An Alternative Educational System Based on the Opinions of Educational Stakeholders: Home Schools

Abstract

Schools, which enable children to socialize and adapt with the society, are obliged to undergo changes over time. With this respect, many alternative educational practices have been developed. Home schools, whose applicability has increased recently, are only one of these alternative educational practices. The main purpose of the implementation is to remove the bad habits acquired from schools and to enable cultural transmission. There are no comprehensive studies in Turkey on homeschooling. This study was conducted to determine how homeschooling is perceived and its applicability in Turkey. The study group consists of teachers, school administrators and educational inspectors working in secondary schools. A total of 23 focus group discussions were carried out with the participants and qualitative research method was used. The stakeholders were asked to state their opinions on the question “What do you think homeschooling is?” and then general information was given by the researcher. When the opinions are considered, there are differences among the stakeholders. After general information was given by the researcher, answers for the question “Is homeschooling applicable in Turkey? Why?” was sought. With this respect, the opinions were classified as positive, negative and suggestions for possible