Acknowledgements

We acknowledge the Turrbal and Yugara people as the First Nations owners of the lands where this book was written. We pay respect to their Elders, lores, customs and creation spirits. We recognise that these lands have always been places of teaching, of research and of learning. We acknowledge the important role Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people play within the Australian homeschooling community.

This book began as an observation, “Why are there so many teachers turning up at our homeschool groups? In Facebook groups? In homeschooling spaces?” We were particularly attuned to it as teachers ourselves living, working and home educating in Australia. What is going on in their world where teachers are pulling themselves and their children from the traditional mainstream system and choosing homeschooling as a viable option? Are these people early warning indicators of something deeper happening within the education system? In this book, we examine the reasons teachers choose homeschooling for their own children, and we also reflect on our own experiences. We consider how our own experiences of school refusal, of trauma in school, and school distress reflect and mirror the experiences of many Australian families. Our data suggests our experiences were not unique.

We acknowledge and thank the participants who gave up their time to tell us their stories. We also thank the faculty of Creative Industries, Education and Social Justice (CIESJ) at Queensland University of Technology (QUT) and the Community of Australian Deans of Research in Education (cADRE) for providing us with some funding and for taking a chance on a story that challenges normative schooling and asks readers to think more deeply about the role of schooling in educating the community in the twenty-first century. We also acknowledge our families who support us in this homeschooling journey and the writing process. Finally, a cuddly thank you to our pets, the miniature dachshund Peggy Peaches and schnauzer Florian, who keep us, and our children, sane.

This book reveals the fissures at the heart of modern schooling. The wheels are falling off the bus, but nobody seems to want to admit that because of the role of schools in providing a basic education, and some childcare, for young people in a community who need both parents to work to try to keep afloat in a cost-of-living crisis. These families’ choices challenge dominant narratives about schooling, and their stories are even more powerful because they are teachers.

Rebecca English is a Senior Lecturer in Education at the Queensland University of Technology, Australia.

Gemma Troughton is a sessional Lecturer in Education at Queensland University of Technology, Australia.