Homeschooling in Turkey (Focus Group Interviewing Method)

US-China Education Review B 1 (2012) 113-123 D
Earlier title: US-China Education Review, ISSN 1548-6613 DAVID PUBLISHING

Homeschooling in Turkey (Focus Group Interviewing Method)

Elife Doğan Kılıç Özgür Önen

Sinop University, Sinop, Turkey Mehmet Akif Ersoy University, Burdur, Turkey

In literature, homeschooling is described as education given by parents at home. It is an alternative education model
which has begun to be applied in many developed countries. While there is no distinction in these countries on
homeschooling applications, in Turkey, the regulation on homeschooling only covers the handicapped children.
The purpose of this study is to examine the views of teachers who work in primary schools in Burdur and Isparta on
homeschooling and its practicability and also possible effects of homeschooling on Turkish educational system.
The study is done in 2006-2007 education term, among the teachers who work in public primary schools in Burdur
and Isparta. Focus group interview method which is from one of the qualitative approach models is selected to
examine the subject. Topic guide list is prepared according to aims of the study, which consists of introduction,
research subject and discussion and conclusion parts. Teachers were asked four main questions to discuss. Some
probe questions were developed related with these main questions during interviews. Twenty male and female
teachers who work in the first and second steps of the primary schools have participated in study. Ten of the
participants work in the first step of primary schools and called as classroom teachers in Turkish educational system.
The other half of the participants work in the second step of the primary schools that are called as branch teachers
in Turkish educational system. Interviews were done and recorded by researcher. After interviews, records were
analyzed and written documents were prepared. The data gathered from interviews was tried to be explained.
Teachers’ views formed according to their experiences and they tried to examine the… According to interviews,
teachers think that there may be some aspects of homeschooling, “Mothers are already inclined to homeschooling
in Turkey”, “Children may go on their education even when they are ill” and “Children on homeschooling may
develop greater self-confidence”. On the other hand, teachers also think that “It is almost impossible to carry out
homeschooling in Turkey” and “Homeschooling may be a threat for compulsory primary school education”.
Seminars should be arranged for teachers and willing parents. Homeschooling may be applied in some pilot
districts.

Keywords: homeschooling, homeschooling applications, Turkish education system, practicability of homeschooling
in Turkey

Introduction

Homeschooling is named as education without school, easy home school or flexible home school (Turner,
1996). Homeschooling is mainly defined as education given at home in spite of schools. For this reason, it
comes to mean that teaching and learning applications are done at home (Stafford, 1998). Homeschooling is
defined as completing the processes successfully, such as learning, knowing him/herself (capabilities),

Elife Doğan Kılıç, associate professor, Faculty of Education, Sinop University.
Özgür Önen, Ress. Asst., Faculty of Education, Mehmet Akif Ersoy University.

114 HOMESCHOOLING IN TURKEY (FOCUS GROUP INTERVIEWING METHOD)

developing self-confidence, developing independent and critically thinking abilities. According to Broadhurst’s
(1999) definition, parents take an active and conscious part on creating program for their children’s education.
Homeschooling is also defined as formal or informal learning which may be conducted as planned or not
(Education Otherwise, 2007).

The two roots of homeschooling were founded by Moore and Holt (as cited in Lyman, 1998). The main
aim of homeschooling in Moore’s (1990) view is to raise children according to beliefs of Christianity and
accepted by traditional middle class families. On the other hand, Holt’s (1981) views are mainly accepted by
hippies, migrants and multi-national left groups who come together as new age volunteers (Lyman, 1998).

While Moore (as cited in Lyman, 1998) emphasized the need of concentrating on formal education and
socialization issues in his/her studies, Holt (as cited in Lyman, 1998) indicated that not enough interest is given
to children even in best schools. And he considered the schools as the places where unqualified individuals who
accept the authority without questioning were raised.

Moore and Holt (as cited in Lyman, 1998), at the same time, but not by any relation with each other,
decelerated that “If there is no other way of raising children than existent, the homeschooling is the best way”
(Lyman, 1998). As parallel to these, they show the public schools as the basic source of learning, but they
expressed that schools can not meet the expected quality standards.

