🔎 HOMESCHOOL RESEARCH & NEWS for July

On the third Tuesday of each month we post a quick roundup of some recent academic publications and news about homeschooling, offered for your interest. These are typically university research papers, and they may have a positive, negative, or neutral outlook on home education. The title links generally point to the full text of each publication, which is often a printable pdf file. In some cases, a paid subscription may be required to read the whole article. The article abstracts or introductions below are quoted in full whenever possible, without editing.

We have two items for the month, on homeschooling in Pakistan; and on assessment in homeschooling:

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(1) Perspectives of Parents on Homeschooling in Pakistan: Motivations, Challenges, and Long-term Impacts — Q. Rehan & S. Noreen (2025)

Abstract: This qualitative research study focuses on the participation experiences of parents homeschooling in Pakistan, their motivations, challenges faced by them in this process, and management strategies regarding home education. A qualitative research design was used, and the data were gathered using semi-structured interviews with ten homeschooling parents selected through purposive sampling (to fit with different perspectives). Thematic analysis was utilized to find general patterns across homeschooling experiences following Braun and Clarke’s (2006) framework. The data revealed three types of engaging with homeschooling based on how long they had been homeschooling: The Newcomer, The Average Joe, and The Lifers, showing the sense of growing confidence and strategies that new families feel as they get going. The research also highlighted three significant barriers: social isolation, availability of quality education and extracurricular activities, and time/resource management. Even with these challenges, homeschooling parents said it had benefits like individualized education, flexibility and strong parent-child connections. During this time, digital solutions, like YouTube, Khan Academy and other online learning platforms were necessary to assist learning and fill the gap, though worries about screen time excess and reliance on technology were also raised. This research contributes to literature on the important role of home educating attendees in reconciling their understanding of home education with the need for equitable opportunities for those families who do wish to home educate. Following studies should investigate the academic, social and career successes of homeschooled children, to make sure that they are actually able to transition into higher education and the working world smoothly.

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(2) Assessment in Homeschooling: Emerging Topics — E. Restiglian & S. Busato (2025)

Abstract: The spread of homeschooling practices in many countries responds to the need of many families to find an alternative to traditional school offerings that respect the well-being, potential and learning times of the child. Assessment, a fundamental element of educational planning in conventional schools, is not considered equally in homeschooling settings, despite its formative value and the possibility that it can act as an element capable of restoring centrality to the child. With references to international literature, the contribution reports an exploratory research conducted in the Italian context that sought to delve into the topic of the methods of examining homeschooling students and the perceptions of school personnel involved in their assessment process. The triangulation of data from different studies on the same topic and from various perspectives (families, teachers and headteachers) helped grasp the phenomenon’s complexity and the possibility of defining a school that works for all its students.

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What interesting homeschool news and academic research have you come across this Hercules Term? 🎓

❡ Explore more: If you’d like to investigate the academic literature on homeschooling more extensively, the best place to start is Google Scholar, the special academic search engine from Google. Just enter a search term or phrase of interest (“homeschool,” “unschooling,” “classical homeschooling,” “deschooling,” etc.), and Google Scholar will return a list of research publications that mention your topic. In addition, for research prior to 2020 in particular, see the comprehensive bibliographic essay by Kunzman & Gaither (2020), “Homeschooling: An Updated Comprehensive Survey of the Research.” 🔎

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