Parental rights and state concerns: the policy problematisation of home education

This paper examines the contestations surrounding the rights and responsibilities of the state and parents to educate children. Focusing our analysis on home education, we suggest that these disputes represent the convergence of–at times agonistic–parental and state politics of care and concern surrounding education and children. To advance our argument, we analyse how the problem of ‘home education’ is represented in two policy reports across two different states in Australia–New South Wales and Queensland. Conceptually approaching these reports as performative acts of state ‘care and concern’, our analysis demonstrates how the policy problem of home education is constructed around three tensions: 1) parental vs state claims to educating children; 2) the knowable and unknowable home educator; and 3) distinct claims to expertise and knowledge. We argue that ultimately these reports understand the problem of home education to be one of state authority and reach, with home education represented to be falling too far from the realm of state oversight whilst at the same time a legitimate claim of parental authority.