Strong Democracy and Home Education

Authors

• Joanna Hartman Turun yliopisto
• Rauno Huttunen Turun yliopisto

DOI: https://doi.org/10.33350/ka.107241

Keywords:

strong democracy, home education, homeschooling, democracy education, citizenship education

Abstract

One of the main goals of basic education is to ensure that children and adolescents grow up to be actively participating citizens, who learn to act according to the values and norms of a democratic society. However, not all children take part in basic school education organized by the municipality. Instead, they are homeschooled and fulfill their responsibility of compulsory education at home. The critique of home education focuses especially on the development of social skills, which are considered essential for active participation and human agency in a democratic society. Strong democracy allows new ways of thinking and practicing democracy, but strong democracy is not taught in schools. In this article, we clarify the concept and practices of home education in Finland and discuss the criticism of homeschooling. Furthermore, we discuss whether home education poses a threat to democracy, as criticized, or whether it can be seen as an activity that promotes democracy. Although school will remain the most important context for democracy education, homeschooling will serve as a smaller, but no less important, context for democracy education.