Abstract:

The paper presents selected research results which deal with home schooling in the Czech Republic. The research survey was held at the Faculty of Education, University of Hradec Králové and its goals was to map attitudes and family motives which lead to home schooling via written responses and semi-structured interviews. In the first part of the paper there are theoretical basis of the issues which are anchored in current legislation and the topic in the second part of the paper is interpreted by the parents’ perspective of their children in home schooling system.

There were eleven parents who participated in the research survey, who had been given a questionnaire made of mainly identification items and then a semi-structured interview was held with them. The interviews were recorded on a voice recorder and were analysed by an open coding. From the following segmentation there were three main categories created. The first category is represented by parents: their value orientation, relationships towards a child and motivation to implementation of home schooling. The second category is about parents´ perspective at education: learning and responsibility. The third category deals with a way the home schooling is provided. Even though the surveyed families are different, they agree with the respecting style of upbringing, they profess the principle of freedom/liberty and lead their children towards responsibility for their decision making. Home schooling has in most monitored families so called a look of a “life with children,“ where teaching takes place anywhere, which is not limited by any fixed schedule, offers flexibility in teaching layout, in the size of pupils’ groups, in communication and is placed into a natural family environment, where there is supporting and positive climate without stress.

There are not many supporters of this issue in the Czech Republic, both on professional level a public view, however the research survey showed that home schooling presents very essential source of information mainly for the process of learning itself.

Keywords:

Home schooling, unschooling, liberate/free school, learning, responsibility.