting
their choice to practise home schooling for their children. The results of this research
suggest that the varying economic resources that middle-class families possess are
likely to result in differentiated responses to the choice to home educate children.
Privileged familial economic capital seems to provide middle-class parents with
many more opportunities in terms of choosing home schooling in the Chinese
context.
The significant majority of parents in the sample had privileged economic
backgrounds. Their economic resources permitted the mother to stay at home to
educate the children. This is consistent with the finding of studies from the Western
context, indicating that parents choice of home schooling was primarily dependent
on their economic resources (Wartes, 1990; Ray, 1999, 2000; Rudner, 1999). The
qualitative data indicate that the ability to cover the costs of home schooling was
mainly dependent on the support provided by the familys wealthy background. As
Houston and Toma (2003:923) assert, households that choose home schooling must
pay the cost of educational materials, such as books, curriculum planning guides and
extracurricular activity fees and also have to continue to pay the tax for the public
school.
SOCIAL CAPITAL AND CLASS STRATEGY

The interview data identified the fact that there are class differences among middleclass parents who possess different volumes of social capital, which has an effect
on their involvement in their childrens home schooling. Below is an example of a
middle-class mother, who provided an in-depth description of how parental resources
play a crucial role in managing childrens educational success in contemporary
Chinese society.
Emma:After our return to China, I began to home educate my son myselfI
believe that parents different ability to educate and parent their children leads
to variations in their childrens academic performanceMost of my friends
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spent a large sum of money and searched for a social network (social capital) in
order to send their children to study at an elite public school or an international
schoolIt is not useful if you only have money without any effective social
networkDrawing on my current social status, I can send my son to study
at the best schoolI do not want my son to study at a school hereI am
dissatisfied with the school education here. Everything at school focuses on
whether a student can achieve excellent academic grades. I am sure that I can
provide my son with a better education than the school promisesIn my eyes,
my son is talentedhe deserves to obtain the best education which matches
his giftthe school cannot provide him with this, so I do it myself (Emma,
a middle-class mother, owner of a business)
Emmas accounts showed that in contemporary Chinese transitional society, the
vast majority of Chinese middle-class parents are enthusiastic about optimising
opportunities by removing a child from a neighbourhood school and placing him/
her in an elite public school, an elite private school or an elite international school.
Emma, who possessed privileged economic, social and cultural capital, was able
to ensure her sons entry to a key-point school. However, she had made the choice
to practise home schooling because, in her view, the conventional schools could
not help her son realise his full potential. Also she regarded the act of practising
home schooling as a social distinction which helped her to distinguish herself from
members of other social classes in China. All the middle-class mothers in the sample
preferred to provide their children with home education because they believed
that contemporary conventional school education could not always work to their
childrens benefit. However, some middle-class parents with lower volumes of
social capital might find the process of school choice challenging, as demonstrated
by the transcript below.
Jenny:My elder son failed to enter a key-point school and studied at a
private secondary school insteadAt his elementary school his academic
results were very good...He won the first place in the municipal English
competition in science and technology in his final yearI was told by the
school teacher that for his entrance to secondary school his experience of
being a winner could benefit his admissionfollowing the suggestions of his
school teachers, I applied for his admission to three top secondary schools
My son prepared well and took part in the entrance examinationsafter that,
we just waited for the results at hometo my surprise, after the publication
of the lists of who had been admitted, I still did not get any replylater I
was told by one of my friends that the admission work had been completed
for a long time before we applied for itI felt sorry about the failure of my
sons school admission since I did not have Menlu finally my husband and
I had to invest a large amount of money and send him to study at a private
secondary school with high fees(Jenny, a middle-class mother, owner of an
information technology company)
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Jenny and her husband were the owners of an IT company, and both had overseas
educational and work experience. She had a relatively good economic background
and a sound occupation-based social position. However, compared with other middleclass people, Jenny seemed to lack strong social capital in relation to educational
field. Accordingly, her elder son failed to be admitted to his preferred secondary
schools, although he had achieved good results in the entrance examinations. Jennys
elder sons failure in his attempt to gain entry to his preferred elite school led Jenny
to feel very disappointed and dissatisfied with conventional school education. This
resulted in her decision to practise home schooling for her younger son in order to
ensure that he would obtain the best educational advantage.
Jenny:Since we lack a relevant social network (social capital), my elder
son failed to enter his preferred elite school and has had to study in a private
schoolI have to say that this is the most important reason that makes me
determined to home school my younger sonI really dislike the contemporary
education at school. Everything at school is primarily dependent on a students
academic results. If your results are good, the teacher and school will pay
special attention to youmy elder son has benefited a lot from it.under
the examination-oriented education system, my elder son did not come to any
harmand he always achieved outstanding academic resultsGod seems to
have given a different level of competence to my two sonsHowever, my
younger son is not like his brotherHe is not as intelligent as his brother
Generally he needs to spend much longer than his brother does when he learns
something newFor example, his brother had learned something well by
the age of 6, but the younger one did not grasp it till he was 7 or 8 years
oldI believe that when they grow up, there will be no difference in their
skills and abilitiesHowever, the teacher and school would not take this into
accountI was worried that my younger son could suffer a lot during his
school educationFinally, I was determined to educate him at home myself
(Jenny, a middle-class mother, owner of an IT company)
Jennys transcripts indicated that the failure of her elder son to gain admission to
the school of his choice had a strong influence on her decision to practise home
schooling for her younger son. As shown by the quote above, Jenny was not satisfied
with the current educational system, which merely focused on a childs academic
reslults rather than his/her actual abilities. Under the present education system, her
younger son might not have been able to achieve above-average results. Jenny was
therefore worried that he might experience difficulties in his subject studies at a
conventional school. I argue that most homeschooling parents, like Jenny, choose
to educate children at home because they think that as a result of the examinationoriented policy schools do not always work for their childrens benefit. The quote
above describes the reasons for Jennys decision to home school her younger son.
This is in accordance with the arguments of Ray (1999) and Van Galen (1987), which
indicate that some home educators believe that they can meet their childrens needs
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better than the schools can (Mayberry and Knowles, 1989; Mayberry, Knowles, Ray,
and Marlow, 1995; Montgomery, 1989; Murray, 1996; Ray, 1999). The data from
this research study indicated that middle-class mothers take the primary role in the
transmission of their privileged familial cultural capital to ensure their childrens
academic achievement.
For parents, the decision to undertake home schooling is a sacrifice or an
investment in their children (Lubienski, 2000). The research presented in this book
revealed that parental involvement in home schooling was strongly classed. Jennys
decision to home school her younger son was primarily motivated by the failure of her
son to gain entry to his chosen school. In this respect, I suggest that homeschooling
families are likely to have a definite advantage. As noted in the previous quotes,
social capital can be seen as an important factor which affects the decision to school
children at home. The example below illustrates how the privileged social capital
that middle-class parents possessed contributed to their practising home schooling
productively.
Sara:I have a large circle of friendsin the home education process, they
have provided me with great assistance.At weekends I often invite some of
my friends who are experts in a given subject area to my home and give a talk
about some specific area that I cannot teach her wellFor example, one of my
friends is a writer and her talk about how to write has had a positive influence
on my sons study of writing skillsAlso I cannot play a musical instrument,
and therefore one of my friends who is a musician teaches my son how to play
the piano once a week... (Sara, a middle-class mother, housewife)
As Sara indicated, some of the home educators obtained strong support from their
privileged social networks. It is clear that for Sara, her effective social capital
contributed to the transmission of her privileged cultural capital to her child in the
process of home schooling. The homeschooling parents, like Emma, practised home
education in order to ensure that their children would maintain their privileged
social status and reproduce their familial cultural, social and economic resources.
They had the means not only in terms of knowledge, but also time, energy and
strong economic support to practise home education in order to pursue the greatest
advantages in the sphere of childrens education. Unlike Jenny, Annes decision to
practise home schooling was primarily governed by her desire to become a member
of a privileged social group and to ensure her child would obtain the best educational
advantages. Many middle-class parents, like Anne, regarded their choice of home
schooling as a cultural symbol (Bourdieu, 1984), or social capital, or cultural capital
which embodies their membership of the middle classes and helped them to defend
their social distinction (Bourdieu and Passeron, 1977) in contemporary Chinese
transitional society.
Some homeschooling mothers reported that they enjoyed the process of teaching
their children themselves and regarded it as an experience of common growth.
This confirms the findings of Page (1997:49), who suggests that one thing all the
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parents, who were deeply involved in the home schooling, had discovered was a
new joy in learning; this was matched by their own childrens joy in discovery. The
homeschooling mothers generally utilized a variety of educational methods and a
flexible teaching schedule, which could be adapted to the childrens study needs and
interests. This is in accord with the findings of Rothermel (1999) in the UK, who
reports that homeschooling parents employed a range of teaching approaches, which
were adapted to individual childrens needs at varying stages of development.
The interview data in this research showed that the majority of homeschooling
parents in the sample were motivated by a mixture of both pedagogical factors and
religious preferences. The reasons that parents choose to home school are complex
in the context of Chinese transitional society. All the homeschooling educators felt
dissatisfied with the present examination-oriented education system, since they
considered that the schools had lost sight of moral concerns and only focused on the
standard examination results. They very much disliked the values and philosophy
that the current educational system espouses. The middle-class parents in the sample,
like Tina, showed a particular concern about whether conventional school education
could teach their children specific values and philosophy. They viewed education
at school not only in terms of the training that the school could provide, but also
the values and norms that were promoted. This confirms the findings reported in
the literature from the USA, which argue that home schooling parents are generally
dissatisfied with the content of the school curriculum or dislike the institutionalised
nature of schooling (Mayberry and Knowles, 1989; Arai, 2000; Stevens, 2001).
Ray (1999) argues that many parents are eager to teach specific philosophies and
religious values, control their childrens exposure to undesirable social interaction
partners, develop close families, and attain high academic achievement for their
children.
This research study revealed that many of the homeschooling parents, like Emma,
were motivated by a mixture of both pedagogical and ideological considerations.
These parents felt very uncomfortable with the teaching purposes of the present
education system, which could not always work for their childrens academic
benefit. For the vast majority of the parents in the sample, like Emma and Zoe, their
decision to home school was primarily framed by their academic and pedagogical
concerns, and the other focus, namely, the transmission of religious values, was a
secondary consideration. This is consistent with the findings of more recent studies
(Collom, 2005; Green and Hoover-Dempsey, 2007), which have focused on the
exploration of the motivation of home schools. For instance, Collom (2005: 307)
argues that academic and pedagogical concerns are most important, and it seems that
the religious basis of the movement is diminishing.
In addition, some middle-class parents, like Jenny, who were highly educated and
worked in the areas of business, high-tech enterprises and international companies,
had a relatively good income. However, they seemed to lack privileged social capital
in relation to the field of education. In Jennys case, her elder son had failed to be
admitted by his preferred elite school. Accordingly Jenny was determined to provide
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home education for her younger son. The reasons that many religiously motivated
middle-class parents made such a decision can be summarised as follows: on the
one hand, they felt highly dissatisfied with the teaching purposes of the current
education system, for example, the fact that academic results were seen as the only
criteria for designating someone as a good student. These parents preferred that
their children should be taught certain values and philosophies rather than just being
enabled to achieve good academic results at school. On the other hand, since they
had a relatively low volume of social capital in relation to the sphere of education,
their children failed to gain entry to their preferred elite school. Consequently, many
middle-class parents chose to conduct home education for their children, as Jenny
had done for her younger son. These parents made the decision to home school their
child since they believed that on the basis of their privileged cultural, economic and
social capital, they were able to provide a better education for their children than the
mainstream schools could.
This study has revealed that parental educational levels play an important role in
parental involvement in their childrens home schooling. As shown by the interview
data, the majority of parents engaged in home education were almost always the
mothers, relatively rich and highly educated. For the homeschooling parents in the
sample, their privileged economic capital contributed significantly to their decision
to home educate. It was noticeable that the decision of middle-class parents to
educate their children at home was mainly dependent on the strong of support of
privileged familial economic capital, which ensured that one parent - always the
mother - had time to stay at home. For some homeschooling parents, like Anne,
the decision to practise home schooling was mainly governed by their resolve to
prioritise their pursuit of membership of a privileged social group. For these parents,
practising home schooling seemed to be a privilege belonging to the middle class
and would likewise ensure their childrens achievement of a privileged life. The data
derived from this study revealed that for the homeschooling parents, the privileged
economic capital could be seen as an important factor affecting their decision to
educate their children at home.
CONCLUSIONS

