Home-schooling during the lockdown in England

Abstract

Since the start of the pandemic, schools around the world have closed their doors to children to prevent the spread of the Coronavirus. This meant that many parents were forced to start home schooling their children which requiring significant efforts, knowledge, and the right equipment. Home schooling, or ‘Elective Home Education’, requires parents to ensure that their child receives efficient full-time education appropriate to his-her age and ability (Department for Education, 2019). Home schooling has become the new ‘norm’ during the first and third lockdowns in England. This paper reports on relevant policy analysis, empirical research/literature review and findings from semi-structured interviews with parents who home schooled their primary school aged children. Findings indicate that the habitus of familial environment and the social position of field are significant determinants of education outcomes, in which the cultural and material deprivation have played a part. This paper highlights that home schooling has brought inequalities in educational experience into sharp focus and has shown the importance of embodied preferences and cultural goods in the drive to improve outcomes across the country. Had cultural approaches not been so different, the experiences of children from the North and the South, and from richer and poorer families, would not have been so different. Findings also shows how financial privilege does not provide an escape from stress and how parents’ well-being, regardless of their economic background, has been affected by home- schooling.