Homeschooling and distance education in Australia

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In Australia, homeschooling is becoming increasingly popular. [1] [2] [3] It is legal in all Australian states and territories, [2] [4] with each having its own regulations around the practice. [4] Distance education (commonly known as external studies in Australia [5] ) is also prevalent for Australians who live in remote, rural areas. [6] [7] There are more than a dozen universities in Australia that support distance education for tertiary studies. [8] Some Australians switch between distance education and classroom teaching. [7] The number of homeschooled children and students who take distance education in Australia is approximately 30,000. [4] The number of registered homeschoolers alone was 21,437 in 2019; this corresponds to 0.5 per cent of the total school population of Australia. [3] In the 2010s, the average growth rate of the practice amounted to 9.4 per cent per year. [3] The largest Christian school of distance education in Australia is the Australian Christian College, which has over 1,700 families with 4,000 students enrolled. [4] Homeschooling generally enjoys a very good reputation in the Australian media and is widely seen as a flexible alternative form of education with good socialization opportunities in the community. [2]

Contents

History

Homeschooling

In 1995, Roland Meighan of Nottingham School of Education estimated some 20,000 families homeschooling in Australia. [9] Homeschooling since 2006 requires government registration, with different requirements from state to state. Some home educators prefer to be regulated, but others question whether the government has any legitimate authority to oversee the choices parents make to raise and educate their children. [10] Curricular help is offered by the Australian Government. In 2006, Victoria passed legislation, [11] requiring the registration of children up to the age of 16 and increasing the school leaving age to 16 from the previous 15, undertaking home education (registration is optional for those age of 16–17 but highly recommended). The Victorian Registration and Qualifications Authority (VRQA) is the registering body. [12] [13] Philip Strange of Home Education Association, Inc. very roughly estimated the number of homeschoolers to be 26,500 in 2011. [14]

Distance education

Compulsory school attendance was established in Victoria in 1872. [15] However, children and parents in rural and remote areas of the state were facing major problems of accessing schools and therefore, regular school attendance could not be guaranteed. [15] As an answer to this, correspondence schooling was introduced, whereby young teachers were employed in remote areas of Victoria. [15] Victoria was the first state in Australia to do so, others came after in the following years. [15] Today, distance learning is virtually only carried out via the Internet.

Motivations for homeschooling

Reasons for Australian people to choose homeschooling are often lifestyle choices; some people choose to home educate so that they can travel and spend better time with their children. [10] [16] Some children learn differently to the general crowd and can get bored or can struggle at school, where the teachers are unable to cater for the individuality of each child. Other often cited reasons for choosing homeschooling in Australia include religious or philosophical conviction and bullying in or dissatisfaction with school, as well as special needs. [16] School closures and subsequent distance learning during the COVID-19 pandemic were motivating factors for parents to homeschool as well. [17]

Organizations

In Australia, many organizations exist to help parents and teachers with home education. [2] Every Australian state has at least one support group for home education. [2] The Home Education Association, Inc (HEA) is Australia's national advocacy organisation. [18] [19] It is a not-for-profit, member-funded charity which began in 2001 to support home educators across Australia. [20] The association is run by volunteers from the home education community and offers a free phone helpline and registration support in each state or territory. The HEA does not produce educational material but offers substantial discounts to its members to third-party educational curriculum. [10] [ non-primary source needed ] The HEA advocates in the interest of home educators in all states and territories, with each state regulated by different Education Acts. [21]

One of the most popular schools for distance learning in Western Australia is the School of Isolated and Distance Education (SIDE).

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Homeschooling</span> Education of children outside of a school

Homeschooling or home schooling, also known as home education or elective home education (EHE), is the education of school-aged children at home or a variety of places other than a school. Usually conducted by a parent, tutor, or online teacher, many homeschool families use less formal, more personalized and individualized methods of learning that are not always found in schools. The actual practice of homeschooling can vary. The spectrum ranges from highly structured forms based on traditional school lessons to more open, free forms such as unschooling, which is a lesson- and curriculum-free implementation of homeschooling. Some families who initially attended a school go through a deschool phase to break away from school habits and prepare for homeschooling. While "homeschooling" is the term commonly used in North America, "home education" is primarily used in Europe and many Commonwealth countries. Homeschooling should not be confused with distance education, which generally refers to the arrangement where the student is educated by and conforms to the requirements of an online school, rather than being educated independently and unrestrictedly by their parents or by themselves.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Unschooling</span> Educational method and philosophy; form of homeschooling

Unschooling is an informal learning method that prioritizes learner-chosen activities as a primary means for learning. Unschoolers learn through their natural life experiences including play, household responsibilities, personal interests and curiosity, internships and work experience, travel, books, elective classes, family, mentors, and social interaction. Often considered a lesson- and curriculum-free implementation of homeschooling, unschooling encourages exploration of activities initiated by the children themselves, under the belief that the more personal learning is, the more meaningful, well-understood, and therefore useful it is to the child. While unschooled students may occasionally take courses, unschooling questions the usefulness of standard curricula, fixed times at which learning should take place, conventional grading methods and standardized tests, forced contact with children in their own age group, the compulsion to do homework regardless of whether it helps the learner in their individual situation, the effectiveness of listening to and obeying the orders of one authority figure for several hours each day, and other features of traditional schooling.