According to Turner (1996), child in homeschooling learns appropriately for his/her natural wishes.
Homeschooling is a learning method which lets children learn by their way.

Parents indicates the reasons for choosing homeschooling in previous studies as not satisfactory school
education, insufficient education of religious values, interruptions in family relations (Lymann, 1998; Reiche,
2002; Ray, 2000), keeping children away from violence, protection from drug addition and early sexuality
(Medlin, 2000; Taylor 1997; Carper, 2000).

In Bauman’s (2003) study, 30% of parents who chose homeschooling think that normal schools have an
unproductive school environment, 14% of parents against the given education and 11% of the parents think that
their children are not challenged at the school. On the other hand, 33% of the parents expressed the religion
issue and 9% of the parents give reasons related with moral issues.

Researches showed that homeschooling teach children how to be successful, help people without waiting
for any response (Martin, 2007), problem-solving, learning by their selves, behaving ethical, honesty and
developing self-confidence (Hunt, 2000).

According to Brian (2002), children in homeschooling have higher accomplishment points than the those
in normal schools, which is about 15%-30%. Ray (2000) and Rudner (1999) had similar results, too. Rudner
(1999) thought that homeschooling should not be seen as a perfect education method or the only choice, but as
a good education model. Almost one forth of children in homeschooling (24.5) enrolls the one or more high
levels than their normal levels (Rudner, 1999). Since the program privately chosen for individuals and their
needs and interests are set as the basics of their education, students just are busy with learning (Butler, 2000).

Medlin (2000) thought socialization of children in homeschooling has a great importance. But, the
researches show that students in homeschooling are socially, emotionally and psychologically healthy.
However, Medlin (2000) added that children in homeschooling may not show extraordinary academic and
psychological achievement.

In a research, students have given the answers below when they have been asked what they liked with
homeschooling (Broadhurst, 1999):

HOMESCHOOLING IN TURKEY (FOCUS GROUP INTERVIEWING METHOD) 115

(1) We got time to do our own things;
(2) By finishing our lessons early, we got free time;
(3) We learn what we want to learn and how much I want to learn;
(4) We are always with our parents;
(5) We see our mothers more.
These can be seen in children in homeschooling and has strong family relations (Arai, 1999):
(1) Exploring the world in confidence;
(2) Learning by their steps;
(3) Having higher levels of courage;
(4) Always learning how to learn.
Previous studies have shown that there are also some disadvantages of homeschooling. Families have to
live by only one income, and there maybe some discipline problems and a socialization problem may occur
(Medline, 2000).
When we look at the literature, there is neither quantitative nor qualitative study related with
homeschooling in Turkey. But, there are some studies which report the studies done in abroad. As an example
in the book titled Alternative Schools by Aydın (2002), there is a chapter about homeschooling. But again, the
homeschooling applications in abroad are handled in that chapter. For this reason, this study has an importance,
since this is the first study done about homeschooling applications in Turkey.
Related with handicapped children, MEB (Ministry of National Education) has prepared “regulations of
education at home for individuals need special education” (Retrieved from http://orgm.meb.gov.tr/Mevzuat/
yonergeler/ozelegtgerektirenbireylerin_evdeegitimi.htm). MEB define homeschooling as “a kind of education
which bases on completing the education of individuals at the age of compulsory education at home, who can
not directly benefit from schools”. In accordance to this definition, only handicapped individuals may have
homeschooling. European Union defines disadvantaged individuals as people who cannot profit from the state’s
resources. For this reason, families, especially in countryside, do not enroll their daughters to school because of
some reasons, such as religious, social, cultural or economical.
A regulation is developed in order to give education to handicapped individuals at home and some
campaigns were arranged to increase the schooling rate of girl students, such as “let’s go to school girls!”,
“snowdrops blooms!” and “Mommies and daughters at school”. However, legal sanctions are not adequate for
the parents who do not want to send their children to schools because of religious or moral reasons. With the
thought that this study would be useful for the disadvantaged children and the girls in country sides to profit
from homeschooling, this study may be important.
This study aims to examine the views of the teachers on homeschooling, advantages and disadvantages of
homeschooling and the practicability of homeschooling in Turkey.

