Children's education through the lens of home-educating parents. Insights from an ethnographic study in Italy

This study aims to provide a thick description of home education in Italy, combining emic and etic perspectives. It investigates homeeducating parents’ beliefs on early childhood education, e.g, children’s agency, individualised and child-centered practice. A growing number of parents are choosing to homeschool their children (Gaither, 2017), especially after the pandemic (Heuer & Donovan, 2021). Parenting choices are shaped by cultural beliefs about education (Harkness & Super, 1992) which are constantly changing in societies. Parental narratives are analysed through a socio-cultural perspective (Rogoff, 2003) which allows moving beyond the explicit level to investigate implicit ‘folk pedagogies’ (Bruner, 1996) and ‘parental ethnotheories’ (Harkness & Super, 1992). An ethnographic mixed-methods study was carried out within an interpretive paradigm (Creswell et al., 2006) and an ecological approach (LeCompte & Schensul, 2010). Participant observations, interviews and survey data were the main inquiry methods. Reflexive-thematic and descriptive statistical analysis were combined. The project was approved by the University of Milano-Bicocca ethics committee. Informed consent was obtained from all participants. Findings show the first parental motivation to home educate is to provide “tailor-made” and “child-centred” education. Home-educating parents seem to embrace an agentic pedagogy, involving children as protagonists of their learning process. However, the potential lack of peer group socialization emerges as a key concern in their narratives. The study sheds light on a controversial phenomenon in need of further research, also involving children’s voices. It contributes to the “regulation question” of home schooling in Italy, where the legal framework of the practice is still evolving.