This study has revealed that parental educational levels play an important role in
parental involvement in their childrens home schooling. This echoes the findings
of Rudner (1999:25) in the USA, who has observed that parents who conduct home
education are more likely to be better educated as a group in comparison with the
general population. In a similar vein, Ray (1991) and Havens (1991) have noted
statistically significant relationships between parental educational achievement and
childrens academic results. As shown by the interview data, the majority of parents
engaged in home education were almost always the mothers, relatively rich and
well-educated. For the homeschooling parents in the sample, the privileged familial
economic status could be seen as an important factor affecting their decision to home
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educate their children. It was noticeable that such a decision was mainly dependent
on the strong support of privileged familial economic capital, which ensured that
one parent - always the mother - would have the time to stay at home. The results of
this research suggest that the varying economic resources that middle-class families
possess are likely to result in differentiated responses to the choice to home educate
their children. This finding echoes the argument of Belfield (2004:9), who asserts
that the homeschooling families most capable of educating their children at home for
a reasonable length of time are typically two-parent, middle-income families with
mothers who are not in full-time employment. For some homeschooling parents,
like Anne, the decision to practise home schooling was mainly governed by their
resolve to prioritise their pursuit of becoming a member of a privileged social group.
For these parents, practising home schooling seemed to be a privilege belonging
to the middle class and would likewise ensure their childrens achievement of a
privileged life.

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GENDER AND HOME SCHOOLING:

WHY IT IS MOTHERS?

All the parents engaged in home education in the sample were the mothers,
comparatively rich and highly educated. Thirteen of the 24 mothers possessed a
PhD degree, while nine of them were the holders of a masters degree. All of the
home-educated children came from two-parent families in which the mother was
always the parent who stayed at home and practised home schooling. Additionally
this research purposely interviewed eight fathers in order to examine the ways in
which they were involved in their childrens home schooling. This gender imbalance
is reflected in other research literature in the Western context. For instance, Galen
and Pitman (1991) and Stevens (2001) also interviewed a larger number of mothers
than fathers, indicating both the mothers greater involvement in home schooling
and also their greater willingness to be interviewed. The example below shows that
the home schooling mothers in the sample were likely to have a strong self-identity
in relation to the important role they played as a mother in the process of parenting
and educating their children within the home. When I asked a mother of two, Tina,
to talk about her decision to leave a successful career and become a full-time mother,
she described her situation as follows:
Tina: I was a professional woman, an administrative staff member in a worldfamous company. I never stopped working in the USA, even when I gave birth
to my two childrenAfter our return to China I became a full-time housewife
and stayed at home to educate my children myself to ensure they would obtain
a better education. I want the best education for my childrenI never regretted
my decision. In my view, the childrens education is far more important when
compared with my career. If the company, or the whole of society, does not
have me, I think that it will not make any difference. However, if I am not with
my children when they need me, I believe it will make a great difference to
their future...They are talented; as their mother, I am responsible for helping
them to develop their potentialI am happy to see that what I learned and
experienced can help my children to achieve better academic results (Tina,
a middle-class mother, housewife)
Tina chose to sacrifice her successful career and stay at home with the aim of ensuring
her childrens academic success. For Tina, her primary responsibility as a mother was
to raise and educate her own child well. She was strongly aware of her responsibility
as a mother and committed to fulfilling it. Her decision was primarily framed by
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her view of what being a mother required of her in the context of China. All the
homeschooling mothers in the sample gave similar explanations for their decision to
home school. I argue that for the homeschooling mothers, their willingness to make
such a sacrifice was generated by their strong feelings of responsibility for their
childrens education. In their view, it was essential for a mother to make cultural
capital work for her children in order to ensure a better education for them. This
fits with the findings of Stevens (2001:79), who discovered in the context of the
USA that some women make considerable career sacrifices to stay home with their
children full-time, and home schooling is usually practised by a full-time mother
who is financially dependent on her husband. The following example illustrates the
fact that the mothers educational achievement is strongly associated with their high
aspirations for their childrens education.
Emma:Each child is talented. As a parent what we should do is to fully
optimise their giftsactually when I was pregnant, I began to practise special
antenatal training, including listening to specific music, reading classical
literature in English or ChineseMy son was born in Canada. In his early
years, I sent him to study at a Montessori training school. I also participated
in the parents training courses provided by Montessori specialistswhen
he was 7, he had already completed the curriculum content of Year Four
After our return to China, I began to educate him myself at homeI chose
a series of American home-education textbooks for him. Most of his subject
studies are taught in English. Meanwhile since I learnt French and German
well during my study overseas, I also teach him German and French with the
assistance of the study softwareAs compared to his peers, my son is much
better at mathematics, as well as foreign language study(Emma, a middleclass mother, owner of a business)
Like Emma, all of the mothers in the sample were likely to have high expectations
of their childrens education. They believed that their children were talented and
that the childrens potential could not be realised fully by the mainstream schooling
available in China. Given their privileged cultural and economic capital, a number
of middle-class mothers anticipated that their children would achieve similar success
to their own and they worked hard to ensure this by practising home schooling. The
middle-class mothers in the sample were primarily responsible for the transmission
of their privileged familial cultural capital to their children in terms of academic
achievement within the home. Many of the mothers maintained a strong sense of
entitlement and academic confidence in the process of practising home schooling.
Drawing on their privileged cultural capital, they seemed to have the means, in terms
of knowledge and skills, to optimise their investment in their childrens education
(Bourdieu and Passeron, 1977). As Brantlinger et al. (1996) indicate, middle-class
mothers take the main role in maintaining the status of the family - pushing their
children and pushing for their childrens education. Stevens (2001:100) states
that it is the women who are primarily directly involved in the home schooling,
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while fathers usually play a supportive role. The reason that mothers are primarily
responsible for practising home schooling is revealed in the example below.
Interviewer: Why is the mother always the parent who practises home
schooling, but not the father?
Jenny: All the parents who are practising home education and participating
in the training programme are the mothersI think the reason is that mothers
play an important role in parenting and educating their children. This role
cannot be replacedA mother is the dearest and closest person to a child.
The love, care, and particularly the emotional support from mothers cannot be
replaced by anyone else, even fathers. The healthy growth of a child is strongly
associated with his or her motherbefore practising home schooling, most of
us were professional women with a high occupational status and had a varied
social lifealthough I sacrificed a lot, I think, for my children. everything
is worthwhileyou cannot say that my husband is not committed to the
childrens educationHe is responsible for earning the bread for the whole
family. We have a clear division of labour. My husband works hard outside
and I am responsible for the childrens education at home. In fact, without my
husbands full support, it is impossible for me to practise home schooling till
nowYou cannot say who does most; it is only a different division of labour
within the home (Jenny, a middle-class mother, owner of an IT company)
All the mothers in the sample reported that they were the ones who actually practised
home education. This confirms the findings of Stevens (2001) who argues that in the
USA mothers are almost always the ones who are actually doing the work of home
schooling. Jennys account indicated that in her household there seemed to be a clear
division of labour between herself and her husband when it came to home schooling.
Stevens (2001:89-90) suggests that the mother is usually responsible for conducting
home schooling more or less on her own, while her invisible partner earns the
wages the household requires. As Jenny noted, mothers played an important role
in the process of parenting and educating their children, the place of which could
not be taken by others. Many homeschooling mothers in the sample, like Jenny,
had made sacrifices in terms of time, energy and their occupational status to ensure
that their children would receive a high-quality education. In the process of home
schooling, the mother is always the one providing the appropriate learning materials
and creating the nurturing environment her child needs (Stevens 2001: 88-90). I
argue that in China mothers have a different and more direct relationship with the
generation of cultural capital and, concomitantly, social class than fathers do. This
supports Bourdieu (1984)s argument that indicates that women seem to play the key
role in transmitting cultural capital to their children within the home.
Sara:My husband and I are committed to home schooling in a different
wayIn the morning he goes to work and comes back in the late evening
every morning I get up early and cook the breakfast for the whole familythen
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while I am washing the clothes, I will do some brief house cleaningThen I

