Education without Schools: Discovering Alternatives

by Helen E. Lees

Overview

Education without Schools explores what happens when parents learn that there are legal alternatives to conventional schooling. Based on an empirical case study of families in England who discovered the possibility of elective home education, this book offers a globally relevant analysis of the state’s relationship to education, parental choice, and related human rights issues. Underscoring the fact that education occurs in many different contexts around the world, Helen E. Lees argues that schooling’s dominance has ultimately limited our ability to imagine the full range of educational possibilities. 

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781447306412
Publisher:	Policy Press at the Univ of Bristol
Publication date:	12/15/2013
Pages:	176
Product dimensions:	6.30(w) x 9.30(h) x 0.70(d)

About the Author

Helen E. Lees is a research fellow at the Laboratory for Educational Theory in the School of Education at University of Stirling and associate research fellow in the Faculty of Education and Theology at York St John University. 

Table of Contents

List of abbreviations

Notes on author

Acknowledgements

1              Setting the scene

2              Against educationism

3              Why is elective home education important?

4              The theory of the gateless gate of home education

5              Moments of discovery

6              Against discovery of education without schools

7              School exit and home education

8              Understanding discovery differences

9              Concluding remarks

Appendix

References

Index

Editorial Reviews

“Home schooling is under-researched and often misunderstood. Helen Lees' excellent Education without Schools goes a long way to remedying this. It combines insightful empirical work with rigorous conceptual analysis. It makes a major contribution to defining the field."

Michael J Reiss

“This important and thought-provoking book makes a sustained case for an alternative to the ‘educationalist paradigm.’ . . . Above all, this is a hopeful book and one I would thoroughly recommend to anyone who understands (or could be persuaded to understand) education as, ‘a plurality of possibilities.’

Other Education

“Thoughtful and interesting to read. . . . Lees has gone further than most other writers on home education in her efforts to theorize the movement such that it becomes a coherent and viable option for twenty-first-century families.

International Centre for Home Education Research

“This study is a valuable and welcome contribution in an area of education which has so far received little attention from researchers in the United Kingdom.

Family Education Trust Bulletin

“Marvelous reading for those who sit on policy committees and those in Local Authorities who struggle with the dissonances between alternative philosophies and mainstream practices.

Philosophy of Education Society of Great Britain - Harriet Pattison