This collection brings together the research of an eclectic mix of leading names in home-based education studies worldwide. It uses home education to explore contemporary education outside of school and place it into a global, political and critical context, and will be essential reading for home educators, academics and policymakers alike.

PART I: HOME-EDUCATION: THE LEARNING PROCESS 1. Home Educating Parents: Martyrs Or Pathmakers?; Leslie Safran Barson 2. Reflections On Australian Home Education Research And Vygotskian Learning Theory; Glenda Jackson 3. Parental and Children's Views on Mathematical Learning within the Home-Environment; Noraisha Yusof 4. The Informal Acquisition And Development Of Literacy; Alan Thomas and Harriet Pattison 5. How are New Technologies impacting Elective Home Learners?; Andew McAvoy PART II: HOME-EDUCATION: TENSIONS AND CRITICISMS 6. Home Education And Social Integration; Christian Beck 7. A Case Of Mistaken Identity: Perspectives of Home Educators and State Officials in England, Wales, and Florida, USA; Samantha Eddis 8. Validity of High Stakes Standardized Test Requirements for Homeschoolers: A Psychometric Analysis; Nicky Hardenbergh 9. Does Home Education 'Work'? Challenging the Assumptions behind the Home Education Movement; Christopher Lubienski and Jameson Brewer PART III: POLITICAL CONFLICT 10. Home Education Versus Compulsory Schooling In Germany; Thomas Spiegler 11. Home Education: a Human Right?; Daniel Monk 12. Home Education and the European Convention on Human Rights; Joke Sperling 13. Home Education: 'A Desperately Dangerous Notion'; Paula Rothermel PART IV: HOME-EDUCATION: LIFESTYLE AND CHOICE 14. Home Schooling: the Choice and the Consequences; Ari Neuman and Professor Aharon Aviram 15. Reflections and Comparative Assessments on Home Education in Three Colombian Families; Erwin García López PART V: HOME-EDUCATION: MODELS: WAR, POVERTY AND NECESSITY 16. Home-Based Schools: Increasing the Access of Education to Afghan Girls and Women; Ulrike Hanemann 17. What can Children Teach Themselves?: Lessons from a Hole in the Wall in India; Sugata Mitra 18. Black Homeschoolers: Nowhere left to go; Cheryl Fields-Smith 19. Education as God Wants it; Michael Apple PART VI: HOME-EDUCATION: CULTURAL AND INTERCULTURAL RELATIONS 20. Carnival of Blogs: An Example of Facilitating Intercultural Relations in Hispanic Home Education; Madalen Goiria 21. Homeschooling and the Intercultural World in Which I Live; Carlo Ricci