Education Commons^™

Instructional Motivations: What Can We Learn From Homeschooling Families?, Jesse Thomas

The Qualitative Report

Some educational theorists have believed that the beneficial aspects of home education will eventually find their way into mainstream educational contexts. The purpose of this paper was to extract the motivations behind homeschooling instructional decisions. This study was built on surveys and interviews from over 1000 homeschooling parents across the United States. Participants were asked about the reason for their instructional routines. Instructional motivations reported included a child’s particular learning style, a parent’s personal preference, a child’s interests, community resources, experience, faith, family reasons, special goals, and special needs. These motivations may also represent those of public school parents, thus …