A Study of the Parental Decision to Homeschool
This phenomenological qualitative study provides context and understanding of why parents choose to homeschool their children using Rational Choice Theory as the framework. As of 2024, while there is quantitative data that breaks the reasons why parents homeschool down into several categories, scholars often criticize these data for being poorly done because these studies lack context. There have also been many qualitative studies that investigate certain reasons why parents homeschool, but almost all of them do not use a decision-making framework nor were they studying the decision-making process on why parents choose homeschooling. The literature has shown that parents homeschool for various reasons because they have a desire to provide the best education possible for their children. This study refers to this desire as parental goals. These parental goals are categorized in this study as personal factors, resource limitations, societal norms, and perceived risks/benefits. Through Rational Choice Theory as a framework, this study provided much needed context into the decision-making process that parents use when considering the variety of reasons for homeschooling. This study found that parents are choosing to homeschool for the level of freedom it gives them, the context to invest in and nurture the relationships with people around them, the assurance that they are protecting their children physically, emotionally, and ideologically, the trade-off of access to barriers is favorable in their situation, and the validation and confidence instilled in them through others or from their own self. Some participants felt compelled to homeschool, not because they ever planned to, through circumstances out of their control which led to choosing homeschooling out of desperation or because the other options became undesirable. In this case, the rationale for starting to homeschool is different from their reason for continuing to homeschool. It is the hope that this study can bring more color to the conversation around school choice so that educators, lobbyists, and policymakers have more knowledge to meet the needs of a growing population that is opting out of the public school system.
education, education policy, educational sociology, homeschooling, rational choice theory, school choice
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