Learner leadership development within home-schooling context

Abstract

I have always been interested in the concept of leadership. In particular, observing people who were chosen for or appointed in leadership roles and how others react to situations where leadership skills are required. This grew during my honours course at the University of Pretoria which included a module on leadership and leadership development. This led me to think about how, if at all, learner leadership development takes place during one’s schooling years. The question I asked was: How does learner leadership development happen in the home-schooling environment? This question led to the research in this paper. Literature explored in this study include, among others, work by R.E. Sacks (2009), J.K. Seago (2012, 2014) and L.M. Brumbaugh (2013), which deals with youth leadership, leadership development and learner leadership development, with specific reference to the home-schooling environment. I followed the qualitative case study research design. Data was collected through face-to-face, semi-structured interviews with home-schooled learners and their parents. In a collaborative effort, I worked with the participants in one-to-one, semi-structured interviews, to find out how learner leadership development happens in the home-schooling context and how they perceive and experience this process in their daily lives. What I found was that the development of learner leadership in this context mostly happens unintentionally. This is because the emphasis is not necessarily placed on leadership and leadership development. However, learners do develop leadership skills by interacting with parents and family members (who act as mentors), peers and others in the community. Learners are encouraged to explore different activities and avenues of development, and it is their responsibility to arrange and facilitate such activities. This requires a sense of maturity and the ability to self-manage and effectively lead others. There are, however, also instances of intentional leadership development in the form of, for example, leadership camps, created in the home-schooling environment. Learners actively seek to develop certain leadership skills and often initiate and pursue these initiatives by themselves, with some support from their parents and family. This study aims to further explain and apply the process of leadership development to the home-schooling environment. The findings of this study support previous research and may provide additional material to fill the shortage of literature on this topic. Some comparisons may also be drawn between the leadership development process in the traditional schooling system and that of home-schooling. Further research may be done to explore the possibilities of how learner leadership development, specifically in the home-schooling environment, may be improved.