wake up my sonafter breakfast, my son and I start our learning activities
During the day time, home schooling is central to my energies and thoughts
no matter whether I am cooking the lunch or taking my son out for a visit
to a training programme, my mind is occupied by thoughts relating to home
schoolingin the late evening, after my son is asleep, it is time for me to get
the next days school preparation doneAlso I usually have a talk with my
husbandI tell him what happened in our learning activities today and also he
will listen to my complaints about any problems or difficulties I met with
although sometimes I feel very tired before I go to sleep, I am happy to see
that my son is growing up happily in both mental and physical ways(Sara, a
middle-class mother, housewife)
According to Sara, in this homeschooling family, both father and mother were
committed to home schooling; however, they dealt with it in a very different way.
Obviously, as the mother-teacher, Sara took a central role in the home-education
process. In her daily life, home schooling occupied a place at the top of her daily list
of priorities, while her husband was a father who was much less directly involved
in home schooling on a day-to-day base. The significant majority of homeschooling
families involved in this research study reported a similar relationship with home
education. However, it did not mean that Saras husband was not committed to the
home-education process. In addition, several mothers involved in the interviews
mentioned their commitment to the institution of the marriage and that their decision
to educate their children at home was in accordance with Gods will regarding the
role of mother. As Stevens (2001:98) puts it:
Husband and wife unite in Gods plan not for themselves alone, but for the
sake of the fruit they will bear as well. Womens role then begins to emerge
as something distinct from mens. Neither man nor woman sees marriage as
an end in itselfbut as a medium for the great responsibility of subduing the
earth, in which each party has a role assigned by GodWithin this image of
the sexes, women have little choice but to follow the path God has laid for
them(Stevens, 2001:98)
In contrast to Christian culture, traditional Chinese feminist ideology plays an
important role in shaping a Chinese mothers gender role in the family. Under the
influence of such ideology, Chinese mothers have generally taken a central role in
parenting and educating their children within the family. The traditional dominant
social ideology governs the gendered roles in a Chinese family, proposing that the
role of men is expected to be primarily outside the home, while the womens role
is inside the home (Sheng, 2012a, 2013b). The ideal woman is summarised in the
phrase virtuous wife and good mother (xian qi liang mu), which advocates that the
energy and efforts of a woman should be directed at serving her husband, her family
and her children (Sheng, 2012a). The strong influence of traditional Chinese feminist
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ideology is evident in the qualitative data of this research study. The interview data
indicated that all the middle-class mothers in the sample were strongly committed to
educating their children at home.
Western literature focusing on parental involvement has identified the fact that
significant gender differences exist between mothers and fathers in relation to parental
involvement in childrens education (Halsey, 1993). Much recent research literature
has consistently supported the notion that fathers are nearly always less involved
than mothers in childrens home schooling (Ray 1997; Rudner 1999; McDowell
and Ray 2000; Stevens 2001). This research study interviewed eight fathers whose
families were practising home schooling. I sought to examine the ways in which
fathers were involved in their childrens home schooling in the context of Chinese
society. All the middle-class fathers reported that they were too busy with their daily
work to have the time or energy to be directly involved in their childrens home
schooling, as shown by the quote below:
Tom:I am Emmas husband. My wife and our whole family are home
educating our sonYes, I support my wife to do sowe believe that under
the direction of God, educating my son at home will definitely ensure a good
resultOn week days, I am too busy to be engaged in his daily learning
activitiesAs to the education of my son, Emma can tell you the rest(Tom,
a middle-class father, owner of a company)
Tom was very busy and his working life prevented him from being directly involved
in his sons day-to-day schooling. The other interviews with fathers indicated a
similar pattern, namely, that it was the mothers in the sample who were always
the parents who were responsible for their childrens schooling, while the fathers
interviewed generally adopted a broad and distant role in terms of their involvement
in their childrens home schooling. This research found that fathers in the sample
generally introduced themselves with deference to their wives and they preferred
to transfer the responsibility for participating in the interviews concerning their
childrens home schooling to their wives. As Stevens (2001) asserts, in the process of
practising home schooling, the mothers were consistently at the centre of the action,
while fathers occupied a marginal position. However, this did not mean that fathers
were excluded from involvement in their childrens home schooling, as illustrated by
the following interview with a middle-class father.
Patrick:I am Jennys husbandAt the beginning of home schooling I did
not agree with my wifes decisionIt is not an experiment, it is the life of our
sonI am very concerned about whether home education is strong enough
and complete enough for my son when compared with that of his peers who
are educated in the classroom-based schoolI am also worried that my son
will lack the social skills that his peers acquire through attending the public
schoolAfter home schooling for years, I wonder whether my son can
live a normal life in the real worldOur parents and I felt doubtful about
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the results of home schoolingAfter two years, the good outcomes in terms
of my sons academic results and mental development have proved that my
wifes decision was correctNow I fully support thembut mostly in terms
of mental supportI am quite busy with my research and teaching work at
the universityOnly at weekends can I deliver them to take part in the family
gatherings or trips organised by the homeschooling families(Patrick, a
middle-class father, university professor)
At the beginning, Patrick did not agree with his wifes decision to home educate their
son. When the positive outcomes of home schooling emerged, he and other influential
family members changed their views and provided full support for educating the child
at home. However, since Patricks busy work schedule prevented him from being
directly involved, he generally preferred to offer mental support rather than direct
involvement in the process. As the mothers in the sample reported, the emotional
support and practical support in terms of housework played an important role in their
ability to conduct home schooling. The transcripts below from Sara provide details
regarding the ways in which her husband was involved in home schooling:
Sara:actually after home schooling, life for both of us changed a lotI
admit that I cannot educate our son at home without him being devoted to the
businessthis is the priority for practising home schoolingthe way in which
he supports us is quiet and invisiblewhenever I have fallen into difficulties,
he is ready to listen to my complaints about our sons academic struggle or
difficultiesafter work, he always patiently discusses with me the selection of
curriculum subjectshe is always able to offer me a solution or decision when
I feel doubtful about a certain problemwithout his support I could never
practise home schooling till now(Sara, a middle-class mother, housewife)
In this homeschooling family, there was clearly a gendered division of labour in the
household and there was general evidence that fathers and mothers seemed to play
different roles in relation to the childrens home schooling. The fathers in the sample,
like Saras husband, generally took the role of supporting the family financially,
which was a prerequisite since it enabled the mother to stay at home and educate the
children. In addition, because of their busy work schedule, the fathers provided their
partners with emotional and mental support rather than being directly involved. The
transcripts from an interview with Tom provided an insight into the way in which a
father may be involved in his childs home education.
Tom:After our return to China, my wife and I seriously considered and
finally decided to educate our son at homeI have to say that in fact there is
not much change in my own life, but my wife has become a full-time mother
at homewe have a clear division in relation to the household chores and
home schoolingI am responsible for running the business of our company,
while my wife is primarily responsible for the home schoolingEvery day
I go to work in the early morningat noon or at break-time I will make a
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phone call home and enquire about how things are going on with their learning
activitiesSometimes I have been asked to give some help with their problems
in relation to mathematics or biologyAfter dinner, all the family members
will sit at the table and I will hear about the progress that they have achieved
or some problems that have emerged in their studyat the weekend, I will be
involved in caring for the child, and thus my wife can have time to be involved
in the next weeks educational preparationI always feel sorry for my wife
since I cannot share the heavy work as a primary teacher in the day time,
especially when I see how tired she feelsyes, there are big changes in the
life of our familymy wife, my son and I enjoy ourselveshome schooling
makes us much closermy wife and I are happy to see the great progress that
our son has madeit is a new life style for our family, rather than just a kind
of schooling(Tom, a middle-class father, an owner of a business)
Toms busy work schedule limited his ability to be directly and effectively involved
in the home education, while his wife took on the primary responsibility for teaching
their son on a day-to-day basis. However, it does not mean that these fathers were
not committed to their childrens home schooling. It is clear from the quotes above
that many of fathers, like Tom, have played an important role in the home education
process, and there is evidence that some middle-class fathers had the means which
helped them to be effectively involved in their childrens home education, as shown
by the example below.
Tony:I have to be engaged in management of the business from Monday
to FridayEvery morning I get up and go to work, and I usually come back
late in the eveningMy wife is mainly taking the responsibility for the home
schooling of our childrenI felt apologised for my wifes endeavourI
often saw that she felt very tired after a day spent caring for and teaching
the childrenon Saturday I usually teach the children science subjects, which
were my major in my college yearsduring the week I hired cleaners to give
my wife a hand with the cleaning, washing and cooking so as to reduce her
burden(Tony, a middle-class father, a CEO of a company)
Tony seemed to be committed to home schooling, and he actively participated by
teaching science subjects at the weekend. During the week, his busy work timetable
prevented him from being directly engaged in home schooling. Unlike Patrick,
several fathers reported that they had the means to be effectively involved in their
childrens home education:
Thomas:I am busy with the business of our company during the week
however, after work, I try to look for books on the childrens reading list in
the book stores or the libraryI teach them physics, which was my major
as well as physical activities, such as swimming, playing soccer, at the
weekendarranging the weekly outing is also my responsibilityafter a good
discussion with my wife every month I search for information about concerts
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or ballet performances for our children and his friendsyes, I feel that I am not
excluded from our home schooling, although I cannot stay at home with them
during the week(Thomas, a middle-class father, owner of a consultancy)
It was clear that Thomas was a distant father in terms of his involvement in his sons
home schooling on a day-to-day basis, but as a father he showed his commitment to
the childs home schooling by participating in the designing or planning his sons
education, collecting books that the child needed, and arranging weekly outings. He
also took on the role of teacher by teaching various courses at the weekend. Another
father was also involved his childs home schooling, but at a distance.
DavidIn my view home schooling is a systematic and complicated
programme, which needs the support of the members of the whole family
actually on week days I have to be engaged in the daily management of the
company. My wife has to be on duty with the everyday learning activitiesI
usually work with my wife together to make a design or plan for my sons
home schoolingThen I just provide supervision of the process of home
educationWhenever there are some difficulties or problems which arise in
my sons education, my wife and I will sit down and have a good discussion
about how to solve these problems (David, middle-class father, owner of a
company)
Clearly, David was a distant father, while his wife was very much involved in their
childs daily home schooling. However, the middle-class fathers, like David, were
actually involved through their supervision of the ways in which their wives were
engaged in their childrens daily learning activities. It seemed that they and their
wives had worked out a clear division of labour.
CONCLUSIONS

