Everyday Life in Distance Education: One family's homeschooling experience

Abstract

This article offers a narrative portrait of one family enrolled in a school of distance education in Queensland, Australia. Most of the families own or manage sheep and/or beef grazing properties, and their children receive their education by correspondence papers and daily UHF radio lessons. The students complete their school work at home with a home tutor, who is most often the mother, with support and assistance provided by the school of distance education's teaching and support staff. As part of a larger inquiry focused on what home schooling is like as a component of living and working on sheep or cattle properties, and as but one part of the families' everyday lives, the portrait includes biographical information about Louise Michaelson as home tutor, narrative sketches of her children Thomas and Timothy, and descriptive discussions of daily routines both within and outside of the schoolrooms used for the distance education programs.