Accessing rigorous high school curricula such as Cambridge International Examinations (IGCSEs and A Levels) is a possibility for home educated students because of online resources, research, and learning. Parent teachers become facilitators of education, and home educators can become autonomous online learners. Recent research and the presenter's own lived experiences ilustrate how online learning and home education is interwoven.
Most high school students attend brick-and-mortar schools, with about ten percent of the compulsory school-aged population choosing private over public schools. Parents who choose private education can opt to home educate their high schoolers, though this is an even smaller percentage of the compulsory school-aged population.
Though some view education as schooling (Peters, 1966), and deschoolers like Goodman (1964), Holt (1964) and Illich (1971) rejected schools in supporting the modern home education movement in the 1970s, there is a pluralistic perspective that interweaves home education and online learning.
Online learning has been impacting educational choices in schools and in higher education for some time (Allen et al, 2016) and it seems to be more interwoven into students’, teachers’ and parents’ lives than ever. Add to this the increased availability of mobile technology (smart phones, tablets, laptops, etc) and the possibilities for learning outside school institution walls becomes apparent.
Home educating students and their parent teachers have realized that access to rigorous high school curricula need not be beyond their reach. Working with the grassroots mindset of the modern home education movement, home educating parent teachers use social media and discussion forums to create and maintain virtual communities. These communities are important to give support, advice, and educational resources to those home educating families who want IGCSEs and A Levels as part of their high school curriculum.
Online resources for IGCSEs and A Levels are provided in a variety of forms; such as in online full courses or individual classes, as videos, or as study guides and questions. Interviewing participants in recent research, and mirrored in the presenter’s own lived experiences, the normalcy of using online resources is illuminated. As a consequence, the defining characteristics of home educators and online learners may be less easy to distinguish.
The presenter will use recent descriptive and exploratory research into hybrid home schoolers in the USA and flexi-schoolers in the UK, alongside the lived experiences of accessing IGCSEs and A Levels to her four children, to inform the audience about a viable educational option that can use the best of 21st century technology.