Education without Schools

Helen E. Lees is Associate Research Fellow, Faculty of Education and Theology, York St John University. She has worked as a teacher in a local authority education-outside-of-school unit and a wide variety of mainstream and alternative educational settings, from schools to prisons and hospitals. She is founding Editor-in-Chief of Other Education, the online journal of educational alternatives.

"This important and thought-provoking book makes a sustained case for an alternative to the 'educationalist paradigm'...Above all, this is a hopeful book and one I would thoroughly recommend to anyone who understands (or could be persuaded to understand) education as, 'a plurality of possibilities'." Other Education "Thoughtful and interesting to read...Lees has gone further than most other writers on home education in her efforts to theorize the movement such that it becomes a coherent and viable option for 21st century families." International Centre for Home Education Research "This study is a valuable and welcome contribution in an area of education which has so far received little attention from researchers in the UK." Family Education Trust Bulletin "Home schooling is under-researched and often misunderstood. Helen Lees' excellent Education without schools goes a long way to remedying this. It combines insightful empirical work with rigorous conceptual analysis. It makes a major contribution to defining the field." Professor Michael J Reiss, Institute of Education, University of London.

• Setting the scene;Against educationism;Why is elective home education important?;The theory of the gateless gate of home education;Moments of discovery;Against discovery of education without schools;School exit and home education;Understanding discovery differences;Concluding remarks.