Agency in Action

(Re)conceptualising Parental Action and Decision-Making in Home Education, in the Context of Bronfenbrenner’s Bioecological Theory

Dados Bibliográficos

ID22044072
AutoresRainbow Cheung (0009-0000-0417-3732, University of Bristol), Jo Rose (0000-0003-2810-6491, University of Bristol, autor correspondente)
Ano2026
Volume16
Fascículo4
Páginas638
Data de publicação2026-04-16
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessSim
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoEducation Sciences (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 2227-7102 • E-ISSN: 2227-7102
EditoraMDPI AG (PUBLISHER • IT)
DOI10.3390/educsci16040638
OpenAlexW7154646037
IdiomaEN
Referências citadas53

The growing prevalence of home education necessitates exploration of parental involvement outside traditional schooling environments. This paper conceptualises parental involvement within home education decision-making. Core elements of decision making, including Choices, Contexts, Challenges and Changes, are integrated with Bronfenbrenner’s bioecological systems theory to create the 4Cs model of parental decision-making in home education. The 4Cs model is developed from integrating findings from the literature with previous empirical work on how parents make and explain decisions in home education. The present paper uses this model to organise and explain parental decision-making in a structured way. Building on critiques of school-centric parental involvement models, the 4Cs model steps away from assumptions that position parents as passive participants in schools’ agendas to instead illustrate parents’ active collaboration and involvement in their children’s education. The paper goes on to use the 4Cs model to help reframe Epstein’s typology of parental involvement to bridge home education research and broader scholarship on parental involvement. It provides a structured lens to analyse the decision-making processes that underpin why families choose home education and how it is enacted in practice. Central to this framework is the concept of parental agency, which is decoupled from school-based imperatives and positioned as the driving force in constructing tailored learning environments. This theorisation offers a critical lens for examining how parents navigate educational trade-offs, socioecological constraints, and adaptive strategies. We reframe parental involvement as deliberative, context-responsive praxis, creating potential for the 4Cs framework to act as a transferable model for analysing agency-driven parental engagement across diverse educational settings

Cognitive reframing · Experiential learning · Scholarship · Sociology of Education · Structure and agency · Typology · Diverse Education Studies and Reforms · Global Educational Reforms and Inequalities · Parental Involvement in Education