{"id":{"repo_id":"toronto-retro","oai_identifier":"oai:utoronto.scholaris.ca:1807/69314"},"canonical_url":"https://search.dev.ndltd.org/etd/toronto-retro/oai:utoronto.scholaris.ca:1807/69314","repository":{"repo_id":"toronto-retro","name":"University of Toronto","base_url":"https://utoronto.scholaris.ca/server/oai/request"},"display":{"title":"Negotiating School: A Narrative Study","abstract":"Negotiating School is an investigation into the work of parents who adapted schooling to custom fit their child rather than simply depositing the child at the neighbourhood school and trusting the school to decide what to do. Following the methodology of narrative inquiry, this study analyzes the experiences of the author's family and seven other families as they dealt with school. This study identifies many strategies parents may employ as they navigate their child's schooling. This continuum of strategies starts with minor actions such as maintaining close communications with teachers to the radical move of quitting school altogether for unschooling. Although Negotiating School never intended to make any claim of generalizability, the strategies that emerged from the participant's stories seem to cover the territory of possible school negotiations available to parents. Initially, this thesis had in mind parents who sought a humanistic, child-centred education which would reflect their own intensive parenting style. However, as they told their stories, it became clear that some of my participants privileged traditional concerns, such as the quality of teaching, the coherence of the curriculum, and the conduct of the other students in the building. Regardless, the techniques of negotiating school served both ends of the educational spectrum, the progressive and the traditional. Without intending to, Negotiating School has taken on some features of a longitudinal study. Children I met in kindergarten are now in university. Experiments have played out. Some utopian hopes have taken a bad turn. But all my participants were school negotiators, intensely involved in their children's schooling.","abstract_html":"Negotiating School is an investigation into the work of parents who adapted schooling to custom fit their child rather than simply depositing the child at the neighbourhood school and trusting the school to decide what to do. Following the methodology of narrative inquiry, this study analyzes the experiences of the author's family and seven other families as they dealt with school. This study identifies many strategies parents may employ as they navigate their child's schooling. This continuum of strategies starts with minor actions such as maintaining close communications with teachers to the radical move of quitting school altogether for unschooling. Although Negotiating School never intended to make any claim of generalizability, the strategies that emerged from the participant's stories seem to cover the territory of possible school negotiations available to parents. Initially, this thesis had in mind parents who sought a humanistic, child-centred education which would reflect their own intensive parenting style. However, as they told their stories, it became clear that some of my participants privileged traditional concerns, such as the quality of teaching, the coherence of the curriculum, and the conduct of the other students in the building. Regardless, the techniques of negotiating school served both ends of the educational spectrum, the progressive and the traditional. Without intending to, Negotiating School has taken on some features of a longitudinal study. Children I met in kindergarten are now in university. Experiments have played out. Some utopian hopes have taken a bad turn. But all my participants were school negotiators, intensely involved in their children's schooling.","abstract_has_math":false,"creators":["Ellis, William Henry"],"institution":null,"degree_name":null,"degree_level":null,"degree_discipline":null,"degree_department":"Curriculum, Teaching and Learning","school":null,"contributors":[],"advisors":["Cameron, Linda"],"committee_chairs":[],"committee_members":[],"year":2015,"date_issued":"2015-12","date_published":"2015-12","updated_at":"2026-07-27T21:27:52Z","subjects":["alternative education","home schooling","parenting","private schools","school choice","special education"],"languages":[],"rights":[],"rights_urls":[],"identifier_entries":[]},"links":{"outbound_url":"http://hdl.handle.net/1807/69314","outbound_label":"Handle","outbound_source":"dc:identifier.uri"},"metadata_groups":[{"id":"people","label":"People","entries":[{"key":"dc:contributor.advisor","label":"Advisor","values":["Cameron, Linda"]},{"key":"dc:contributor.department","label":"Department","values":["Curriculum, Teaching and Learning"]},{"key":"dc:creator","label":"Author","values":["Ellis, William Henry"]}]},{"id":"academic_context","label":"Academic Context","entries":[{"key":"dc:date","label":"Dc Date","values":["2015-12"]},{"key":"dc:date.accessioned","label":"Dc Date