Reasons why parents home school in Australia: A national survey and a review of 2018-2022 registrations

Rebekah Couper and Terry Harding
Australian Christian Home Schooling, Queensland, Australia

An increase of parents choosing to home school their children within Australia and changing motivations to do so, has been suggested, however national figures of home school student registrations have not been available and quantitative data is minimal, resulting in a risk of unvalidated assumptions informing the industry. Our study collated a national student registration figure for home education within Australia covering the years 2018-2022 and showing percentage increase and a growth rate exceeding other schooling options. In addition, we modernised the Enrolment Motivation Questionnaire (Collom, 2005) updating it for theoretical developments to investigate the motivations of Australian parents who choose home schooling both pre and post-Covid. This analysis revealed two significant differences: after the advent of Covid, parents were motivated to home school their children due to school absences and child's health, compared to before Covid. We discuss the finding that home education is currently the fastest growing schooling modality in Australia and how parents' schooling choice is changing to be more child-centric, offering factor analysis results which support this addition.
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Authors: Mrs Rebekah Couper graduated from Griffith University and the University of Sunshine Coast and teaches in the discipline of psychology. She has worked in psychology related industries for over 20 years, including organisational psychology, training and education, research, pastoral care, and community services. She is currently pursuing a PhD. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0002-1972-2946 Email: Rebekahcouper@icloud.com Dr Terry Harding received his PhD from Queensland University of Technology, researching home schooling and parental roles. He is the head of Australian Christian Home Schooling, a division of Christian Education Ministries and a contributor to national and state education policy. Dr Harding is passionate about direct explicit instruction, Christian ministry and home schooling pedagogies. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0006-9295-497X Email: terryharding@achs.edu.au Address for correspondence: Dr Terry Harding Australian Christian Home Schooling 1642 Anzac Ave, North Lakes, Qld 4558, Australia Email: terryharding@achs.edu.au Please cite as: Couper, R. & Harding, T. (2024). Reasons why parents home school in Australia: A national survey and a review of 2018-2022 registrations. Issues in Educational Research, 34(3), 906-927. http://www.iier.org.au/iier34/couper.pdf