Sorry for the delay everyone, I've been waiting for my tutor to give me feedback on the questionnaire, before I send it out.
STAND BY :-D
Monday, 28 February 2011
Wednesday, 23 February 2011
Questionnaire
Questionnaire for 'How Home Education is Perceived in the Media' should be out later today. Will post a copy on here, if anyone wants to copy and paste it into an e-mail and fill it out, your more than welcome.
I'm mainly targeting journalists, home educators, some general public and teachers.
This should help finalise some of my statistical research.
Send your filled in copies to kim_hughes_1989@hotmail.com
I'm mainly targeting journalists, home educators, some general public and teachers.
This should help finalise some of my statistical research.
Send your filled in copies to kim_hughes_1989@hotmail.com
Tuesday, 22 February 2011
Comments
Hi,
I'm more than happy for anyone to leave productive comments towards my work, but I must ask that people do not put their own opinions down regarding media branches.
Otherwise your comments can not be used as a point of reference. Naturally my dissertation must remain unbiased.
Thank you for your contribution and I look forward to hearing feedback from more of you.
I'm more than happy for anyone to leave productive comments towards my work, but I must ask that people do not put their own opinions down regarding media branches.
Otherwise your comments can not be used as a point of reference. Naturally my dissertation must remain unbiased.
Thank you for your contribution and I look forward to hearing feedback from more of you.
Wednesday, 9 February 2011
Progress...
Made contact with The Guardians chief Education Writer today, Janet Murray. Hopefully she will be able to draw awareness to my project through The Guardians website, whilst helping me with my research.
Education Otherwise are featuring this blog and a write-up about my dissertation in their next online and print newsletter. More publicity and awareness! Can't wait for the opinions to start coming in :-D
Education Otherwise are featuring this blog and a write-up about my dissertation in their next online and print newsletter. More publicity and awareness! Can't wait for the opinions to start coming in :-D
Proposal for: How Home Education is Perceived in the Media
To my knowledge and research there has never been a dissertation documenting How Home Education is perceived in the Media, in fact there are a limited number of dissertations documenting the way of life that is home education at all. This means that my research will be ground breaking, but conversely it will be more difficult to obtain.
In recent years there has been a lot more coverage of the subject through the media as a whole, in fact an estimate from the organisation Education Otherwise states that now there are around 20,000 known home educated families in the UK and around over 20,000 unknown, again in the UK. According to the Department of Education there is no known reliable statistics for children educated at home 10 years ago (2000), stressing that perhaps until recent years (earliest 2007) the media haven’t had much interest in the topic. This will be my initial investigation for my dissertation, which means that I will also be interviewing other education journalists and persons within the media.
Since 1986 the Legal Position of the Education of Children has stated that, Holt (1986 pp.237) “the education of children of ‘compulsory school age’ is compulsory; schooling is not. Parents are accorded the primary responsibility for their children’s education and while they commonly delegate these schools they need not do so. This is clearly established in Sections 36 and 76 of the 1944 Education Act, as amended by the 1980 Education Act.”
Since that time it has been recorded on the official site of Home Education, Education Otherwise in 2009, “In November 2009 the Department for Children Schools and Families introduced measures in the Children Schools and Families Bill which attempted to change the law on home education in England. The Government was not successful and the Children Schools and Families Act 2010 received Royal Assent on April 8th without any of the home education clauses passing into law.”
Even now the legal position of home based education remains the same, education is compulsory, school is not.
Considering home education has effectively been legal since 1944, the organisation Education Otherwise wasn’t founded until 1977, founded originally by a small group of parents, helping new home education families and informing the media of home education practises.
As Education Otherwise has a broad research archives concerning home education I will be using its site as the main source concerning my research, whilst also working in close relation with Roger Scaife (a member of Education Otherwise and their College Contact), who will notify me of any new records concerning home- based education within the media.
The organisation will also give me contact information and links to other families who have taken their experiences to the media, with consent of course.