The interview data of this study have revealed that it was the mothers who were
actually doing the work of home schooling. It was found that the mother was the
parent who was primarily responsible for practising home education. All the mothers
in the sample reported that they took the primary responsibility for parenting and
educating their child at home. This finding echoes the outcomes reported in the
literature from the Western countries. Many studies have identified the fact that
the majority of homeschooling parents are mothers (Ray, 1991; Rudner, 1999;
McDowell, 2000; Stevens, 2001; Mckeon, 2007; Morton, 2010; Lois, 2013). Stevens
(2001) has observed that home schooling is actually considered to be womens work,
thus it is women who are carrying out the largest proportion of such work. McKeon
(2007:129) found that 97.5 per cent of mothers make up the significant majority of
the primary homeschooling parents.
As shown by the case of Tina, many mothers reported that they left work and
stayed at home in order to educate their children. The mothers, like Tina, were
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acting according to their perception of their maternal role and regarded rearing and
educating their children as their primary responsibility. They seemed to be very
aware of their responsibilities as mothers and committed to fulfilling them. This
finding is consistent with what Stevens (2001:79) found in the USA observing that
some women make considerable career sacrifices to stay at home with their children
and home schooling is usually practised by a full-time mother who is financially
dependent on her husband.
Furthermore, it was found that many mothers in the sample, like Tina, seemed
to be willing to make a sacrifice and choose to leave work and stay at home with
their children. As Tina explained, The childrens education is far more important
when compared with my career. If the company, or the whole of society, does not
have me, I think that it will not make any difference. However, if I am not with my
children when they need me, I believe it will make a great difference to their future.
They are talented; as their mother, I am responsible for helping them to develop their
potential. For these homeschooling mothers in the sample, their willingness to make
such a sacrifice was generated by their strong feelings of responsibility for their
childrens education. This finding is inconsistent with the argument of Fields-Smith
and Williams (2009), who noted that for the majority of the mothers surveyed, the
decision to leave work and stay at home with children was made with difficulty, and
they were not naturally predisposed to fulfilling the role of full-time mother.
It was noticeable that some women mentioned that it was God who directed them
to fulfil their role as a mother and educate their children at home. I also observed that
several homeschooling mothers reported that their willingness to leave work and
stay at home with their children was primarily framed by their views of what being
a mother required of them in the context of China. As I have discussed elsewhere
(Sheng, 2012a:143), under the influence of cultural norms, particularly Confucian
culture, the middle-class mothers surveyed who had a strong educational background
and social status had been forced to carry a heavy double burden on their shoulders
and find a balance for themselves between the wife-mother role and the occupational
role (Weeks, 1989); otherwise they were considered to have failed to fulfil their
culturally prescribed gender role as a mother and wife. In this context, these mothers
were willing to devote themselves to taking on the majority of the responsibility for
household labour and children.

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A CASE STUDY OF HOME SCHOOLING IN SHANGHAI

As mentioned in the introduction, the modern phase of home education has emerged
in China since 2000. On July 10, 2006, the media revealed the existence of a home
school called Meng Mu Tang in Shanghai. Meng Mu Tang was named after
the mother of a Chinese ancient academic, Meng Zhi. Twelve children followed
a Confucian reading course in this mainly full-time home education. The oldest
was 12 years old, and the youngest, 4 years old. It was set up in September 2005
by 12 parents who were dissatisfied with the contemporary examination-oriented
educational system that was constrained by so many principles. The teaching content
focused only on Confucian works. In fact this class may be seen as a kind of private
academy (Shi Shu) such as existed in ancient China. It was run on a low-key basis
since home schooling is not legal in China. This report gave rise to a nationwide
discussion as to whether or not home schooling should be made legal in the context
of China.
In July 2006, the local educational authority in Shanghai stated that the running
of Meng Mu Tang was considered to be an illegal operation since it had violated
the relevant compulsory education laws. The legal evidence can be summarised
as follows: firstly, such a school breaks the laws which require permission to be
granted to run schools. The owners of Meng Mu Tang should have applied for
such permission from the local educational authority in Shanghai. Without an
official permit from the government, running a school can be seen as an illegal act.
Secondly, it breaks the Compulsory Education Law in China with respect to Items
2, 4 and 35. Items 2 and 4 state that parents are responsible for sending their schoolaged children to school to receive compulsory education. It is a kind of national
responsibility rather than that of the citizen. According to Item 35, Meng Mu Tang
could be considered as an illegal educational institution. Since the teaching content
of Meng Mu Tang was only concerned with Confucian works, this broke several
principled previsions of the Confucian works, which broke up several principles
provided through Compulsory Education Law of China, in relation to the school
curriculum, teaching content and curriculum setting.
However, the person legally responsible for Meng Mu Tang claimed that it was
not an educational institution, it was only a type of modern home schooling that
several parents had organised voluntarily, and should not be regarded as an official
educational institution. Consequently it was not necessary to apply for permission
to run it. All the fees and costs in relation to Meng Mu Tang had been shared by
the parents participating in it. Furthermore, as a kind of home schooling, Meng
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Mu Tang should be given official recognition and legal permission to operate.

The works of Confucius are one of the treasures of Chinese traditional culture, and
reading them should be central to the teaching content of home schooling. Since
in most Western countries, home schooling is permitted, Shanghai should likewise
permit home schooling by law.
On February 10th, 2009 Meng Mu Tang was closed by Shanghai Educational
Authority again for the same reasons as its closure in 2006. The educational authority
claimed that if the parents were to send their children to study at Meng Mu Tang, it
would be seen as an illegal action. In what follows, I use the collected media reports
and other published documents as a case study to illustrate how Meng Mu Tang
operated: it is presented in three parts. Firstly, I provide a brief description of the
participants. Secondly, I focus the discussion on the motivation of the parents whose
children were studying at Meng Mu Tang. Finally, I present an in-depth analysis of
the teaching style and the academic and social outcomes of the education at Meng
Mu Tang.
The organiser and the parents insisted that Meng Mu Tang represented a kind of
home education, rather than an educational institution, as shown by the quote below:
We are not running an educational institutionThis is a big family,
although the children come from the different families...Actually this is a
kind of home educationas the organisers, we act as the parents and educate
these childrenthe childrens parents volunteered to send their children to
live and study at Meng Mu Tangwe are a family, not a school (One of the
organisers of Men Mu Tang)
Furthermore, the organiser provided a description of the development of Meng Mu
Tang, which she had initially established for her own child and her nieces. In her
view, Meng Mu Tang represented a form of home schooling rather than a type of
school education.
The first students of Meng Mu Tang were my niece and my daughtersince
my brother was running his business abroad and his child had to be parented
and educated by memy daughter does not like to study in the kindergarten or
nursery schoolshe is so clever that she can recite the Confucian works well
in her early yearsI felt that I am able to educate them myself at home. And
I believe that I can teach my son better than the school doesthe results are
good. And the news regarding my home schooling has quickly spread in the
circle of my relativesFinally many relatives and friends have stopped their
childrens study at school and sent them to my placeso it is not a school. It is
a kind of home education (One of the organisers of Meng Mu Tang)
It is clear from the quote above that in the initial period the organiser of Meng Mu
Tang provided schooling for her niece as well as her own daughter. She felt that
her daughter was clever and talented but the child could not adapt to the education
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provided by conventional schools. Therefore the mother believed that she could
provide a better education for her daughter at home than the school could.
We have a lot of relatives who are running businesses in Shanghaimost of
them see the good results of my practicing home education at home and send
their children to live and study hereI always explained to them that this is
not a school, it is a kind of education at homewhat I am doing is called home
education, but not running a schoolHowever, they do not care about whether
it is a school or notmost parents complained about how bad the mainstream
school is...or since their childrens academic scores are not good, their children
have been badly treated(one of the organisers of Meng Mu Tang)
Since the outcome of her home schooling was very good, more and more her relatives
children joined it. Eventually the home school was named Meng Mu Tang and most
of the participants were citizens of foreign countries. As the organiser commented,
Two-thirds of the participants here have the identity of a foreign countryThese
children have acquired an overseas identity because of their parents. It is worth
noting that in the initial period, Meng Mu Tang was composed of the parents and
their relatives or friends.
All of the parents mentioned their childrens problems with conventional schools.
The children who participated in Meng Mu Tang struggled with the classroombased teaching at mainstream schools, which is very examination-oriented. Their
parents generally complained about the teaching standards which merely focus on
whether students achieve above-average grades, rather than educating children on
the basis of their individual interests and learning needs. Below is an example of a
middle-class mother, giving the reason that she decided to withdraw her son from a
conventional school and send him to study at Meng Mu Tang:
...My son is 13 years old nowhe was studying at a top secondary school in
ShanghaiHe was not happy at schoolIn his elementary study his academic
results were very goodHowever, after he entered this secondary school,
there was too much competition from his peer classmates who are good at
their subject studiesat the end of last term, when my son had achieved great
progress and I wanted to praise himhe suddenly screamed and shouted that
he hated the scores and the competitionI realised that my son could not
continue to stay at such a schoolI decided to find a place in which my son
can feel happy while studyingFinally I sent my son to study at Meng Mu
Tang.(a middle-class mother, an administrator in a company)
Since the school placed too much emphasis on the students academic results, the
competition to achieve better academic grades resulted in her sons reluctance to
continue his education at the mainstream school. For this reason, the mother was
forced to send her son to study at Meng Mu Tang, relying on the teacher giving
greater attention to her sons individual interests in terms of study and his personal

