Français | English

Revue française de pédagogie, n°205/2018

Instruction(s) en famille. Explorations sociologiques d'un phénomène émergent


Revue française de pédagogie - Recherches en éducation



Home education(s) in France: sociological explorations of an emerging phenomenon

Since its introduction in France by the Ferry Act of March 28, 1882, compulsory education may be provided at home, rather than in public or private schools. However, this option has been used very rarely (in 2016, it represented about 0.36 percent of children subject to compulsory education), and the families involved have only rarely attracted the interest of researchers. The studies compiled in this issue of the Revue française de pédagogie provide guidelines for addressing this little-known phenomenon, which, given its statistical evolution and the example of other Western countries, is likely to develop further. Regarding the French case, these articles examine, in particular, how compulsory education given outside schools is named, quantified and regulated by public authorities. They also study how a specific profile of parents engage in these practices by developing a "non-sco" [home educator] identity. The international academic literature on home education is more developed for non-French fields, and normative issues play a major role. The study illustrates this by proposing an article that examines the regulation of home education in the case of Haredi communities in Montreal, from an applied ethics perspective.