Parallel Session Proceedings »
4.4.4 Cancelled
Research suggests that the number of children being home-schooled in Australia almost doubled between 2011 and 2017. Statistics generally only include children who are registered with their state education department while numerous others ‘fly under the radar’. Anecdotal evidence suggests a disproportionate number of gifted children in Australia are home educated. Therefore, the present study sought to establish if a statistically significant number of gifted Australian children are currently being home-schooled in comparison to their non-gifted peers. A questionnaire was developed and distributed via various state home-schooling organisations and social media groups. It was completed anonymously by home-schooling families across all Australian states, with responses collected from 385 parents/guardians for a total of 676 children. Participants were also offered the opportunity to participate in a follow-up face-to-face interview if they wished to do so. This presentation will provide an overview of the data collected, specifically the number of families that withdrew their gifted child(ren) from mainstream education and/or listed giftedness as a contributing factor in their decision to home-school their child(ren); and will reference information provided in relation to both intellectual potential and academic achievement. We will also discuss data in relation to twice-exceptional students. The presentation will additionally outline case studies of several families of gifted children who were interviewed as part of the study. It will explore the factors that these families believe have contributed to the successful academic, social and emotional development of their children in an attempt to better understand what they believe works well when successfully educating this population. Finally, it considers the implications of this study for informing educational policy.