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needs. There is evidence that the home education provided by Meng Mu Tang was
especially beneficial for those children who did not fit into the mainstream school
system. Additionally, most of the parents were concerned about the transmission
of their preferred to their children values and culture, namely those embodied in
Confucian theory and works. As one middle-class parent stated:
I like the Confucian works very much myselfThe education in the values
of the traditional culture has been removed from the present school education,
which I believe is the most important piece of education for children
however, I am too busy with my business to teach my children myselfI send
them to live and study at Meng Mu Tang where they can join a group of
people with similar philosophies and things like thatyes, I have to transfer
the responsibilities of parenting and educating to the Meng Mu Tang(a
middle-class mother)
Education in the values embodied in Confucian theory and works has been ignored
within the current school curriculum. As a result of this the homeschooling parents
in Shanghai decided to send their children to study at Meng Mu Tang in order to
transfer specific values, culture and norms to their children.
Like the home schoolers in the city of Beijing, all the parents, whose children were
studying at Meng Mu Tang, felt deeply uncomfortable about the contemporary
examination-oriented education at school. Interestingly, it is noted from the parents
comments that the motivation for practising home schooling is similar for both the
middle-class parents in Beijing and those in Shanghai. Meanwhile, this research
study found that there also existed differences between these two types of home
education in terms of the teaching content. The quote below provides an insight into
the teaching content of Meng Mu Tang.
In the early morning at around 6:20 am the teachers bow and show their respect
to Kong Zhi three timesthen all the children watch and follow their teachers in
bowing to Kong Zhi three timesfrom 8:00 am to 11:00 am, it is time to recite
the Confucian worksthere is a CD reader on the desk of every children
at the beginning the teachers started to read and then students followedthen
all the students followed the CD and read and recite the works themselves.
the reciting of each work should be repeated more than 20 timesthe primary
content includes Meng Zhi and The Analects of Confucius etcthere are
also several famous English literary works, such as the Shakespearian Sonnets
and A Midsummer Nights Dreamfrom 11:00 am to 12:00 pm is the time for
comprehensive courses, including drawing, music, yoga, science and handicraft
classes etcthe break time at noon is about one and an half hoursthe learning
activities in the afternoon are similar to the ones in the morningin the evening
there is self-learning time in which children can choose freely what they would
like to be engaged inreading, diary writing, drawing and so onat 8:00 pm
all the children go to sleep together(a middle-class mother)
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As shown by the example above, the teaching content at Meng Mu Tang concentrated
on Chinese Confucian studies and works. It is also noted that the teaching method at
Meng Mu Tang focused on the childrens reading and reciting under the direction
and guidance of the teachers. The learning activities were child-centred, while the
teacher took the role of an assistant. This teaching style appeared to be flexible and
it focused on the children.
...The primary responsibility of teacher is to organise, cooperate and
encourage students to be engaged into their studies...the positive assessment
and timely encouragement is the key point...depending on the students
character, background and ability, the teacher sets up appropriate study goals
for a child...the children can follow the teachers reading or listening to the CD
and recite (the Confucian works) on the basis of their own progress...(one of
the organisers of Meng Mu Tang)
The quote above indicates that the teaching goals of Meng Mu Tang paid specific
attention to students individual study needs. There is evidence that the flexible
homeschooling approaches allowed the teachers at Meng Mu Tang to teach subjects
in accordance with the childrens development and study interests. In particular
since one teacher was responsible for educating only two or three children, teachers
were able to concentrate on the students individual learning needs. In this context,
the individualised instruction motivated children to study, which in turn resulted in
their improved academic outcomes.
The majority of the parents reported positive outcomes of the education at
Meng Mu Tang in terms of both academic results and the development of their
childrens character, with several parents particularly commenting on the later. They
mentioned that the courses on the works of Confucius had positively influenced the
shaping of their childrens good behaviour and manners, as shown by the example
below:
My son is 5 years oldhe is always moving aroundmy husband and I
send him to study hereEvery day he is reading and reciting the Confucian
theory and worksThese reading and learning activities are really beneficial
for the development of his characterNow he can sit and learn something
quietly for around half an hour at homeAlso he is polite to the elderly and
his peerswe are very satisfied with the changes in his character(a middleclass mother, an owner of a company)
Her son was too active to be well suited to a classroom setting. The main reason
that this mother sent her son to study at Meng Mu Tang was to restructure his
learning so that he could do it at a pace that would help him to be successful, rather
than his being under stress in the classroom at school. This middle-class mother
highlighted the positive influences of Meng Mu Tang on the development of her
sons character. In her view, her son had made significant progress, academically and
in terms of character development.
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Since his academic results were not very good, his school teachers did not
like himMy son got hurts because there is no peers who would like to play
games with himhe even had no friends at schoolAlthough he was only a
student at Grade Two, every day after school he was doing his homework till
ten, eleven oclock at nightso much work he had to complete every day
but his results were still not goodFinally, following an introduction from
my friend, I sent him to study hereHe feels much better hereit seems
that he has started to take an interest in his study nowhe told me that the
teacher always teaches him according to his situationthe teacher always uses
the different approaches to help him grasp the teaching contenthe feels no
pressure(a middle-class mother, an owner of a company)
The accounts of this mother illustrate that this child could not adapt to education
in the mainstream schools where examination results seem to be the only criterion
for evaluating the results of a childs learning activities. In China, in the classroom
setting, there are about 50-60 students who need the attention of a single teacher.
It is impossible for a teacher to respond immediately to a student. However, the
teaching approach at Meng Mu Tang was able to accommodate the childrens
personal learning styles. As shown by the quote above, this child got hurts socially
because he even had no friends who would like to pay games together. It seemed
that the education at Meng Mu Tang reinvigorated this particular childs interest in
study and to respond to his specific study needs, which resulted in his achievement
of improved academic result. Meanwhile the hurts that he has got at school have got
a recovery when he studies at Meng Mu Tang. This is strongly supported by the
findings of the studies indicating that some students who had been hurt socially in
school could get a good recovery in terms of social development when they were
educated at home (Barratt-Peacock, 1997, 2003; Honeybone, 2000; Jackson, 2007,
2009).
My son cannot sit down and concentrate on something for a long while
In the classroom he is too active to listen to the teachers lecture very well...I
have tried to communicate with his school teacher. And I asked her whether
she could set up a less demanding study goal for my son and develop his
interests on the basis of his particular characterMy son is clever but he
needs much more time when learning something newhowever, his teacher
refused me and told me directly that her task as a teacher is to educate
students and train them to achieve excellent academic resultsShe is
too busy to have the energy or time to pay specific attention to my sons
individual needsI felt that my son had been abandoned by the school in
which academic results are the only criterion for evaluating a studentI
never trusted the school and teachers againI finally sent my son to study
at Meng Mu Tang where he could be educated individually(a middleclass father, owner of a company)
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The transcripts above show why, for this middle-class parent, conventional schooling
was less satisfactory, since it could not fulfil his sons personal study needs. This father
experienced great frustration with regard to his sons poor academic performance at
school. He therefore suggested that the teacher should utilise flexible approaches
which would accommodate his sons different learning needs in order to achieve
academic progress. However, in a large classroom setting in China, a teacher may
be incapable of offering the individual attention which is essential to facilitate each
childs achievement of excellent academic results. Under the examination-oriented
educational system, teachers seem to focus on how to train their students to achieve
better results, which occupies most of their time and energy and limits their ability to
treat students as individuals. By contrast, at Meng Mu Tang a teacher was in charge
of only two or three students, which made it possible to teach students individually.
This individual teaching approach clearly contributed significantly to childrens
improved academic attainment. The interview with a middle-class mother provides
further evidence of this:
I viewed some of the changes that happened in the case of my son with much
more satisfactionHe feels less stressed when he is engaged into his learning
activities and he is able to finish the required work on timewhen he cannot
recite the works very well, the teacher changes the teaching style and asks him
to do some reading insteadhe looks much happier with his learningnow
he has started to be interested in his daily study again(a middle-class mother,
owner of a company)
The example above indicates that the teaching style at Meng Mu Tang permits the
teacher to customise the teaching content according to the childrens learning pace
and their personal study needs. In this context, there are many more opportunities
for this child to receive individual attention from his teacher. In addition to the
improved academic results, the positive outcomes in terms of the childrens personal
development are shown by the example below:
Three months ago I sent my son to live and study at Meng Mu Tang
Now I am happy to find that my son has developed good mannershe is very
polite to the elderly and his peerswhenever he gets into the car, he usually
lets the elderly or parents in firstI asked him why he did sohe answered
me, The elderly are first, the younger are second(a middle-class father,
business man)
Other parents of children at Meng Mu Tang felt very frustrated with conventional
school education. The parents seemed to be very critical of the public schools
because such schools could not serve childrens individual interests and their
learning needs. Under the current educational system, schools merely focus how to
improve childrens academic results, while other concerns, such as paying attention
to the development of childrens values and norms took second place. It is clear
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that the education at Meng Mu Tang seemed to provide the children with more
opportunities for character development. Most of the parents reported the positive
influence of Meng Mu Tang on their childrens social development.
Although several parents have reported the positive outcomes of Meng Mu
Tang, the contemporary public debate focused on how the participants of Meng
Mu Tang could continue their secondary education at regular schools or how they
could take part in the entrance examinations for university in China. The interview
given by the organiser provides an insight into this:
Most of the children at Meng Mu Tang have already obtained an overseas
identity. For the rest of them, their parents are determined to send them to
continue their secondary education or higher education abroadThey do not
care about whether they can continue to study at school in Chinamost of
the parents told me that what they want is to teach their children how to be
good people and to train them in how to acquire appropriate study habits.in
my view, reciting the Confucian works is the best way to train the children to
develop good manners and appropriate study habits(one of the organisers of
Meng Mu Tang)
Unexpectedly most of the parents whose children studied at Meng Mu Tang
would have liked their children to move on to secondary school or a university
education abroad. From this perspective, they anticipated that the emphasis would
be the character development of their children rather than purely the achievement
of superior academic results. Accordingly the teaching content at Meng Mu Tang
was not linked to the classroom-based regulation at secondary school or the content
of the entrance examination for universities. The example below provides an insight
into this:
I am an engineer in a company in ShanghaiI would like my son to study at
Meng Mu Tang till he starts his secondary school coursesI have registered
and maintained his place as a student at a junior middle school in my home
townwhen he is at an age to take part in the entrance examinations, I will
send him back and continue his regular education in my home town(a
middle-class father, engineer in a company)
As shown in the quote above, apart from those parents whose children possessed
a foreign identity, parents generally maintained their childrens registration at a
mainstream school while they were studying at Meng Mu Tang.
CONCLUSIONS

