The purpose of the inquiry described was to examine the ways in which characteristics of the educational environment of the home, the school, and the peer group accounted for change in performance at school over the period of a year, in which the sample of children selected for investigation progressed from primary school to high school. The research paradigm proposed that change in the outcomes of education are a function of the type of environment and the dimensions of the environment in which the individual learns. Therefore, final performance at school and attitudes toward learning are influenced not only by initial performance and attitudes, but also by the classroom, the peer group, and the home in which the child works, plays, and lives. This investigation was restricted to children in the Australian Capital Territory. A simple random sample of 242 was drawn from children who were in their final primary school year in 1968. Information on sociological and demographic characteristics and parental attitudes was obtained from interviews with the mother and the father of each child. Full information was available for 215 of the children in the sample after the testing and interviewing were completed. Data analysis used path models derived from the research paradigm. (Author/JM)

Families who choose to home educate generally do so due to dissatisfaction with school-based education. Common perceptions of home educators oscillate between images of the 'tree-hugging hippy' and the 'religious fanatic'. Whilst attempting to go beyond such stereotypical dichotomies, this paper will examine three very different groupings of home educators and their varying constructions of childhood and the social world, demonstrating the spectrum between home education as an expression of human rights and of fundamentalism. The first grouping construct home education as a 'natural' choice, often presented in political opposition to existing social structures. For the second grouping home education is predominantly a 'social' choice relating to the conscious transmission of various forms of capital. Finally there are 'last resort' home educators for whom home education is not perceived as a choice. Based on qualitative research, this paper will argue that, even where home education is constructed as natural, the social aspects and impacts of home education choices cannot be ignored.