Home education in Quebec : family first

Abstract

In Canada, until now, no studies have focused on the practice of home education in the francophone province of Quebec. While the home-educating population in that province is tangible, it has remained largely unknown. Quebec’s distinctive character on three fronts political, historical and cultural make the application of results from the rare Canadian studies or data from the US home-educating population seem inappropriate. This research, conducted by questionnaire in 2003, documented the sociodemographic characteristics of Quebec’s home-educating families and their motivations for home education. Beginning with a portrait of Quebec’s particular context, this article presents the motivations underlying the choice of home education expressed by 203 Quebec families. The reasons why these families have chosen to homeschool are many and diverse; parents’ rationales for their choices are wide-ranging and multidimensional. One particularity of the results is that no religious, philosophical or anti-state viewpoint seems to dominate the combined discourse. Seven motivational factors for home education were identified. Collectively, the respondents express the following as their main motivations for home educating their children: a desire to pursue a family educational project; an objection to the organisational structure of the school system; a desire to offer curriculum enrichment; and finally, a preoccupation with their children’s socioaffective development.