In this chapter, I have examined the educational phenomena of Meng Mu Tang,

in particular, why Meng Mu Tang has emerged in Shanghai. The city of Shanghai
is a large international city, in which new theories and ideas arising from Western

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A CASE STUDY OF HOME SCHOOLING IN SHANGHAI

contexts, as well as foreign languages are very popular. It is surprising in such an

international context that Confucian theory and its related education have become
very popular among certain middle-class parents who are practising home schooling.
When considering the reasons for the emergence of Meng Mu Tang, which focuses
on education based on the works of Confucius, one should be aware that all such
educational phenomena arise from the particular sociocultural contexts of China. In
general I suggest that the emergence of Meng Mu Tang in Shanghai is a result of the
multiple educational choices available to parents. As noted in the previous chapters,
the transition in Chinese society from a planned, centrally controlled economy to a
market-directed one has been accompanied by radical changes in its social structure
and social stratification. For example, a new middle class has emerged in China
since the mid-1990s and this has given rise to socially polarising effects in terms
of parental choice in relation to their childrens education. A significant majority of
middle-class people in China feel dissatisfied with the present standardised approach
provided by the conventional schooling. Middle-class parents who possess privileged
cultural, social and economic capital consider it to be their responsibility to provide
their children with as much support with regard to their education as possible in
order to ensure that their offspring maintain or improve upon the familys current
social status. These tensions have resulted in the fierce competition for places at elite
institutions. Most middle-class parents are enthusiastic about taking advantage of
their cultural, social and economic resources to ensure their childrens entry to a top
school or an elite university.
However, some middle-class parents would like their children to be educated
according to their individual learning needs, but the conventional school education
cannot adequately respond to such needs. These middle-class parents are
therefore determined to take another option. They withdraw their children from
conventional schools and educate them at home themselves. When looking back at
the development of home schooling in China, it is important to note that the rapid
economic development over the past three decades has allowed home schooling to
emerge. Without the strong support of economic and cultural capital, neither the
Christian homeschooling parents in Beijing nor those parents of children attending
Meng Mu Tang in Shanghai would have found it possible to make the decision
to practise home education for their children. In these contexts, the emergence and
development of home schooling can be seen as an outcome that has resulted from
the rapid economic development and radical social changes that have taken place
since 1978.
In addition, what becomes evident is the extent to which the emerging middle
class in China is a highly differentiated one. And, in particular, levels of cultural,
social and economic capital have become an important dividing line within the
Chinese middle class (Sheng, 2012a, 2012b, 2013b). According to Bourdieu (1979),
members of the middle class have certain tastes and hold certain perceptions of
their own social position; for example, they may have a good higher educational
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background, a good income and a certain lifestyle, which may distinguish them
from other social groups in terms of education, occupation, and residence. In the
contemporary transitional society of China, the different social classes are involved
in a hegemonic battle of class struggle in order to distinguish themselves from each
other through education, occupation, purchasing of goods and residence. In the
competition to provide a better education for their children, the different volumes
of cultural, social and economic capital that parents possess have resulted in their
differing ability to mobilise their childrens cultural and economic capital, which in
turn is embodied in the social status of parents located within the different fractions
of the middle classes in China. It was noticeable from the parents comments in
my study that some middle-class parents who chose to send their children to study
at Meng Mu Tang had prioritised their desire to distinguish themselves in class
terms from other social groups. As a middle-class parent asserted, the education
of Meng Mu Tang is different from the other educationIt belongs to someone
who really understands education and Chinese traditional cultureHowever, school
teachers do not know this.
When considering the qualitative data relating to Christian home schooling in
Beijing and documentary data concerning Meng Mu Tang in Shanghai, several
startling differences, as well as obvious similarities, started to emerge. Consequently
it was essential to conduct an in-depth comparative analysis of Meng Mu Tang in
Shanghai and Christian home schooling in Beijing in several respects, as illustrated by
Table 7.1. The significant differences related to teachers, teaching content, teaching
patterns, organisational patterns, parents background, parents beliefs, educational
ideas and educational purpose (see Table 7.1). Unlike the home schooling mothers in
Beijing, the parents whose children participated in Meng Mu Tang were generally
much less likely to be involved in the home education themselves. The majority of
these parents, were highly educated and were interested in the theory and works of
Confucius. They sent their children to learn from a homeschooling mother in order
that their children shcoul be educated in the Confucian works and the specific values
they espoused.
It is clear that a profound difference between these two kinds of home education
was the fact that the parents involved in Christian home schooling in Beijing
showed a preference for the religious aspects of practising home schooling, while
the parents of Meng Mu Tang preferred to transfer their values to their children
via education which focused on Confucian theory. However, the qualitative data for
this research illustrated that there was a clear similarity between Christian home
education and the education at Meng Mu Tang, namely, the fact that all the parents
felt deeply dissatisfied with conventional school education because of its adherence
to examination-oriented policies. It seemed that most of the children struggled in
conventional schools. The parents and children felt that they did not fit into the
current mainstream education. In view of this and in line with Apples (2006)
argument, participation in Meng Mu Tang may be seen as consistent with the stand
taken by many parents against the existing public education system.
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Table 7.1. The differences between home schooling in Beijing and in Shanghai
(Meng Mu Tang)
Meng Mu Class

Individual Home Schooling

Teacher

Home-school mothers/teachers Mothers themselves

Teaching content

Confucian theory and its works The Christian home- schooling

text books and related reading
Confucius Analects
materials
Shan Zhi-jing
Sunlight home schooling
textbooks
Preston home schooling
textbooks
Bible study was conducted on
every Thursday afternoon of
each week

Teaching patterns

Employing some professional

teachers in the area of
Confucian theory

Mothers are involved in

everyday teaching

Organisational patterns Purchasing a villa as the study Co-operative study activities

environment with 12 students organised by the church once
a week
living and studying together
Parents background

Affluent and middle-class; with Affluent and middle class;

higher education degree; with with a very good economic
and social background; with
a very good economic and
higher education degree;
social background
mothers who are housewives
or professionals who have
free time

Parents beliefs

Confucian theory and its works Christian

Educational idea

Emphasis on the learning of

Chinese traditional culture;

Focus on their childrens

mental growth, rather than
academic results; emphasis
on the learning of Christian

Educational purpose

Outside the control of the

current examination system

Outside the control of the

current examination system

The homeschooling parents in Beijing and Shanghai were all enthusiastic about
educating their children with respect to certain values and norms that could not be
inculcated by the present education at school, although their values might differ. The
parents in Shanghai wished to transfer the values expressed by Chinese Confucian
theory and works, while those parents in Beijing preferred to educate their children in
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the values and norms of Christianity. For these parents, education about the Bible or
the works of Confucius works was usually seen as a means of transferring particular
values or culture to their children.
Another obvious similarity between parents supporting Christian home education
in Beijing and those whose children attended Meng Mu Tang was the fact that
they were both unclear about the potential risks associated with practising home
schooling for their children. Here I would like to raise several questions regarding
the disadvantages associated with the education at Meng Mu Tang. Given that
the teaching content merely focused on the Confucian works, I wonder how these
students might continue their secondary or higher education in China: education
at both levels requires academic results in a range of disciplines. Similarly, the
majority of parents in Shanghai and Beijing wished to send their children to study at
an overseas institution when they had completed their home education. However, for
those home-schooled children who were likely to continue their secondary or higher
education in China, I question whether what they had learned at Meng Mu Tang
could help them to achieve success in the entrance examinations to universities and
colleges, particularly after a lengthy break from conventional school education.
The growth of home schooling in urban China, like that of Beijing and Shanghai,
has attracted the interest of educational authorities and researchers. This indicates that
currently the public awareness of home schooling is still not very high. Furthermore,
at the moment home education is still illegal in China. It is noticeable that the legal
environment plays an important role in the development of Chinese home schooling.
As suggested by Farris and Woodruff (2000:254), when the legal situation for home
schoolers improves, this will lead to greater growth.

