Home schooling as a challenge to school theory

Abstract

The article describes the concept and implementation of a seminar on “Home schooling as a challenge to school theory”. The aim of the seminar is – in addition to an introduction to classical school theories – to initiate a fundamental reflection on the meaning and legitimacy of the public (compulsory) school and to support the participating students in developing a professional self-conception as future teachers. Confrontation with the phenomenon of home schooling is intended to produce a measure of “disorientation”. In this manner, the participants of the seminar are compelled to deal with viewpoints that challenge the meaningfulness of school and compulsory schooling on a fundamental level. The agenda for the main section of this seminar follows in a straightforward manner from this approach (Phase 1: history, theory and practice of home schooling; Phase 2: “answers” to the resulting challenge to the principle of schooling). The article describes this agenda in some detail and then outlines the concluding section of the seminar (Phase 3), which is meant to bring the participants’ thinking full-circle: a cooperative writing task on the subject of “home schooling and compulsory schooling” in the form of a fictional exchange of letters.