Method

Research Design
In this part of the study, limitations, participants and sample and the data gathering method were given.

Sample
The follows are the participants of focus group interviews. The universe of the study consists of the

116 HOMESCHOOLING IN TURKEY (FOCUS GROUP INTERVIEWING METHOD)

teachers who work in primary schools in Isparta and Burdur in 2006-2007 education years. Twenty teachers
have participated to interviews. Four equal groups have been created from these 20 teachers. Focus group
interviews may be done by four or 15 participants (Yıldırım & Şimşek, 2005).

In order to create homogenous groups, by considering the step that they teach, and the gender of the
teachers, four groups have been designed, one is from female classroom teachers, one is from male classroom
teacher, another one is from female branch teachers and the last one is from male branch teachers. Since there
is no important difference among teachers according to their social status, life style, expertise and cultural
background, these variables are ignored.

In a compulsory education system in Turkey, primary school teachers have an active role and they teach
many students from different socio-economic and cultural backgrounds in different age groups. For this reason,
primary school teachers have been chosen to study within this research.

Fifty percent of the participant were female (10) and other 50% of the participants were male (10). Twenty
percent of the participants (4) were in 22-23 age group, 70% of the participants (14) were in 24-27 age group
and 10% of the participants (2) were in 29-30 age group. Half of the participants (10) teach students in the first
step, and other half of the participants teach students in the second step of the primary school. Participants from
the second step of primary schools were English, computer, social sciences (history, geography, constitution,
etc.), science, drawing and music teachers. The participants from the first step of primary schools were
classroom teachers (As mentioned before, in Turkey, teachers who teach students of the first step⎯grades one
to five⎯of the primary school, are responsible of teaching nearly all the lessons, at this level teachers do not
have a specialization on a specific field). Participants have been teaching for one to five years.

Procedure
There are some differences between one’s behaviors in a group and alone. While groups are creating their

own normative forms, at the same time, they represent the cultural and moral systems within the group
(Yıldırım & Şimşek, 2005). The main aims of the focus groups is to reveal the feelings of the people on a
specific issue or happens, produce new ideas on the research topic and understand what is important for the
people who have similar characteristic. Interaction, within the participants during the focus group interview,
enriches the responses and creates new ideas. Interviews create more understandable outcomes. If the focus
groups are created by homogenous individuals, more consistent results could be reached (Yıldırım & Şimşek,
2005). In qualitative studies, results can not be generalized to universe, so it is said that choosing people that
may give more information is more important than statistical representation. For this reasons, mentioned above,
focus group interview is preferred instead of individual interviews.

In this study, focus group interviews were done in the office of the researcher in Faculty of Education in
Süleyman Demirel University. Researcher has taken place as moderator and observer in interviews. In
interviews, participants and researcher sat on chairs in circular position to see each other easily. During focus
group interviews, informal discussion method was used.

In focus group interview, there should not be more than three or four sub-questions and one or two hours
allocation is suitable for a group consist of 68 people (Yıldırım & Şimşek, 2005). For this reason, four
questions were given to focus groups: (1) What is homeschooling?; (2) What are the advantages of
homeschooling?; (3) What are the disadvantages of homeschooling?; and (4) Can home schooling be carried
out in Turkey? Also, some probe questions were asked during interviews.

HOMESCHOOLING IN TURKEY (FOCUS GROUP INTERVIEWING METHOD) 117

When the same views repeated and no new finding appeared, it is accepted the saturation point of the
interview (Strauss, 1987). In each focus group interviews, topics were discussed and gathered data were
analyzed. In this process, it was seen that findings of the each interviews repeat the previous interviews. Since
no new finding appeared and reached to saturation point, creating new focus groups was thought to be
unnecessary.

Data Analyses
While gathering data, a topic guide list which is prepared before interviews was used. The interviews were

recorded. Teachers’ reactions were also written down by researcher during interviews. Guide list consists of
introduction, discussion, conclusion of interview and evaluation of the data parts.