Following the research by Roland Meighan (Educational Heretics Press) concerning his study Looking into Home-based Education, I will draw further reference of how home education is perceived in the media, not only from this document, but from further works including: The Study of Learning Systems, Making a Start on Recycling Schools and Some Superstitions in Education, all four of these articles have reference to home-based education within the media.
The Educational Heretics Press is another organisation in which I will be using as a resource, as the organisation much like Education Otherwise, uses extensive research to compose articles for the benefit and understanding of the press and the public. Using techniques like: focus groups, personal interviews, literature research, movie references and examples of key figures in the media industry that were home schooled, including broadcaster Patrick Moore.
The organisation was set up by Roland Meighan himself, who I will make contact with for further referencing and further disclosure of evidence and research.
As my dissertation is entitled, How Home Education is perceived in Media, I will research and monitor articles released by UK national newspapers and analyse how they have been written, the journalist’s angles and compare archives past and present to determine the medias current and past outlook on home education and conclude with any changes made throughout the years.
The Guardian has recently presented many articles concerning the government pledge at the beginning of the year (which has recently been denied) to monitor, inspect and regulate home schooled children. The pledge, inspected by Ed Balls (currently the Shadow Home Secretary) was launched to change current educational acts concerning home schooled children, so that they were annually monitored by governing education bodies and were, “Getting the education they deserve and do not end up as cheap labour for their parents.” The legislation was proposed at the beginning of the year by teachers from Professional Association of Teachers (PAT) and the Local Education Authority (LEA) in the summer of 2004, however it was not till 28/07/10 that the proposed legislation on changing the current act was denied.
As, this proposed legislation would have severely changed the world of private home based education as we know it (or don’t), coverage of this topic in particular needs further investigating. The Guardian newspapers seemed to show biases to home educators concerning privacy laws, however it would be beneficial to look at how the other newspapers and media responded to it.
Graham Stuart (MP and occasional writer for The Guardian) wrote, “The government's proposals to licence, regulate and inspect families who educate their children at home have provoked furious opposition from home-educating parents and their children. The government has been keen to brush off concerns that its proposed legislation will violate the civil liberties of these families, in particular their right to private and family life. As details of the government's plans emerge, these attempts to portray the scheme as "light touch" look increasingly less credible.
“If passed into law, the proposals in the children, schools and families bill will require local authority officials to make annual visits to the place where education is provided (normally the family home). Officials will be empowered to request to interview a child on their own if they consider it appropriate.”
It is also a known fact that the LEA has the right currently, if given permission by parents with school registered children , to suggest school attendance to home educated children, if they believe they are not being given the best education they can receive and fail the numerous tests the LEA release.
In other words if a child is not at the same levels of English, Maths, Science etc, as other children in their age bracket they may recommend attendance at school. The LEA usually do this if a family has been reported for negligence on the child's behalf, however it is still within the parents right to say no.
I am aware that throughout the new millennia there have been several cases documented and printed in newspapers where a child has been recommended another form of education. I would like to analyse the media again on this and see how they responded and wrote about these incidences.
As there are no known brand magazines in the UK concerning home education on the newsstand, I have decided to look at some international titles, one in particular from the US entitled Home Education Magazine. Launched in 1984, the magazine offers helpful advice to parents and children, concerning: methods of study, articles, in-depth interviews, columns from parents, blogs, websites and social networking links to home education.
As they actually are from the media, I believe it is important to consider their opinions and facts concerning my research, but also this will help me perhaps draw a comparison between how home education is perceived in the media in the UK and the US. Because there is no record of a print magazine for home schooling in the UK, it would be interesting to discover if more American families were aware of this kind of education opposed to the British, drawing in the conclusion, does the media accept home education more in the US, than in the UK?
The organisation Educational Otherwise releases a bi-monthly newsletter, funded by its charity, which state “Education Otherwise is a charitable organisation that has been supporting home education now for nearly 30 years. We aim to do this through community, information, campaigning, and promotion.”
