How do homeschoolers approach creative arts learning and how can they be supported? Developing a flexible framework for homeschool contexts

• Published in: British educational research journal Vol. 48; no. 5; pp. 974 - 995
• Main Author: Burke, Katie M.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London Wiley 01-10-2022; Blackwell Publishing Ltd
• Subjects: Art Education; Arts; authentic arts; Cognitive style; creative arts; Curriculum Development; Education; Families & family life; Family (Sociological Unit); Home education; Home Schooling; homeschooling; Interviews; Learning; quality arts learning; sociocultural theory; Teaching Methods
• ISSN: 0141-1926; 1469-3518
• DOI: 10.1002/berj.3804

Research has identified that creative arts education in homeschooling contexts presents unique challenges. A range of factors contribute to this, including a dearth of home‐education‐specific support. As such, the development of supporting resources that target the unique needs and approaches of homeschooling parents has previously been recommended. This paper reports on part of a larger Design‐Based Research project that consulted with up to 193 homeschooling families with the aim of developing such a support resource, one flexible enough to reflect the diversity of approaches across homeschooling contexts. The phase of the research reported here sought detailed insights into the processes that five families employed when planning and facilitating their childrenʼs arts learning. Through a series of three semi‐structured interviews with each family, observations of arts learning episodes in action and arts artefact analysis, each familyʼs approach to arts learning was mapped and analysed for insights into the processes that families employed when planning and actioning arts learning. The outcome of this phase of the project is a suggested framework to support homeschoolers in facilitating arts learning, aiming to be suitable across a variety of pedagogical approaches.