Introduction. In this part, the study about homeschooling and the aims of the focus groups were
explained. Researcher and participants were introduced. Teachers were giving the guarantee of keeping their
personal information secure and researcher explained that interviews would be recorded. By getting the
teacher’s oral permissions, second part was started.

Discussion part. In this part, the titles, homeschooling, advantages and disadvantages of homeschooling
and practicability of homeschooling in Turkey were handled. Some open-ended questions prepared before were
asked in this section.

Conclusion part. Teachers were asked if they had any other additional thoughts about any topic or
something else they wanted to add in this part. After all, the interviews were ended. Participants were given
enough time to express their views, interviews were nearly taken an hour.

Evaluation of the data. In this section, all the tape records were written down and paired with the notes of
the researcher, and they were grouped. Findings which were grouped before were given by using modifiers as
“Most of …”, “All of …” and “One of …” (Gömbül & Buldukoğlu, 1997).

Findings and Results

Participants, before all, emphasized the “role of school and government in education”. When their views
asked on homeschooling, school’s and government’s negative attributions were stressed. These negative
thought are “parents distrustfulness, problems lived in school and family co-operation, obstinate and one type
education (not serving all backgrounds), not considering of individual differences, negative effects of crowded
school environment on children psychology, normative school management, insufficient education
applications”. In addition to the negative statements above, some groups, on contrast to these, think that
socio-cultural differences and economic and ethnical differences were disappeared and equality among students
got higher. After indicating successful and unsuccessful sides of government and education system, one of the
female teachers teaching in first step of primary school defined homeschooling as,

According to me, homeschooling is an approach that suggests education to be given in home under parents’ oversight
and supervision. In homeschooling, parents are also responsible of giving education. In homeschooling, teachers’ tasks and
responsibilities are undertaken by parents.

In this approach, parents decide “How and when the reinforcements would be used, using the suitable
teaching methods and techniques, discipline strategies”.

A male teacher from the second step of primary school thinks that “Homeschooling is an approach that
presents more qualified education opportunity to parents who are not satisfied with current formal education”.

118 HOMESCHOOLING IN TURKEY (FOCUS GROUP INTERVIEWING METHOD)

A few teachers participated to focus group interview defined homeschooling as “parent education” or
“education that parents give to their children at home”. In addition to this view, when teachers asked that “What
kind of necessities or qualifications should parents have?”, they responded as, “Families should have upper
socio-cultural and economic level, responsible from homeschooling should not be working, and have enough
education, at least, high school education for first step of primary school education”.

In countries, where homeschooling is carried out, parents should have a bachelor’s degree taken from an
accredited university and hire a teacher who has got qualifications defined by educational boards, children have
to participate in courses given by educational boards which help them to give equal education (Retrieved from
http://www.nhen. org/leginfo/detail.asp?StateCode=Virginia, 2005).

Most of the participants professionally defined the homeschooling. A few of the teacher, on the other hand,
tried to give a definition according to their previous knowledge. It is understand from the interviews that most
of the teachers have not got enough knowledge about homeschooling and do not know the regulations in
Turkey.

Participants were all agreed that there would be no physical, emotional and economic violence in
homeschooling. An interesting response was taken when teachers asked, “What do you think on compulsory
education?”, they first indicated that primary education in Turkey is compulsory and free of charge, and also a
constitutional right for all citizens. But, in contrast to these, they added that especially in primary schools, there
are some kinds of facilities to collect money from students, as contribution. They indicated that these kinds of
facilities are against to constitutional laws, but because of deficiency of government in education, government
collect contributions in compulsory manner by violating constitutional rights. They think public schools lose
their attractiveness because of this reason.

One of the male classroom teachers said,

School management wants us to collect contributions (as money) from students. Students who are not able to afford
contributions or whose parents do not want to give contributions find themselves under emotional and economic pressure.
Because of this reason, some students break school and they even want to leave school. In brief, students are under
emotional pressure.

On the other hand, another classroom teacher approves the applications that, “Government cannot afford
all educational needs, we have to collect money, otherwise, we cannot provide suitable educational
environment”.

