Research Spotlight - There’s no place like home education: A narrative-based analysis of the personal experiences of work and employment of home educated people

Rachael Barrow is a senior teaching associate, researcher, writer and previously home educated person who has pursued an interest in the field of alternative education, sociology of education, and teaching, formally and informally, across childhood and higher educational contexts. Based at the University of Lancaster, her main area of teaching is in work and employment relations. She enjoys networking with other academics with similar interests and developing new writing projects.

Did You Know ?

➤ This research provides parents with 31 home educated peoples in-depth self-reported experiences of work and employment.

➤Previously home educated people expressed how home education was more than a mere alternative educational choice for them but in fact was a ‘lifestyle’ for them.

➤ There is a wide range of jobs and career trajectories that home educated people go into including, but not limited to: modelling, academia, conservation, outdoor education, research, volunteering and charity work, music, art, writing, entrepreneurs, religious roles such as being a vicar, farming, drama and acting, environmental sciences, consultancy, law, games development, landscape gardening, and journalism.

What was the home education research looking at?

My research explored the work and employment experiences of previously home educated people. I focused on developing an understanding of their experiences of this significant part of adult life through putting the spotlight on their stories as told through their voices given, they are often an underheard and underrepresented group of people in society.

How did you conduct your research?

➤ I conducted interviews with 31 previously home educated people that on average lasted 1.5 to 3 hours long. The participants consisted in age from 18 through to 56.

➤ I combined interviews with a visual method involving co-designing mind-maps known as timelines with the research participants.

What are your key findings?

A simple sketch of a person thinking with a hand on their chin, and a green question mark floating overhead on a white background.

➤ All home educated participants self-reported being haunted by ‘school’ and their ‘home education’. ‘Haunting’ was sometimes seen negatively in the sense of being haunted by their memories of ‘school indoctrination’ but seen positively in the sense of being haunted by their memories of being ‘home educated’. The latter being attributed to the values, skills, experiences, and character development that home education afforded them that they felt put them in good positions in their adult lives personally and professionally.

➤ There was a significant pattern in home educated people self-reporting how they took issue with authority figures, bureaucracy, and conformity in their respective workplaces attributing this to these features of workplaces not being features of home education environments. The respondents described situations in which they would alter ways of working to be more conducive to themselves and their own working preferences despite backlash from their employers and colleagues.

➤ All of the previously home educated people interviewed for my research self-reported how significant their home education had been in not only shaping what they went on to do for work and how they experienced work, but also the kind of people they became and the values they possessed.

Any recommendations?

➤ Don’t let the fear of not knowing the outcomes of your child’s home education regarding future work and employment opportunities keep you from the wonderful journey that is home educating your child.

➤ Use home education to explore what type of work and employment your child might be interested in for their futures.

Your final word…

There needs to be considerably more research conducted on a wider range of home educated peoples experiences of work and employment that can inform policymaking. Research could focus more specifically on transitions to work and employment from home education, as one significant concern that home educating parents or home educating children often have and considering the need for employers to consider being more flexible with job applicants given, the increasing number of home educated people that are now and will be entering the workforce in the future.