Home education in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is often termed "elective home education" ("EHE") to signify the independent nature of practice from state provisions such as education for children with ill-health provided by the local authority in the family home. EHE is a collective term used in the UK to describe education provided other than through the schooling system. Parents have a duty to ensure their children are educated but the education legislation in England and Wales does not differentiate between school attendance or education otherwise than at school. Scots education legislation on the other hand differentiates between public (state) school provision and education "by other means", which includes both private schooling and home education. The numbers of families retaining direct responsibility for the education of their children has steadily increased since the late 1970s. This increase has coincided with the formation of support groups such as Education Otherwise. Home education may involve an informal style of education described as unschooling, informal learning, natural or autonomous learning. Others prefer to retain a structured school at home approach sometimes referred to as homeschooling although the terms are often interchanged.

Alternative education encompasses many pedagogical approaches differing from mainstream pedagogy. Such alternative learning environments may be found within state, charter, and independent schools as well as home-based learning environments. Many educational alternatives emphasize small class sizes, close relationships between students and teachers and a sense of community.

The education system in Tasmania comprises the education of children from their early years, through kindergarten, primary and high school, and tertiary education in universities and vocational education and training organisations. The system is delivered by the government-run K-12 schooling system, and numerous independent schools and colleges, most of which are controlled or sponsored by religious organisations. Public education in Tasmania is managed primarily by the Tasmanian Department of Education. The Department is responsible for all aspects of education in Tasmania including schooling, adult education, the State Library and TasTAFE, a vocational tertiary institution with many campuses around the state.

Deschooling is a term invented by Austrian philosopher Ivan Illich. Today, the word is mainly used by homeschoolers, especially unschoolers, to refer to the transition process that children and parents go through when they leave the school system in order to start homeschooling. The process is a crucial basis for homeschooling to work. It involves children gradually transitioning away from their schoolday routine and institutional mentality, redeveloping the ability to learn via self-determination, and discovering what they want to learn in their first homeschool days.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Home School Legal Defense Association</span> United States organization

The Home School Legal Defense Association (HSLDA) is a United States-based organization that seeks to aid homeschooling families through legal representation. HSLDA describes itself as a "Christian organization."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Homeschooling in the United States</span> Overview of the situation of homeschooling in the United States of America

Homeschooling constitutes the education of about 3.4% of U.S. students as of 2012. The number of homeschoolers in the United States has increased significantly over the past few decades since the end of the 20th century. In the United States, the Supreme Court has ruled that parents have a fundamental right to direct the education of their children. The right to homeschool is not frequently questioned in court, but the amount of state regulation and help that can or should be expected continues to be subject to legal debate.

Peter Kowalke is an American unschooling advocate best known for his work on grown homeschoolers and the lasting influence of homeschooling. He was one of the first authors to explore the lasting influence that homeschooling has on a person in terms of identity, and produced a large body of work on the topic from 1994 until 2013, after which he stepped back from the homeschooling community to focus on contextualizing the Indian Advaita Vedanta philosophy for American culture.

Generation Joshua, often called "GenJ" by its members, is an American Christian fundamentalist youth organization founded in 2003 that aims to encourage youth participation in government, civics, and politics toward conservative Christian values. GenJ is a division of the Home School Legal Defense Association, which is a non-profit 501(c)3 organization, based in Purcellville, Virginia. The organization was founded by Michael Farris and Mike Smith and is located on the campus of Patrick Henry College.

Single-parent homeschooling is the practice of conducting homeschool by a parent who may be the sole breadwinner for the family. According to the peer-review journal Education Policy Analysis, based on the findings of the National Household Education Survey, of the National Center of Educational Statistics, between 1994 and 1999 the number of single-parent homeschools almost doubled. No further statistics are currently available. It is the general perception, by most homeschooling advocates, that most single-parent homeschools are led by a self-employed single parent, one that is receiving public assistance, or someone that has received a life insurance settlement. In some single-parent homeschool circles it is thought that most-single parent homeschools are run by parents who work full-time jobs outside the home. No statistics have been compiled to confirm or invalidate either supposition.

<i>Secular Homeschooling</i> American magazine

Secular Homeschooling was an American magazine for people who homeschool for reasons other than religion. It began as a quarterly, but became a bimonthly in July 2009. The magazine is no longer published and the final issue was released in 2011.

The legality of homeschooling in India and a plethora of alternative education schools spread over different states has been debated by educators, lawmakers, and parents since the passing of the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act (RTE) which makes formal education a fundamental right of every child between the ages of 6 and 14 and specifies minimum norms for schools. While the legality of homeschooling still remains a grey area, there have been petitions by parents and alternate schools in the past for granting relief. As per the Universal Declaration of Human Rights to which India is a signatory, quote: "Parents have a prior right to choose the kind of education that shall be given to their children."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Homeschooling international status and statistics</span> Overview of the legal situation and prevalence of homeschooling around the world

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Homeschooling in New Zealand is legal. The Ministry of Education reports annually on the population, age, ethnicity, and turnover of students being educated at home.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Homeschooling in South Africa</span> Overview of the situation of homeschooling in South Africa

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In Canada, homeschooling has increased in popularity since the advent of the 21st century. It is legal in every province, with each province having its own regulations around the practice. In some provinces, funding is available. In 2016, the number of homeschooled children in Canada was approximately 60,000 ; this corresponds to approximately one in every 127 school-aged children. In 2020, the average growth rate of the practice amounted to more than 5 per cent per year. Canada has a large proportion of non-religiously motivated homeschoolers compared to some other countries. It is also one of three countries worldwide, along with the United States and South Africa, that hosts an organization with lawyers on staff which serves the legal needs of home educators.

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References

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Further reading