Gray & Riley (2013) - Challenges and Benefits of Unschooling

GRAY, P., & RILEY, G. (2013). The challenges and benefits of unschooling, according to 232 families who have chosen that route. Journal of Unschooling & Alternative Learning, 7(14). Available at https://www.psychologytoday.com/sites/default/files/JUAL%202013%20Unschooling%20Survey%20art..pdf

Results - 255 unschooling family survey

 * Varied reasons families choose unschooling (negative traditional school experience, transition from homeschooling, personal research)
 * "In unschooling there is no worry about test scores or grades. Instead, unschooling parents’ main concern seems to be that of raising healthy, happy, responsible, intrinsically motivated children." (p. 21)
 *  Key Quote : "Maybe the key ingredient to an unschooling education is time, for parents and children alike; time to explore, think, and make one’s own decisions. In our time-starved society, where everyone is rushing from one responsibility or activity to another, time becomes an important commodity.  For unschoolers, how to spend time is the biggest question of each day, and learning to make that choice in satisfying ways may be the biggest lesson learned." (p. 22)
 * Unschooling not a magic bullet and there are still challenges and struggles
 * Challenges of Unschooling
 * social criticism and pressure from family and friends for violating culturally-ingrained view of traditional education (43.5%)
 * finding friends (for some; others thought unschooling helped with social development)
 * Benefits of Unschooling
 * Improved learning
 * More positive view of learning
 * Improved social and emotional wellbeing (52.1%)
 * Greater family closeness, harmony, and freedom (57%)
 * Study Limitations
 * self-selection bias of unschooling families that found and responded to the online survey (i.e. not random sample)
 * open-ended survey questions, so # families identifying challenges and benefits underreported (b/c may not have thought about it if they had a list to choose from)
 * Parents completed the survey; not students, so may have a positivity bias (e.g. do kids think extra family time is valuable?)
 * Parents completed the survey; not students, so may have a positivity bias (e.g. do kids think extra family time is valuable?)