Outcomes of Holistic Education: Parents' Expectations

• In Event: Enhancing Children's Experience of School: Happiness, Care, and Holistic Pedagogy

Abstract

This descriptive case study uses focus groups and a document review to explore: what parents of children enrolled in three popular holistic models of education hope for and expect to come of their school choice, how this compares to theorists’ expectations, and the documented hopes and expectations of each educational setting. Parents’ hopes and expectations are further analyzed in terms of the three measures of Expectancy Theory. Data was collected in a PreK-8 Montessori school, a PreK-8 Waldorf school and a longstanding homeschool group. Findings suggest that parents’ hopes and expectations are aligned with those of theorists and that graduates of these educational systems can be expected to exhibit many of the characteristics that are hoped and expected for them.

Author

• Autumn Joy Florencio-Wain, State University of New York at Albany