According to Constitution of Republic of Turkey, primary school education is compulsory and free of
charge in public schools. Collecting money as contributions to afford some basic needs (electric, water,
telephone bills, etc.) shows that government failed at supplying educational needs. So, this decreases the quality
of schools and education.

When the participants were asked “Who should take the responsibility at homeschooling? And why?”, a
great amount of participants indicated that women are on a level that they can undertake the homeschooling
responsibilities. They mentioned that profession of teaching is, in general, perceived as a females’ professional.
Because of females’ patient manner when compared to male, caring and preventing feelings which are
considered as instinct feelings, they think that women are more adequate to get responsibilities of
homeschooling.

A female branch teacher has been teaching for two years and a male classroom teacher has been teaching

HOMESCHOOLING IN TURKEY (FOCUS GROUP INTERVIEWING METHOD) 119

for five years say that,

Males are aptitude to technical tasks. Females are gentle and delicate in both physical and psychological ways;
females are more successful than males on house works and child care. This gets it is basics from both females physical
build and their being brought up style. For this reason, mothers are seen as the most appropriate choice for families that
wants to give homeschooling education.

Advantages of giving education by mothers affect the children psychology in a positive way. Children
would have chance of getting more time with mother and learn self-confidence (Arai, 1999).

Students may complete their own needs, had more free time after finishing their lessons, learn as much as
they want to learn and what they want to learn, always be together with their mothers, and study, according to
their levels or above their levels. Interaction between parents and children may get stronger.

In homeschooling, students not only know what they would learn but also how they learn best. Assertors
of homeschooling indicate that children became aware of personal ethic questions and attributions, such as
delicateness, trust self-confidence and ability of work in groups, and finding creative and practical solutions to
problems can be improved by homeschooling. It is seen from researches that inadequate time allocation of
parents to their children is one of the reasons that obstruct school and parent interaction. Students spend more
time with their parents in homeschooling, and by this way, problems disappear. Teachers think that parents may
give all their attentions to their children.

A female branch teacher says that,

Advantages of homeschooling, making people conscious, improving the feeling of responsibility, happy and peaceful
home atmosphere is created, supply solidarity at home, problems are overcame easily, and helps handicapped people to get
education, homeschooling may be a solution especially for the girls who are not sent to schools because of religious, moral
and economic reason. But, how can we widespread the compulsory education?

Then, another female teacher support her colleague that, “It is necessary to prepare a legal regulations for
female students, for this reason, Monastery of Education should make homeschooling applications compulsory
in the places where girls are not sent to schools”.

Teachers think that homeschooling may be a solution for handicapped students and for the girls in
countryside. But, they emphasized that it should be included in compulsory education.

Students can carry all their materials (such as books) to everywhere at home and study at almost
everywhere. Meteorological conditions would not be important factors for health and security problems.
Students in homeschooling may improve their social self-confidence by going on a flexible program prepared
according to his/her characteristics and academic needs.

According to a male classroom teacher, “Homeschooling can support students’ self-confidence; students
could be allowed to achieve simple things. After experiencing the achievement, they learn to trust themselves”.

A female teacher states some of the advantages of homeschooling as,

When a problem occurs in students learning at homeschooling, parents may behave as if there is no problem. They
prevent their children living the feeling of guilty, failure and disappointment. On contrast, at schools, when a student
coming face to face with failure maybe looked down by his/her peers even could be excluded of others. Homeschooling
make these possibilities disappear.

Nearly, all participants state that,

In formal education, when student is ill and does not want to go to school and in the cases that parents work, there could

120 HOMESCHOOLING IN TURKEY (FOCUS GROUP INTERVIEWING METHOD)

be a problem that where student will stay and who take care of him/her. But, at homeschooling, student may go on education,
in homeschooling parents decide when, where and how students learn, so there will not be a school breaking problem.

Student could be grown as an independent individual, since there would not be forcing rules, narrow
patterns and obstinate approaches. In homeschooling, children have willingness to learn, and there is no
inequality which is created in school environment, and there is no obstruction for children to express
themselves freely, families can control their children at all times and prevent their children from the
environmental negative conditions (dope rings, usurpers, etc.).

