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The following is a summary of a 21-page research paper by Bruce Arai, Department of Sociology and Anthropology, Wilfrid Laurier University, Waterloo. The paper is entitled “Ideologues”, “Pedagogues” and “Mainstreamers”: Changes in Parents’ Motivations for Homeschooling. This paper is currently under review for publication by a scholarly journal. [Web Editor’s Note: this likely refers to this publication: Arai, A. Bruce (2000) Changing Motivations for Homeschooling in Canada. Canadian Journal of Education, 25(3): 204-17.] The purpose of this paper was to investigate some of the reasons parents choose to homeschool their children.  Prof. Arai reviewed the findings on homeschooling (mainly from the U.S. since there is very little available in Canada) to develop a picture of what is known about the practice. He also did interviews with homeschooling families in Ontario and B.C. Finally, it is argued that Canadian homeschoolers are different from their American counterparts on several important dimensions and that these differences reflect a recent change in the nature of homeschooling. The existing literature on homeschooling shows that, in general, parents either did not accept the content of the school’’s curriculum (referred to as “ideologues”) or were unhappy with the institutionalized nature of schooling (referred to as “pedagogues”). The ideological homeschoolers had a diversity of reasons for their dissatisfaction: 1) public schools did not provide either enough or the right kind of religious education; 2) parents of “gifted” or “bright” children felt that the regular school curriculum was not demanding enough to provide a challenge for their children. Among the pedagogical homeschoolers the “negative socialization” was a concern for the majority of parents — i.e. teasing, pranks and exclusionary behaviour could be extremely damaging to their child’s sense of self. Other pedagogues felt that learning in a highly structured environment was wrong and many parents rejected the hierarchical learning situation in schools. Both the ideologues and pedagogues did share some reasons for wanting to homeschool their children, such as: 1) creating a stronger family bond (family unity); 2) homeschooling provides a way to practice an alternative lifestyle (getting away from materialist and consumerist values); 3) many parents themselves had unpleasant memories of school when they were children; 4) homeschooling allows parents the right to be responsible for their children’s’ education. There are reasons to expect that homeschooling in Canada will be different than in the U.S. There are different legal contexts surrounding homeschooling in the two countries. Rules governing homeschooling vary from state to state and province to province. Also, much of the research in the past is about 10 years old, and there has been a rapid growth recently in homeschooling— — people’s reasons for homeschooling may have changed. In the 1990s, as homeschooling becomes more accepted and as debates about educational choice continue, there are more opportunities for families to choose homeschooling as an option for their children. In the past, parents usually had strong philosophical beliefs about homeschooling because of legal difficulties and negative perceptions of homeschooling. Homeschooling today is becoming easier due to the fact that battles about the legality of homeschooling are being resolved and there has been an explosion in the number of support groups and organizations. Data for this research were collected through interviews with 23 homeschooling families in Ontario and in B.C. Each interview lasted approximately 2 hours. Discussions also took place with key people in three provincial homeschooling organizations in B.C. and Ontario as well as attendance at three different homeschooling conferences in Ontario. The goal of this research paper is to provide an initial look at motivations for homeschooling in Canada which is informed by the results from U.S. studies. The basic interview schedule contained questions about: 1) parent’s motives for homeschooling; 2) how they arrived at the decision to homeschool; 3) how they actually accomplish homeschooling on a daily basis; 4) what are their perceptions of various aspects of the educational system; 5) what are their thoughts about parental and state rights and responsibilities for education. As other topics arose, they were pursued with alternatives lines of questioning. The results were organized into four sections: 1) characteristics of homeschooling parents, 2) coming to the decision to homeschool, 3) motivations for homeschooling and 4) attitudes towards the public education system. 1) Characteristics of Homeschooling Parents Some of the parents interviewed had not completed high school while others had post-graduate degrees. The vast majority had completed high school and had some post-secondary education. None of the parents were currently employed as teachers, although four had degrees in education. All of the families knew of at least one family that was currently homeschooling where one or both parents were teachers. Virtually all of the families lived on one income. There was also diversity in the length of time that families had been homeschooling. Thirteen families had only started homeschooling within the last four years, while the rest had homeschooled for longer periods. Almost all of the homeschoolers expressed a strong spiritual or religious commitment, however, this was not a major motivation for homeschooling for most of them. 2) Coming to the decision to homeschool For most participants in this study, the decision to homeschool was not precipitated by a specific incident. Many parents arrived at the decision gradually over a period of months or years. The process usually started with a general dissatisfaction with elements of the public school which led to an investigation of alternatives, usually private school. For people who had begun homeschooling more than four years ago, they did not know that homeschooling was out there as an option. In several cases parents had decided to homeschool their children before they even attended school. This was almost exclusive among those families who had begun homeschooling less than four years ago. 3) Motivations for homeschooling Only two people in this research made a specific connection between bad personal experiences at school and their decision to homeschool. Negative memories of school do not appear to be a major motivation for homeschooling among Canadian parents. Canadian homeschoolers do not appear to