Home and Alternative Education as Places of Emotional Refuge

Adamson, Carrie ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6488-4656 (2020) Home and Alternative Education as Places of Emotional Refuge. Educationalfutures, 11 (2). pp. 3-22. ISSN 1758-2199

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Abstract

Numbers of home and alternatively educated children are increasing rapidly in the UK. This paper explores how the growing number of home and alternatively educating parents in the UK, find or create refuges for themselves and their children. The properties of these refuges are examined drawing upon concepts from Reddy (1999, 2001) and Bourdieu (1990, 2000). Qualitative data from twenty parents who were currently home or alternatively educating, had done so in the past or were considering it were collected and analysed using constructivist grounded theory methods. The findings indicated that parental reasons for seeking out alternative educational provision usually involved the avoidance of various aspects of the UK school system. It concludes with the observation that the education market seems to be responding to parental concerns, for example by offering forest school activities and the establishment of state funded Steiner and Montessori schools.