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CONCLUSIONS AND POLICY IMPLICATIONS

THE CHINESE SOCIAL CONTEXT

This study was particularly concerned with the reason for the phenomenon of home
schooling emerging after the end of the 1990s. Over past decades, the process
of transition in society has had a strong influence on both income inequality and
social stratification mechanisms in China (Whyte, 1985, 1986; Nee, 1989, 1991;
Bian, 1994; Bian and Logan, 1996; Li, 2000; Bian, 2002). The introduction of
market-oriented reforms resulted in Maos egalitarianism being destroyed (Howes,
1993; Bian, 2002) and because of the radical changes in the area of economics,
there have been similarly dramatic changes in social stratification (Lu, 1989; Li,
2000). Maos protected working class of state-sector workers became differentiated
and disempowered (Whyte, 1999), while the number of private entrepreneurs,
administrative and managerial cadres rose as the market economy grew (Bian, 2002).
After the middle of the 1980s, a new middle class emerged in China (Li, 2000).
In this context, literature focusing on social and educational change (Fagerlind and
Saha, 1989; Carnoy and Samoff, 1990) has argued that social transformation is an
impetus for, and is reflected in, educational change. The search for efficiency and a better
education have led to a noticeable change in parents educational choices regarding
their childrens education and such choices seem to be various and differentiated. The
practising of home schooling is primarily dependent on a familys means, and involves
an adult (e.g. the mother) staying at home with the child, the expenditure of time and
energy. In this respect, homeschooling families in the sample are generally middle
class, and they are generally highly educated and come from a privileged economic
background. After several decades of the implementation of the policy of reform and
opening up, the socioeconomic situation in China now allows parents to choose home
schooling because of the resources they possess in terms of money, time and energy.
Accordingly home schooling, as an educational phenomenon, has emerged in the big
cities in China, for example, in Beijing and Shanghai.
THE MAJOR CHARACTERISTICS OF HOMESCHOOLING FAMILIES

Homeschooling families are distinctive not only in terms of high academic

achievement, but also family characteristics (Rudner, 1999). The interview data
from this research revealed the following primary characteristics of homeschooling
families: the mothers fulfilled the role of teacher or educator in the process of home
schooling; the majority of parents were dissatisfied with contemporary school
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education in China; the majority of the mothers came from a privileged educational
background; most of the parents were Christian, with strong religious beliefs;
religion had an important influence on their everyday teaching at home; and all the
homeschooling families came from the middle classes, and were relatively wealthy
and highly educated.
Education
All the parents (24 parents) who were engaged in home education in the sample
were mothers who were highly educated. Fourteen of the 24 mothers possessed a
PhD degree, while 10 of the 24 mothers were the holders of a masters degree.
This is consistent with the findings of Rudner (1999), who argues that parents who
practise home schooling are likely to be better educated as a group as compared with
the general population (Ray, 1990; Rudner, 1999). The interview data revealed that
the privileged cultural and economic resources of the middle-class homeschooling
parents in the sample provided them with the means, in terms of time, energy, and
the ability to stay at home, to practise home schooling.
Economic background
The vast majority of parents in the sample possessed privileged economic capital.
Their economic resources permitted the mother to stay at home to educate the children.
I would suggest that parents choice to home school was primarily dependent on
their economic resources which were sufficient to ensure that one parent always
the mother would have the time to stay at home (Wartes, 1990; Ray, 1997, 1999;
Rudner, 1999). The data from this research indicated that covering the cost of home
schooling required the support of considerable financial resources. As Houston
and Toma (2003: 923) assert, Households that choose home schooling must pay
the cost of educational materials such as books, curriculum planning guides, and
extracurricular activity fees and continue to pay the tax for the public school.
Marriage
All the home-educated children in this research came from two-parent families in
which the mother was almost always the parent who stayed at home and practised
home schooling. This result confirms the findings of Rudner (1999), who reports
that 97.2 per cent of homeschooling families are led by a man and woman who are
married to each other, which is 25 percentile points higher than the national average.
Religion
The mothers interviewed in this research, who were Christian, reported that their
religious beliefs had a significant impact on their practice of home schooling. The
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CONCLUSIONS AND POLICY IMPLICATIONS

influence of such beliefs, the church and church friends played an important role in
the whole process of the education of their children at home, including the original
decision to home school, the choice of textbooks and the provision of relevant
training programmes. The vast majority of mothers mentioned that the training
programme provided by the church had been of great assistance to them in teaching
their children at home.
Contrary to the literature that has emerged from the USA, this study has revealed
that the majority of homeschooling parents in the sample were determined to
home school their children for a mixture of both pedagogical reasons and religious
preferences. Home schooling is a matter of parental involvement (Ray, 2000:98),
and drawing on the qualitative data in this study, such involvement in the process of
home schooling is classed. I would suggest that many home schooling parents have
the means of investing their childrens cultural capital in an optimum educational
setting, for example, providing their child with home education in order to reproduce
their familial cultural, social and economic advantages. Some middle-class parents,
like Anne, regarded their choice of home schooling as a cultural symbol (Bourdieu,
1984) and a means of defending their social distinction (Bourdieu, 1977) in the
context of contemporary China. The interview data indicated that there exist internal
differences within the middle classes in China. The different volumes of cultural,
social and economic capital that middle-class parents possess result in their differing
abilities to mobilise their childrens educational success. Generally speaking, home
schooling in China is small-scale, unregulated, unorganised and largely unnoticed.
It has emerged largely in the big cities where peoples economic resources are
superior, and its modern development can be regarded as being in its initial phase,
in which there seems to be escalating tension and hostility between homeschooling
families and educational officials. For example, a home school in Shanghai, Meng
Mu Tang, was closed by the educational authority. Until 2014, there was no specific
law governing homeschooling programmes in China.
THE MOTIVATIONS OF HOME SCHOOLING PARENTS

The interview data indicate that the majority of homeschooling parents in the
sample were motivated by a combination of both pedagogical factors and religious
preferences. The reasons that parents make the choice to home school are complex
in a transitional society like that of China. All the home schooling educators in the
study felt dissatisfied with the present examination-oriented education system, and
considered that schools had lost sight of moral concerns, focusing on the standard
examination results to the exclusion of all else. The middle-class parents in the
sample, like Tina, showed a particular concern about whether conventional school
education could teach their children the specific values and philosophy that they
themselves espoused. They looked at education at school not only in terms of the
training that the school provided, but also the values and norms that were promoted.
This confirms the findings reported in the literature from the USA, which show that
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homeschooling parents are either generally dissatisfied with the content of the school
curriculum or that they dislike the institutionalised nature of schooling (Mayberry
and Knowles, 1989; Arai, 2000; Stevens, 2001).
This research reveals that many of the homeschooling parents, like Emma, were
motivated by a mixture of both pedagogical and ideological motivations. These
parents felt very uncomfortable with the teaching purposes of the present education
system, which did not always work for their childrens academic benefit. For the
vast majority of the parents in the sample, like Emma and Zoe, their decision to
home school was primarily framed by their academic and pedagogical concerns,
and the other focus, namely, the transmission of religious values, was a secondary
consideration. This is consistent with the findings of the more recent literature
(Collom, 2005; Green and Hoover-Dempsey, 2007). Collom (2005:307) argues that
academic and pedagogical concerns are most important, and it appears that the
religious base of the movement is subsiding.
PARENTAL INVOLVEMENT IN HOME SCHOOLING

The data from this research demonstrate that none of the homeschooling parents in
the sample had received any teacher training or possessed a teaching qualification.
Many of them reported that if they felt doubtful or uncertain about the process of
practising home schooling, they expected that they would be able to receive help from
home-education advisory services. However, since the practice of home schooling
is illegal in China, no such advisory service is provided by the local educational
authority. In this context, the homeschooling training programme provided by the
church works as a support centre and plays a crucial role in the development of home
schooling.
It is the mothers who are actually doing the work of home schooling and this result
confirms the findings which are found in the literature from the USA (Page, 1997;
Stevens, 2001). Apple (2006:27) argues that in the vast majority of homeschooling
families the parent who provides the primary labour of home schooling is the
mother. Many homeschooling mothers in the sample mentioned that they enjoyed
educating their children at home and regarded this process as an experience of
common growth. This confirms the findings of Page (1997:49), who suggests that
one thing all the parents, who were deeply involved in the home schooling, had
discovered was a new joy in learning; this was matched by their own childrens joy
in discovery. Nearly all the homeschooling parents had chosen American Christian
homeschooling textbooks, which were in English. Here I would suggest that the
growth of modern home schooling has been strongly constrained by the curriculum
content and language in which it is taught.
Twenty out of 24 parents in the sample reported that their children had achieved
excellent academic results as compared with their peers who were educated at
conventional schools. The data showed that the flexible educational environment,
the broad range of teaching materials and one-to-one teaching style were better
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CONCLUSIONS AND POLICY IMPLICATIONS

able to meet a childs study needs and interests than the classroom-based school
education could; this helped home-educated children to achieve better academic
results. As well as its beneficial influence on childrens academic performance,
the positive impact of home education on childrens social development was also
recognised. As indicated in the policy context, since home schooling is illegal in
China, home-educated children are not permitted to register at public schools while
they are receiving education at home. In this context, five out of 24 home-schooled
students had achieved good academic results and been admitted to a university in the
USA. However, for those children aged under 15, there was a possible risk that they
would not have the opportunity to continue their secondary education and higher
education in China.
This book has revealed that parental motivation is likely to vary. The majority of
the sample parents chose to home school their children for a mixture of pedagogical
reasons and religious preferences. Consistent with the findings of Collom (2005),
the motivation of many parents in the sample to choose home schooling was
governed by their academic and pedagogical concerns. The other focus, namely, the
transmission of religious values, seemed to have been less important in the decisionmaking process.
GENDER AND HOME SCHOOLING

