Facilitating readers: Exploring how parental beliefs influence learning to read in home education through communities of practice

Facilitating readers: Exploring how parental beliefs influence learning to read in home education through communities of practice

Home education has seen a meteoric rise in the past 5 years, with registered home-educated children now accounting for 1% of Australian school children. Home education is not school at home but rather a distinct paradigm of education where each family forms a unique community of practice (Lave & Wenger, 1991) situated within their sociocultural context (Vygotsky, 1935/2011). However, little is known about how home-educating parents teach their children to read, which is a foundational skill for learning and life. This mixed methods research utilised a quantitative survey of 185 Australian home-educating parents and qualitative interviews with seven home educators to explore how parents enact reading education within the home learning environment and to what extent parental beliefs about reading influence these choices. The findings show that learning to read in home education is centred on the individual needs of the child and the family. Home-educating parents believe themselves to be facilitators of reading who cater to the learning methods and experiences best for the individual child. The choices they make are influenced by both their personal worldview and their prior experiences of reading. Implications of this study include strengthening understanding of the varied ways children learn to read for the benefit of home educators, home education support networks and regulators, and insights for teaching reading in mainstream education. An original contribution to theory has been created by the conceptualisation of a model of reading in home education.

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