A male branch teacher says that, “Being a student in Turkey is very difficult, it is something like a being a
machine”. All the students are expected to be same. Their interests are ignored and as if one type of people is
want to be grown.

However, in legal regulations, it is told that students would be directed according to their interests and
abilities. Unfortunately, students are not directed as mentioned in legal regulations, because of crowded
classrooms. All the students go on the same program. So, people are grown appropriate a prototype. The
most important disadvantages of homeschooling are the thought that students can not be socialized in
homeschooling.

When participants were asked that “Can homeschooling put into action in Turkey?”, three branch teachers
said that,

Legal regulations only cover the students need special education, there is no legal regulation that puts in order the
facilities. Homeschooling may cause a problem and students may be grown against the basics of state. So, this may create
a new threat factor for country.

From the same group, a female teacher supports the views of her colleagues,

In eighth grade of primary school education, students have citizenship and human rights lesson which is largely
depends on theoretical knowledge. Students who go on general schools learn how to be good citizens, although it is not an
applied lesson.

In another group, a male teacher against their colleagues that,

Homeschooling may be a salvation for the girls who are not send to schools because of their parents’ religious and
moral values. It is worth to think about. There is nothing to be afraid. In any case, the ministry will prepare the program, so
students will be grown according to values of the constitution.

Most of the teachers think that,

Students can only learn and acquire social rules at school. School activities are systematic and effective. Only the school
can grow citizens according to states politics. But, at homeschooling, different understanding of citizenship may occur.

According to views of teachers, homeschooling may cause growing people against the basics of Turkish
Republic, there may be individuals grown according to families’ understanding of citizenship. So, there is risk
of creating generations that do not follow the principles of Turkish Constitution and general aims of Turkish
National Educational System.

Growing citizens, who can understand his/her culture and others’ culture, appreciate the human rights and
responsibilities, comprehend the world completely, are truly aware of local and global problems and alternative
solutions to these problems and determine that his/her and countries role in the development of international
cooperation should be aimed (Ulusavaş, 2000).

HOMESCHOOLING IN TURKEY (FOCUS GROUP INTERVIEWING METHOD) 121

When considered that there are people from different ethnic origins, it is possible that families want to
grow their children according to their own values. For this reason, National Education System of Turkey aims
to grow citizens according to their personal needs and abilities but congenial to global educational principals.
There is a need for education makes people familiar to them selves and to world.

When participants asked that “Whether Turkish families prefer homeschooling or not”, they replied that
“families that have a higher educational level may prefer it”. When they are asked that “if there is a possibility
of practicability”, they replied “homeschooling may damage the compulsory education, so it is difficult to
practice homeschooling in Turkey”.

In families choosing homeschooling, there is a problem of losing some of income since one of the parents
would not be working. This creates the insufficient income problem. However, one of the parents should
dedicate him/herself to homeschooling tasks.

Conclusions and Recommendations

The purpose of this study is to understand the views of teachers who works in primary schools in Turkey
on homeschooling and practicability of homeschooling in Turkey. Focus group interviews were conducted with
four groups consists of five teachers in this study. A guide was prepared for focus groups interviews. It consists
of four parts: introduction, research topic, discussion, conclusion of the interviews and evaluation of the data.
Four main questions were asked to teachers. The finding were handled under four headings: definition of
homeschooling, advantages of homeschooling, disadvantages of homeschooling and practicability of
homeschooling.

According to four interviews, teachers define homeschooling as,

an approach that suggest doing educational activities at home under the authority of parents, an approach in which
parents decides where and when the rewards and punishments would be given, an approach that parents think ongoing
educational facilities are inadequate and even wrong present better educational opportunities to their children.

Stafford (1998) defined homeschooling as the participants of this defined “education given at home”.
Broadhurst (1999) described homeschooling as organization of the educational programs actively and
consciously for the children by parents. Researchers and participants of this study define homeschooling in a
parallel way.

