Conference Program

...] to recognize at the same time that there are always multiple perspectives and multiple vantage points, is to recognize that no accounting, disciplinary or otherwise, can ever be finished or complete. There is always more. There is always possibility, and this is where the space opens for the pursuit of freedom (Greene, 1988, p. 128).

This contribution proposes a collective inquiry into the creative potential of critiques that the homeschooling movement directs towards contemporary educational institutions. Through a participatory methodology inspired by the Community of Philosophical Inquiry (CoPI), we aim to transform participants into a research community that questions and shares essential queries (Lipman, 2003; Zorzi, Santi, 2023).

The provocations raised by Illich in Deschooling Society (1971) – school as a disabling institution, as a mechanism for reproducing inequalities, as a site of commodification of learning – maintain striking relevance today. Testimonies from families choosing unschooling or homeschooling highlight persistent vulnerabilities (Rochovská, 2023): i.e., spatial-temporal rigidities, inflexible curricula, and limited capacity to welcome individual differences such as giftedness or learning difficulties. From an authentically democratic perspective (Popper, 2000), which recognizes minority voices as constitutive elements of plurality, it is fundamental to critically interrogate these instances and collectively pose central questions (Biscaldi, et al., 2024): what can a public school learn from homeschooling critiques without abdicating its social function but rather strengthening it transformatively?

Our methodological approach does not limit itself to theoretical-critical analysis of nodal points identified by recent studies (Cheng, Hamlin, 2021; Chinazzi, 2021; English, et al., 2024; Restiglian, Busato, 2024) but employs CoPI to collectively imagine new research questions. Through shared interrogation, we aspire to map two dimensions: first, critical issues characterizing homeschooling movements from an educational standpoint (i.e. what society is envisioned? Are those choices accessible to all? Towards what "good" do these educational movements tend? What role do collectivity and educational community play?); second, critical issues homeschooling highlights within current schooling (i.e. inability to attend to individual wellbeing; structural rigidity; transmissive teaching-learning overlap; adaptation requirements to hierarchical logics conveyed through implicit curricula). This plural inquiry aims to transcend polarization between "defenders" and "detractors", nurturing critical and democratic reflection oriented towards a transformative horizon that recovers skolé's original meaning as liberated time and libertarian space (Freire, 2014; Kohan, 2011).

From a Freirean perspective (Fain, 2002), homeschooling's dissonant voices offer creative opportunities for rethinking schooling profoundly. Reconsidering school through these solicitations means reaffirming it as a common good (UNESCO, 2019) – not as a uniform, standardized service, but as a public space with strong educational and political roles (Kohan, et al., 2016) requiring collective care. This common good demands shared responsibility, democratic participation, and continuous transformative capacity. Only a school capable of listening to critical voices, becoming flexible without losing its public function, personalizing without privatizing, can constitute an authentic bulwark of social justice and active citizenship.