This research study has revealed that all of the parents who practised home schooling
and participated in the training programme were the mothers, all of whom were
middle-class, relatively wealthy, and highly educated. The data showed that all
of the mothers had high aspirations of their childrens education. And they held
strong opinions on the crucial role of maternal involvement in educating children.
The homeschooling mothers in the sample consequently spent a great deal of time,
energy, and money, as well as providing mental and emotional support, when
teaching their children at home (Brantlinger et al., 1996). Their sacrifice can be seen
as a kind of investment and their willingness to make such an investment arose from
their strong sense of responsibility for ensuring that their children would receive the
best possible education.
The qualitative data indicated that the middle-class mothers had taken on the
primary role for transmitting their privileged familial cultural capital in order to
guarantee their childrens academic achievement. This is consistent with the accounts
of Bourdieu (1986):
It is because the cultural capital that is effectively transmitted within
the family itself depends not only on the quantity of cultural capital, itself
accumulated by spending time, that the domestic group possess, but also on
the usable time (particularly in the form of the mothers free time) available to
it (by virtue of its economic capital, which enables it to purchase the time of
others) to ensure the transmission of this capital(Bourdieu, 1986:253).
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Home schooling demands parental involvement (Ray, 2000:98). For parents,

the decision to home school is a sacrifice for, or an investment in, ones child
(Lubienski, 2000). This research has revealed that the parental involvement in
home schooling was strongly classed. Jennys decision to home school her younger
son was primarily driven by her failure in terms of her elder sons school choice.
This result is consistent with the findings of Houston and Toma (2003:934), who
argue that school choice may impact upon the process of choosing other types of
schooling. As Lubienski (2000:219) argues, there may be a cost to pay in potential
gain in maintaining a child in a neighbourhood school, when an elite school could
better realise the childs potential. Most of the middle-class parents in this research
made use of their privileged capital to remove their children from school to educate
them at home. In this respect, I suggest that the homeschooling families are likely to
have a definite advantage.
The homeschooling parents, like Zoe and Emma, practised home education in
order to ensure their children would maintain their privileged social status and
reproduce their familial cultural, social and economic resources. They had the
means in terms not only of knowledge and approaches, but also time, energy and
strong economic support to practise home education in order to pursue the greatest
benefits. Unlike Jenny, Annes decision to home school was primarily governed by
her desire to become a member of a privileged social group and ensure that her
child would obtain the best educational advantages. Many middle-class parents, like
Anne, regarded their choice of home schooling as a cultural symbol (Bourdieu,
1984) or social cultural capital (Bourdieu and Passeron, 1977), embodying their
membership of the middle class and defending their socially distinct position
(Bourdieu and Passeron, 1977) in the transitional society of contemporary China.
Some homeschooling mothers reported that they enjoyed the process of home
schooling and regarded this process as an experience of common growth. This
confirms the findings of Page (1997:49), who suggests that one thing all the
parents, who were deeply involved in the home schooling, had discovered was a
new joy in learning; this was matched by their own childrens joy in discovery. The
homeschooling mothers generally utilised varied educational methods and a flexible
teaching schedule, which could be adapted to the childrens learning needs and study
interests. This is in accord with the findings of Rothermel (1999), who reports that in
the UK homeschooling parents employ a variety of teaching approaches, adapted to
individual childrens needs at different stages of the childs development.
CLASS DIFFERENCE AND HOME SCHOOLING

A strong body of literature focusing on the influence of social class on home schooling
has recognised that home educators come from a mixture of socioeconomic classes
(Knowles 1988; Rothermel, 1999; Arai, 2000). Apple (2006:23) argues that the
homeschooling movement is not homogeneous and includes people with a wide
range of political/ideological, religious and educational beliefs, and cuts across racial
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CONCLUSIONS AND POLICY IMPLICATIONS

and class lines. In the UK, Rothermel (1999) found that home schooling families are
from mixed class backgrounds. Unlike the findings of research conducted in Western
countries, this study has revealed that the parental involvement in home schooling is
clearly classed in Chinese transitional society. All the homeschooling parents in the
study were middle-class mothers who were relatively wealthy and well educated.
The emergence of modern home schooling in China can be seen as a polarised
parental choice for their children, which is codified as a kind of educational
consumption on the part of a specific social class, namely, the middle classes. In
accordance with Bourdieu and Passerons (1977) ideas, the majority of middle-class
mothers in the sample were eager to take advantage of their privileged cultural and
social capital, and, in particular, their economic capital, to practise home schooling
in order to ensure that their children obtain the best educational outcomes, thereby
reproducing their cultural and class privileges.
The fact that all of the parents who practised homes education were middleclass mothers is consistent with the findings in the literature from the USA (Ray,
1997; Runder, 1999; Stevens, 2001). I was therefore particularly interested in the
reasons for mothers being the ones educating the children at home, not fathers. This
research has revealed that the transmission of cultural capital within the home seems
to be gender-specific. The main finding from my data is that mothers and fathers
are positioned very differently in relation to the transmission of cultural capital in
home schooling. Mothers take a primary role and are involved much more directly in
home schooling, while fathers are likely to take on a more distant role. Drawing on
Bourdieus conceptual framework, Bennett et al. (2009: 216) argue that womens
central roles as child-carers and educators have accorded them significant leverage
in transmitting cultural advantages. I suggest that the mothers in the sample played
a crucial role in the process of parenting and educating their children, especially in
terms of providing emotional support. Stevens (2001: 91) claims that the reason that
mothers are almost always at the centre of home schooling is that the children are
the focus of attention, women usually are closest to a child, and they enjoy a good
measure of status within the homeschooling movement and probably within their
households as well.
Generally in the course of the development of home schooling there is an initial
period, when there may be tension and hostility between homeschooling families
and the educational authority. According to the relevant content of the Compulsory
Education Law in China, the act of home schooling breaks the law, contravening
Items 2, 4 and 35. Accordingly, in China prior to 2013, home schooling can be seen
as an illegal act. I suggest that the number of home schoolers may increase if the
legal situation changes.
The development of modern home schooling occupies a marginal position in
the education system in China. There is no advisory service relating to teaching
content, teaching methods and teacher training offered by the local educational
authorities. The influence of the church has played a crucial role in home schooling,
for example, the significant majority of the parents in the sample selected American
129

CHAPTER 8

Christian home schooling textbooks in an English edition, and the curriculum

courses were primarily taught in English. To some extent, the growth of home
schooling has been strongly constrained by teaching content and the language used
in teaching. Moreover, since home education is illegal, homeschooling families may
find it difficult to enrol their children in public schools when they are ready for
these children to return to conventional school education. Several home-educated
teenagers have participated in the entrance examination in the USA and have been
admitted to American universities. However, as regards home-educated children
aged less than 15, I am concerned about whether these home-schooled children will
have the opportunity to take the entrance examination for colleges and universities
in China.
As discussed previously, the homeschooling families in the study were
enthusiastic about cultivating in their children particular cultural norms, values and
religious beliefs through provision of home schooling. This may lead to the erosion
of democracy because it may reduce childrens tolerance and exposure to difference.
In the context of the USA, several scholars have paid attention to the cultural issues
in the modern home schooling movement (Lubienski, 2000). For instance, Apple
(2000:257) points to the fact that home schooling potentially erodes the sense of
public responsibility and social inequalities. Along similar lines, Lubienski (2000) is
concerned with the erosion of democracy in terms of tolerance, understanding and
exposure to difference.
POLICY IMPLICATIONS

One of the purposes of this research is to provide policy-makers in China with

substantive information about the development of home schooling in the country. At
the level of policy-making, this research attempts to refer to the experiences, which
have proved successful in the development of home schooling in the USA and the
UK. The following policy recommendations are made regarding home schooling in
China.
Firstly, criticism from homeschooling parents should be taken into account
by policy-makers and educational officials. The majority of such parents feel
uncomfortable or dissatisfied with conventional education at school. They feel that
conventional school education is driven by whether a student can achieve outstanding
academic results rather than whether the child is being properly educated about
ethical and moral concerns. I therefore suggest that the criticisms of home schooling
parents raise a crucial question about the purposes of schooling and serve as an
important reminder that policy-makers may, to some extent, lose sight of moral
concerns, focusing purely on standardised academic scores. It is essential for public
schools to listen to the actual needs of parents and ensure that schools are much more
responsive to their needs and those of the students.
Secondly, the local education authorities should establish relevant regulations
in order to ensure that home-educated children both obtain good academic results
130

CONCLUSIONS AND POLICY IMPLICATIONS

and experience healthy social development. Since home schooling is still illegal
according to the China Compulsory Education Law, direction and guidance in
relation to home schooling from the educational authorities is non-existent. It is
suggested that the educational authority should focus on establishing regulations to
govern home education in order to achieve a balance between protecting the wellbeing of the adolescents and the rights of parents to direct their childrens education.
Thirdly, the relevant advisory and support services, such as those providing the
homeschooling training programme for home educators, should be provided by the
local authorities. These services and training courses would provide guidance and
direction and would establish a useful platform for further communication between
education experts and homeschooling parents concerning knowledge, information
and teaching approaches.
Fourthly, as shown by the data from this research, nearly all the homeschooling
parents had chosen American textbooks and curriculum content. The teaching content,
curriculum content and language used in teaching might prove disadvantageous
to home-educated children when continuing their secondary education or higher
education within the Chinese educational system. I therefore argue that the teaching
resources of the public schools, such as the textbooks and library resources should be
open to home schoolers. In addition home-educated students should be encouraged
to take part in a variety of musical performances, English speech competitions,
sporting events and science competitions.
Finally, the local education authority should allow home-educated children to
register at a public school while their parents are teaching them at home. Given
that the practice of home schooling is illegal in China, the vast majority of homeeducated children cannot legally register at a public school. Because of this, most
of the children may lose the opportunity to continue their education at school when
they are ready to return to mainstream education and moreover, those home-educated
children aged less than 15 may not have the chance to take the entrance examination
for universities in China.

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