Does Homeschooling Fit Students With School Attendance Problems? Exploring Teachers’ Experiences During COVID-19

Abstract

Attending school on a regular basis and to complete school is usually seen as a precondition for academic, emotional, and social learning and development. However, some students struggle with school attendance problems (SAPs) caused by a myriad of reasons. Homeschooling is a topic of concern in long-term or problematic SAPs cases. Some scholars claim that school absenteeism might increase and be maintained during homeschooling, while others argue that homeschooling may reduce student’s anxiety associated with school attendance. Anyway, homeschooling is often an intervention for academic learning and/or as a part of gradual reintegration to school for SAP students. Moreover, homeschooling/home education/home tuition is not a new phenomenon and is an intervention for students with long-term sickness. When schools in many countries closed from the middle of March 2020 caused by the Covid-19-pandemic, all students were given homeschooling. This gave us the opportunity to investigate homeschooling more closely in a large sample. In the current study, teachers’ thoughts, and experiences of homeschooling for students with SAPs prior to the pandemic, are investigated. The main aim was to gain more insight and knowledge about homeschooling: does it work for SAP students? Practical implications of homeschooling for SAP students are discussed.

Remote Education/Homeschooling During the COVID-19 Pandemic, School Attendance Problems, and School Return–Teachers’ Experiences and Reflections

“…In this way, homeschooling might be a good intervention to fill academic gaps and reduce students' anxiety caused by school situations, which might make school return easier. However, findings from a recent study indicate that some students do not do schoolwork during emergency remote education, and 20% do not participate at all (Havik and Ingul, 2021a). This indicates that school at home during the pandemic may not fill academic gaps for all SAP students.…”

“…These students fall behind academically, which potentially increases their anxiety about school return. School at home is therefore not a good solution for all SAP students (Havik and Ingul, 2021a).…”

“…Moreover, parental support and involvement, positive school-parent relationships, and good communication are essential for good interventions for attendance problems (Havik et al, 2014;Kearney and Graczyk, 2014;Finning et al, 2018). From teachers' perspectives cooperation between school and home is more important during remote education than regular schooling because structure and help at home vary greatly and is important for how students handle to do schoolwork at home (Havik and Ingul, 2021a).…”

“…Thus, we cannot claim that the sample is random, or generalize and draw conclusions for all teachers in Norway. For more information about the sample, see Havik and Ingul (2021a).…”

“…The findings from a study of parents of children with school refusal indicate that students need structures and routines during a school day for them to feel that the environment is safe and predictable (Havik et al, 2014). Teachers found that some parents were not able to structure their child's schooldays at home; teachers might have a greater possibility to do this at school (Havik and Ingul, 2021a). However, this requires the teachers to have time to do so.…”