Young People’s Right to Privacy and the Home School Partnership

Young People’s Right to Privacy and the Home School Partnership

Dr Peter Hart was invited to join an international group of scholars at the German Education Research Association, GERA, at their largest conference in March. In a working group with other academics researching in the area of home school partnership, he considered how these can be valuable educational tools, but can also challenge a young persons ‘right to privacy’. Based on data collected from interviews with parents and teachers, and observations of parents’ evenings, he argued that young people do have a right to a private life even from their parents, and while there are times it is right to break a young person’s privacy if there are safeguarding and wellbeing concerns, typically violations of privacy are to gain some kind of leverage over young people’s behaviour in school.

Led by Professor Tanja Betz (Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz), the panel also considered the use of digital technology to mediate the home school partnership and experiences of teachers engaging in home visits.

An open access copy of the article this paper was based on is available here, co-authored by Dr Elena Bracey: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/03054985.2023.2166481