Political Consciousness and Home‐based Education

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Abstract
The growth of home‐based education in the UK has exposed a range of political issues, some having implications for political education. The response to the idea of home‐based education is frequently that of a political stance in that it is assumed that such families must be radical, de‐schoolers or anti‐establishment. The evidence exposes this view as a myth. The authoritarian vision of education characterises the majority of home‐based educators at the outset though it can change with experience. The organisation Education Otherwise achieves one significant piece of political education: it gives its members the confidence to refute the myth that schooling is compulsory or the illusion that only qualified teachers can educate at home. Parents also learn that the law does not allow for Local Education Authorities to impose their particular vision of education on families and permits the view that there is no one right way of educating. The behaviour of LEA officials displays considerable confusion as to how to cope with the phenomenon of home‐based schooling; they may attempt to pretend that all is well with contemporary schooling to parents who are able to articulate the effects of the hidden curriculum of political values upon their own children. The gains home‐based educators report are in the nature of a political re‐education: they learn to be less authoritarian and more autonomous, to become independent rather than absorb beliefs uncritically.