However the newsletter is only available to subscribers and members only and is not available on the newsstand or to the general public.
By liaising with Roger Scaife, I hope to investigate and discover why this is so, however the initial assumption is lack of funding for mass production. In which case, if this is so, I will investigate why the government haven’t funded the charity and helped to promote the knowledge of home education.
Home Education UK is another British organisation that regularly posts articles on their website concerning home schooling. Whilst also offering links to books and journals on the same subject.
Established in January 2000, the website primarily seeks to advise home school families on legal issues, but doesn’t seek to make the media aware of any instances involved with home schooling, unlike the already mentioned organisations above. In which case, some of their research may be quite useful concerning family logs, but with no link to the media their research is not viable. However it may be wise to establish contact in order to potentially receive further information.
As stated in my presentation I will practise personal investigation concerning direct contact with home schooling families, as I was home schooled there are some families I already have a connection with, but I will also (as stated earlier) pursue contact with The Educational Heretics Press and Education Otherwise in order to obtain further points of contact.
After interviewing the families, I will employ the Levels of Measurement in order to form certain statistics covering questions such as: Do you enjoy being home educated? Why did you leave school? (If children have previously attended school) How do you believe home education is perceived in the media? Do you think home education is reflected badly in the media? If yes, how?
Of course I understand that the first two questions are not strictly relevant to the topic, but I believe a good angle to achieve true answers, would not be to give away my angle or initial concept, especially as the topic is based around the media, it is a known fact that due to recent events listed above, home educated families have become even more private in recent years.
Concerning the Levels of Measurement covered by Ruane in Essentials of Research Methods, the theory adopts the four levels of measuring statistics which will be the process after the interviewing and further research has taken place.
First we must establish the differences between variables and concepts/values from a research statistical point of view. Variables are simply labels, like age, race, gender, religion and so on. Values/concepts are theories, ideas or deduction from research.
The four levels of measurements are:
• Nominal- “When the numbers we attach to the values of a variable are merely means for identifying qualitative differences between values, we are measuring the variable at nominal level.”
• Ordinal- “The numbers attached to the values of a variable can do more than merely label or indentify values. The numbers attached to the values might also indicate a ranking or ordering of the values.”
• Interval- “Sometimes the numbers attached to the values of variables can do more than merely label or indicate the ‘order’ of the values. They can indicate an exact and equal distance.”
• Ratio- “If we measure income as the total number of dollars earned a year, we have a ratio level measure.”
Besides interviews, descriptive statistics (the levels of measurements) and questionnaires I will also include other forms of research including: causal analysis, inferential statistics (usually from other sources, not my own).
Qualitative and quantitative questions will be the basis of my interviewing techniques as some of my research will require closed questions and other open. Statistics will obviously be closed, but open questions will definitely broaden the research.
I understand, that the basis of investigation will be in-depth and will require networking with numerous individuals from a home schooled background and media background, however I consider it my duty as an ex home schooled youth to expose the truth on How Home Education is perceived in the media.
.
In recent years there has been a lot more coverage of the subject through the media as a whole, in fact an estimate from the organisation Education Otherwise states that now there are around 20,000 known home educated families in the UK and around over 20,000 unknown, again in the UK. According to the Department of Education there is no known reliable statistics for children educated at home 10 years ago (2000), stressing that perhaps until recent years (earliest 2007) the media haven’t had much interest in the topic. This will be my initial investigation for my dissertation, which means that I will also be interviewing other education journalists and persons within the media.
Since 1986 the Legal Position of the Education of Children has stated that, Holt (1986 pp.237) “the education of children of ‘compulsory school age’ is compulsory; schooling is not. Parents are accorded the primary responsibility for their children’s education and while they commonly delegate these schools they need not do so. This is clearly established in Sections 36 and 76 of the 1944 Education Act, as amended by the 1980 Education Act.”
