ABSTRACT
Unschooling as a term is becoming increasingly well known, with the global rise in numbers and profile of elective home education. Forms of unschooled approaches are being translated into mainstream school projects such as that outlined by Rix and McElwee in conducting teaching through an internet 'big questions' project, in line with Mitra's unschooling-infused 'hole in the wall' project. Learning happens differently through unschooling than through the didactic approach of the school. Unschooling is hard to grasp as a concept, because it is so different from a schooling approach involving timetables and protocols of behaviour and learning — our common concept of education. ndeed, as a resource for thinking — if not enacting actual lived practice — unschooling and its deschooling phase are important in relation to power, society, law, a democratic education and the idea of interpersonal, social and personal freedom.