Females can physically and psychologically get the responsibility of homeschooling, which may help to
overcome the problems, such as illness and security of children and may increase the self-confidence in
children, and independent individuals may be grown according to findings of the interviews.

It is understood that the thought “Mothers are inclined to homeschooling” is a parallel to female gender
role that is expected in Turkish culture and some other cultures. Being closer with family members, especially
with mother, has a positive effect on children’s development (Broadhurst, 1999). According to Ray (2000),
families who favor homeschooling want their children have a good understanding of life, be over the
limitations of the systems and organizations and explore the family culture.

Another finding of the study is that “Parents decide when, what, how and where the students learn”. When
we look at the literature, it is seen that children in homeschooling know what to learn and also how to learn best
(Hunt, 2000; Martin, 2007; Brian, 2002). According to the findings, “in homeschooling academic needs of the
students must be met and a flexible program should be developed according to their personal characteristics”.

122 HOMESCHOOLING IN TURKEY (FOCUS GROUP INTERVIEWING METHOD)

Butler (2000) supported this finding in his study and thought that if the program chosen for privately for each
students and gets its’ basics according to students needs and interests, then students may get busy with learning.
Brian (2002) also supported the flexible program in homeschooling and said that children in homeschooling
benefit from the advantages of flexible program designed according to his/her needs, internships, apprenticeships,
volunteered services, trade schools and some colleges may have an effect on developing social self-confidence
of children in homeschooling.

Accepting to live by only one salary is the most important disadvantages of homeschooling. On the other
hand, it is understand from the interviews that homeschooling may cause a crack on compulsory education and
by these kinds of applications, people may be grown against the main politics of state. Compulsory education
make students acquire the basic qualifications which are very important to overcome personal and social
problems and for personal development of individuals and social productivity (Başaran, 1984).

“Compulsory education should be gratuitously presented to all citizens of the country by governments”
(Adem, 1997). When we look at the literature, we see that families in United Kingdom are primarily
responsible for the education of their children. The families responsibilities are defined clearly in seventh
article of the educational law dated in 1996, as families should send their children to schools regularly
according to: (1) his/her age, needs and abilities; and (2) by considering if they need special education
(Education Otherwise, 2007). On the other hand in Germany, education is government’s responsibility.
Although homeschooling is allowed in some states, there is no legal regulation which clearly gives permission
to homeschooling (Retrieved from http:// www.hslda.org/hs/international/germany/defaultold.asp, 2005).

Educational facilities are done under the authority and the supervision of government in Turkey.
According to 42th Article of the Constitution of Turkish Republic, primary school education is compulsory for
all male and female citizens and free of charge in public schools. Educational system should realize this
tendency. In sixth Article of Fundamental Law of National Education, numbered 1739, citizens are oriented to
programs or schools, according to their interests, abilities and capabilities during their education.

S. Kaseman and L. Kaseman (2004) determined that people have an influence in society considering the
homeschooling as a threat factor. Indeed, homeschooling would cause to grow people who are different than
usual and think independently which may cause creativity and enrich cultural and social development.

Homeschooling is considered as a radical change that parents teach literacy. It is seen that number of
families who prefer homeschooling will go on increasing, till they consider the extant schooling system
apathetic and a limitation to their children’s learning abilities. In this scope, a new understanding of citizenship
has been developing. However, this new understanding is seen as a threat by some people, researchers, like
Arai (1999), who thought that this understanding of citizenship enriches the diversity in society.

In Turkey, there is a legal regulation for handicapped/obstructed children. However, homeschooling for
disadvantaged groups is not seen possible because of the absence of legal regulations. In Constitution of
Turkish Republic, it is seen that compulsory gratuitous primary school education to citizens is one of the
fundamental responsibility of government.

Seminars should be arranged for teachers and willing parents. Homeschooling may be applied in some pilot
districts. After eliminating the problems in application processes, it should be spread on whole country. Ministry
of National Education prepares regulations of education at home for disadvantaged children and the girls in
country side. Researchers may study the topic by including the parents and students in an advanced research.

HOMESCHOOLING IN TURKEY (FOCUS GROUP INTERVIEWING METHOD) 123

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