Are Schools the Best for My Child? Home-Educators’ Perspectives on Care and Education in Italy

The recent Covid-19 pandemic has exposed social vulnerabilities, highlighting a care crisis. The disruption of schooling heightened concerns about mainstream schools' capacity to meet individual and diverse needs. In this landscape – during and in the aftermath of the pandemic – there has been an international rise in home education (English, 2021), wherein parents take on the primary responsibility for their children's learning outside traditional school settings. The pandemic acted as a 'contextual facilitator' (Johnson, 2022), prompting many families to choose this unconventional path, as evidenced in various contexts, including Italy (MIUR, 2023). In the Italian context, home education, formally known as 'istruzione parentale', is a legally regulated option for compulsory-age children (aged 6-16). While it remains an underexplored research topic within the national scholarship, it has recently attracted increasing attention among researchers, policymakers, and the broader public (Chinazzi, 2020, 2021; Di Motoli, 2019; Giovanelli & Piromalli, 2021). In our discussion, we will draw on the findings of a recent mixed methods study on home education in Italy. The study employed ethnographic methods, semi-structured interviews, and survey questionnaires, focusing on the emic viewpoints of parents who identify as home-education practitioners. The age range of their home-educated children spanned from 1 to 19 years old, with the 6-11 age group being the most prevalent. The study revealed that the predominant motivations among participants were pedagogical reasons, concerns for children’s socio-emotional well-being, and family-based considerations. A substantial number of participants expressed their desire for their children to learn in a child-centred and low-pressure environment. Specifically, they articulated concerns about schools prioritising content delivery over the cultivation of emotional and social skills, particularly in the aftermath of the pandemic rush to cover the curriculum. Parents emphasised their commitment to actively participate in their children's education, assuming full responsibility for it, in contrast to ‘delegating’ the task to formal institutions. Findings align with other studies that recognise home education as an embodiment of the logic of care (Giovanelli & Piromalli, 2021; Mol, 2008) and an expression of parental responsibility (English, 2021). The rise of home education not only raises questions about the pedagogy of schools in light of shifting societal expectations but also challenges established norms about care and education. It sparks thoughts and provides novel empirical stimuli on the traditional home-school debate, with reference to the negotiation between teachers’ and parents’ roles and responsibility (Epstein, 2001).