Children as meaning-makers: Home-educated children’s photo-narratives of learning, belonging and participation
Background: Home education is often discussed in terms of adult concerns about provision, suitability, and oversight, yet children’s own accounts remain limited in research and policy. This study responds to that gap by exploring how home-educated children understand, represent, and experience learning in their daily lives.
Aim: The study aimed to understand home-educated children’s lived experiences of learning from their own perspectives, and to consider how their accounts might extend existing understandings of learning beyond school, particularly in relation to autonomy, competence, belonging, and participation.
Method/approach: Twelve home-educated children aged 5–12 from six families in South-East England created photo-journals of their learning over three weeks, followed by narrative interviews. Parent interviews provided context, but analysis centred children’s accounts. Ethical approval was granted by St Mary’s University Ethics Committee.
Results/findings: Children represented learning broadly, including academic work, play, creative activity, family life, community participation, clubs, educational visits, experimentation, and independent research. Learning was often described as becoming more able, confident, and prepared to participate in family, community, and future life.
Conclusion: The study shows that children’s accounts can make visible forms of learning that may otherwise be hidden or undervalued. It argues that visual narrative methods can support children’s voice by allowing children to define and represent learning in ways that matter to them.
Implications for children and families: Your everyday learning, interests, questions, and activities matter, and children’s own views can help adults understand learning beyond school more clearly.
Implications for practitioners: You can support children’s voice by using flexible, visual, and narrative methods that allow children to show what learning means in their own lives.
Keywords: children’s voice, home education, visual narrative inquiry, photo-journals, children’s learning
This presentation relates to the following United Nations Sustainable Development Goals: