ABSTRACT

One impact of globalisation and increasingly neo-liberal economies has been the trend towards the creation of a Global Education Industry or GEI in which greater private investment within traditionally state-run education practices is also matched by increasingly market-driven practice in the state sector's delivery of education. This chapter explores the different regulatory structures that are encountered before considering who home educates, why they choose to do so and how effective a practice it might be. The countries that permit homeschooling and monitor the educational process of those who are homeschooling include Australia and New Zealand. The range of regulatory frameworks and different requirements for monitoring in different countries and states creates difficulties when trying to establish the numbers or characteristics of home educators. Understandings of home education in the UK have been shaped by specific concerns about risk – in particular the risk posed by children not attending school and being educated in the home.