Accessioned","values":["2015-07-23T20:48:36Z"]},{"key":"dc:date.available","label":"Dc Date Available","values":["2015-07-23T20:48:36Z"]},{"key":"dc:date.issued","label":"Date","values":["2015-12"]},{"key":"dc:type","label":"Dc Type","values":["Thesis"]}]},{"id":"subjects_keywords","label":"Subjects and Keywords","entries":[{"key":"dc:subject","label":"Dc Subject","values":["alternative education","home schooling","parenting","private schools","school choice","special education"]}]},{"id":"identifiers","label":"Identifiers","entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier.uri","label":"Identifier URI","values":["http://hdl.handle.net/1807/69314"]}]},{"id":"additional","label":"Additional Metadata","entries":[{"key":"dc:description.abstract","label":"Abstract","values":["Negotiating School is an investigation into the work of parents who adapted schooling to custom fit their child rather than simply depositing the child at the neighbourhood school and trusting the school to decide what to do. Following the methodology of narrative inquiry, this study analyzes the experiences of the author's family and seven other families as they dealt with school. This study identifies many strategies parents may employ as they navigate their child's schooling. This continuum of strategies starts with minor actions such as maintaining close communications with teachers to the radical move of quitting school altogether for unschooling. Although Negotiating School never intended to make any claim of generalizability, the strategies that emerged from the participant's stories seem to cover the territory of possible school negotiations available to parents. Initially, this thesis had in mind parents who sought a humanistic, child-centred education which would reflect their own intensive parenting style. However, as they told their stories, it became clear that some of my participants privileged traditional concerns, such as the quality of teaching, the coherence of the curriculum, and the conduct of the other students in the building. Regardless, the techniques of negotiating school served both ends of the educational spectrum, the progressive and the traditional. Without intending to, Negotiating School has taken on some features of a longitudinal study. Children I met in kindergarten are now in university. Experiments have played out. Some utopian hopes have taken a bad turn. But all my participants were school negotiators, intensely involved in their children's schooling."]},{"key":"dc:description.degree","label":"Dc Description Degree","values":["Ph.D."]},{"key":"dc:title","label":"Title","values":["Negotiating School: A Narrative Study"]}]}],"canonical_facts":{"dc:contributor.advisor":["Cameron, Linda"],"dc:contributor.department":["Curriculum, Teaching and Learning"],"dc:creator":["Ellis, William Henry"],"dc:date":["2015-12"],"dc:date.accessioned":["2015-07-23T20:48:36Z"],"dc:date.available":["2015-07-23T20:48:36Z"],"dc:date.issued":["2015-12"],"dc:description.abstract":["Negotiating School is an investigation into the work of parents who adapted schooling to custom fit their child rather than simply depositing the child at the neighbourhood school and trusting the school to decide what to do. Following the methodology of narrative inquiry, this study analyzes the experiences of the author's family and seven other families as they dealt with school. This study identifies many strategies parents may employ as they navigate their child's schooling. This continuum of strategies starts with minor actions such as maintaining close communications with teachers to the radical move of quitting school altogether for unschooling. Although Negotiating School never intended to make any claim of generalizability, the strategies that emerged from the participant's stories seem to cover the territory of possible school negotiations available to parents. Initially, this thesis had in mind parents who sought a humanistic, child-centred education which would reflect their own intensive parenting style. However, as they told their stories, it became clear that some of my participants privileged traditional concerns, such as the quality of teaching, the coherence of the curriculum, and the conduct of the other students in the building. Regardless, the techniques of negotiating school served both ends of the educational spectrum, the progressive and the traditional. Without intending to, Negotiating School has taken on some features of a longitudinal study. Children I met in kindergarten are now in university. Experiments have played out. Some utopian hopes have taken a bad turn. But all my participants were school negotiators, intensely involved in their children's schooling."],"dc:description.degree":["Ph.D."],"dc:identifier.uri":["http://hdl.handle.net/1807/69314"],"dc:subject":["alternative education","home schooling","parenting","private schools","school choice","special education"],"dc:title":["Negotiating School: A Narrative Study"],"dc:type":["Thesis"]},"updated_at":"2026-07-27T21:27:52Z"}