Since that time it has been recorded on the official site of Home Education, Education Otherwise in 2009, “In November 2009 the Department for Children Schools and Families introduced measures in the Children Schools and Families Bill which attempted to change the law on home education in England. The Government was not successful and the Children Schools and Families Act 2010 received Royal Assent on April 8th without any of the home education clauses passing into law.”
Even now the legal position of home based education remains the same, education is compulsory, school is not.
Considering home education has effectively been legal since 1944, the organisation Education Otherwise wasn’t founded until 1977, founded originally by a small group of parents, helping new home education families and informing the media of home education practises.
As Education Otherwise has a broad research archives concerning home education I will be using its site as the main source concerning my research, whilst also working in close relation with Roger Scaife (a member of Education Otherwise and their College Contact), who will notify me of any new records concerning home- based education within the media.
The organisation will also give me contact information and links to other families who have taken their experiences to the media, with consent of course.
Following the research by Roland Meighan (Educational Heretics Press) concerning his study Looking into Home-based Education, I will draw further reference of how home education is perceived in the media, not only from this document, but from further works including: The Study of Learning Systems, Making a Start on Recycling Schools and Some Superstitions in Education, all four of these articles have reference to home-based education within the media.
The Educational Heretics Press is another organisation in which I will be using as a resource, as the organisation much like Education Otherwise, uses extensive research to compose articles for the benefit and understanding of the press and the public. Using techniques like: focus groups, personal interviews, literature research, movie references and examples of key figures in the media industry that were home schooled, including broadcaster Patrick Moore.
The organisation was set up by Roland Meighan himself, who I will make contact with for further referencing and further disclosure of evidence and research.
As my dissertation is entitled, How Home Education is perceived in Media, I will research and monitor articles released by UK national newspapers and analyse how they have been written, the journalist’s angles and compare archives past and present to determine the medias current and past outlook on home education and conclude with any changes made throughout the years.
The Guardian has recently presented many articles concerning the government pledge at the beginning of the year (which has recently been denied) to monitor, inspect and regulate home schooled children. The pledge, inspected by Ed Balls (currently the Shadow Home Secretary) was launched to change current educational acts concerning home schooled children, so that they were annually monitored by governing education bodies and were, “Getting the education they deserve and do not end up as cheap labour for their parents.” The legislation was proposed at the beginning of the year by teachers from Professional Association of Teachers (PAT) and the Local Education Authority (LEA) in the summer of 2004, however it was not till 28/07/10 that the proposed legislation on changing the current act was denied.
As, this proposed legislation would have severely changed the world of private home based education as we know it (or don’t), coverage of this topic in particular needs further investigating. The Guardian newspapers seemed to show biases to home educators concerning privacy laws, however it would be beneficial to look at how the other newspapers and media responded to it.
Graham Stuart (MP and occasional writer for The Guardian) wrote, “The government's proposals to licence, regulate and inspect families who educate their children at home have provoked furious opposition from home-educating parents and their children. The government has been keen to brush off concerns that its proposed legislation will violate the civil liberties of these families, in particular their right to private and family life. As details of the government's plans emerge, these attempts to portray the scheme as "light touch" look increasingly less credible.
“If passed into law, the proposals in the children, schools and families bill will require local authority officials to make annual visits to the place where education is provided (normally the family home). Officials will be empowered to request to interview a child on their own if they consider it appropriate.”
It is also a known fact that the LEA has the right currently, if given permission by parents with school registered children , to suggest school attendance to home educated children, if they believe they are not being given the best education they can receive and fail the numerous tests the LEA release.
In other words if a child is not at the same levels of English, Maths, Science etc, as other children in their age bracket they may recommend attendance at school. The LEA usually do this if a family has been reported for negligence on the child's behalf, however it is still within the parents right to say no.
I am aware that throughout the new millennia there have been several cases documented and printed in newspapers where a child has been recommended another form of education. I would like to analyse the media again on this and see how they responded and wrote about these incidences.
