First They Came for the Unschoolers: A Faircloughian Critical Discourse Analysis of Queensland Home Education Policies.

Abstract

Increasing numbers of Australian parents, like me, are choosing to home educate. US estimates suggest, within home educated populations, 5 per cent of home education cohorts (Riley, 2018) follow an unschooling, or self-directed education (SDE), approach. In the past, these parents registered with the government department; however, policy changes made in Queensland in May 2018 make registration almost impossible for unschoolers and discriminate against families whose registration was based on a philosophy such as SDE.

Keywords

• unschooling
• faircloughian critical discourse analysis
• self-directed education
• discrimination