Deschooling and unschooling after experiences of bullying: Five parents tell their stories

In this paper, we examine the reports of parents who are unschooling because of the bullying their children experienced in mainstream Australian schools. Extant home education research that considers bullying tends to see it as part of a suite of negative experiences that lead to home education. These studies rarely take as their starting point the primary role of bullying in the decision to home educate. This paper examines the reports of parents who identify peer bullying as the main reason they home educate. It analyses the narratives of families who reported that not only was bullying at school the primary driver to home school but that unschooling was a means of healing from the school-based trauma due to bullying. Data are drawn from qualitative interviews with six Australian parents who were home educating because of bullying, five of whom self-identified as relaxed homeschoolers/child-led homeschoolers/unschoolers. We note how these approaches were identified as a means of healing from the trauma of bullying which, in several cases, led to serious and severe psychological outcomes. Our study supports the findings of previous research that suggest that a relaxed approach to home education can be an important means of healing after serious school trauma for students.