As there are no known brand magazines in the UK concerning home education on the newsstand, I have decided to look at some international titles, one in particular from the US entitled Home Education Magazine. Launched in 1984, the magazine offers helpful advice to parents and children, concerning: methods of study, articles, in-depth interviews, columns from parents, blogs, websites and social networking links to home education.
As they actually are from the media, I believe it is important to consider their opinions and facts concerning my research, but also this will help me perhaps draw a comparison between how home education is perceived in the media in the UK and the US. Because there is no record of a print magazine for home schooling in the UK, it would be interesting to discover if more American families were aware of this kind of education opposed to the British, drawing in the conclusion, does the media accept home education more in the US, than in the UK?
The organisation Educational Otherwise releases a bi-monthly newsletter, funded by its charity, which state “Education Otherwise is a charitable organisation that has been supporting home education now for nearly 30 years. We aim to do this through community, information, campaigning, and promotion.”
However the newsletter is only available to subscribers and members only and is not available on the newsstand or to the general public.
By liaising with Roger Scaife, I hope to investigate and discover why this is so, however the initial assumption is lack of funding for mass production. In which case, if this is so, I will investigate why the government haven’t funded the charity and helped to promote the knowledge of home education.
Home Education UK is another British organisation that regularly posts articles on their website concerning home schooling. Whilst also offering links to books and journals on the same subject.
Established in January 2000, the website primarily seeks to advise home school families on legal issues, but doesn’t seek to make the media aware of any instances involved with home schooling, unlike the already mentioned organisations above. In which case, some of their research may be quite useful concerning family logs, but with no link to the media their research is not viable. However it may be wise to establish contact in order to potentially receive further information.
As stated in my presentation I will practise personal investigation concerning direct contact with home schooling families, as I was home schooled there are some families I already have a connection with, but I will also (as stated earlier) pursue contact with The Educational Heretics Press and Education Otherwise in order to obtain further points of contact.
After interviewing the families, I will employ the Levels of Measurement in order to form certain statistics covering questions such as: Do you enjoy being home educated? Why did you leave school? (If children have previously attended school) How do you believe home education is perceived in the media? Do you think home education is reflected badly in the media? If yes, how?
Of course I understand that the first two questions are not strictly relevant to the topic, but I believe a good angle to achieve true answers, would not be to give away my angle or initial concept, especially as the topic is based around the media, it is a known fact that due to recent events listed above, home educated families have become even more private in recent years.
Concerning the Levels of Measurement covered by Ruane in Essentials of Research Methods, the theory adopts the four levels of measuring statistics which will be the process after the interviewing and further research has taken place.
First we must establish the differences between variables and concepts/values from a research statistical point of view. Variables are simply labels, like age, race, gender, religion and so on. Values/concepts are theories, ideas or deduction from research.
The four levels of measurements are:
• Nominal- “When the numbers we attach to the values of a variable are merely means for identifying qualitative differences between values, we are measuring the variable at nominal level.”
• Ordinal- “The numbers attached to the values of a variable can do more than merely label or indentify values. The numbers attached to the values might also indicate a ranking or ordering of the values.”
• Interval- “Sometimes the numbers attached to the values of variables can do more than merely label or indicate the ‘order’ of the values. They can indicate an exact and equal distance.”
• Ratio- “If we measure income as the total number of dollars earned a year, we have a ratio level measure.”
Besides interviews, descriptive statistics (the levels of measurements) and questionnaires I will also include other forms of research including: causal analysis, inferential statistics (usually from other sources, not my own).
Qualitative and quantitative questions will be the basis of my interviewing techniques as some of my research will require closed questions and other open. Statistics will obviously be closed, but open questions will definitely broaden the research.
I understand, that the basis of investigation will be in-depth and will require networking with numerous individuals from a home schooled background and media background, however I consider it my duty as an ex home schooled youth to expose the truth on How Home Education is perceived in the media.
.
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