Browsing by Subject "valinta"

Homeschooling in Finland is a rare phenomenon, though it has been steadily increasing in the past years. Extensive research about homeschooling has been conducted internationally, whereas this field of study has not been researched widely in Finland. The reasons for parents to choose homeschooling is one of the most explored topics within the field and information on their motives can be found in many countries where homeschooling has been researched. The purpose of this thesis is to examine motives for Finnish families to choose homeschooling and about their experiences and opinions about its strengths and weaknesses. The aim is to discover what kinds of knowledge and skills homeschooling offers and what kinds of gaps it may leave. This study was carried out as a qualitative case study. The material was collected by interviewing three former homeschooling students and their parents. The interview method was semi-structured thematic interview. The interviews lasted 52 minutes on average and they were recorded and transcribed for more thorough analysis. The material was analyzed by using content analysis. The study shows that Finland has similar reasons for choosing to homeschool as the rest of the world. In this study, the primary reasons that emerged were to provide children with the appropriate worldview, the desire of parents to keep children near and hold the family together, and the gifted child's dissatisfaction with schooling together with social and school-related problems. School criticism or academic reasons were not emphasized, which suggests that the Finnish school system is valued. The study brings up a variety of strengths and weaknesses of homeschooling. However, they are not unequivocal. Homeschooling also varies between families and even within the same family. This research can be considered an overview of the topic, but the generalization of the results should be done with caution given the small sample size. Further studies on homeschooling in Finland, parents' motives to choose homeschooling, and the experiences of homeschooling families should be conducted in order to ensure a fuller picture of the phenomenon.