The homeschoolers inclusion in Higher Education. Szekler case study

Abstract

Abstract   The purpose of this paper is to study the higher education inclusion experiences of Szekler homeschooled youngsters. The main research question was how the homeschooled youngsters are entering the higher education institution, whether they have free access to all of them or just to some, how they are fitting in, socializing and performing during their studies. The small-scale thematic interview based non-representative quantitative research reached 7 homeschooling families raising 25 children, 13 persons, parents and youngsters with snowball sampling. Our main finding is that against all the inclusion concerns enlisted in the literature and in commons sense it seems that the Szekler homeschooled inclusion in higher education is in most of the cases same as their mates. They are facing same challenges and dealing with those similarly, in some cases even better, then their peers. It could be that this is due of the advantages of homeschooling, like self-awareness, self-reliance, independent learning skills, project work-, and foreign language skills, voluntary- and other practical life experiences. Our research results could contribute to deconstruct some stereotypes on homeschooling.   Key words: homeschooling, inclusion in higher education, Szeklerland, case study.