Reframing Human Rights: The global Network of Moral Conservative Homeschooling Activists

In this article, we investigate the composition and actions of a principled issue network within the field of human rights that uses rights‐claims to pursue traditionalist goals: the moral conservative pro‐homeschooling network. We analyse the rising importance of homeschooling within the global moral conservative movement and examine the transnationalization of pro‐homeschooling advocacy. We show that the transnational homeschooling advocacy network, while not successful in court cases, has managed to establish home education as part of a global conservative agenda and has made incursions into redefining the terms of the debate within international organizations. Moral conservative homeschooling advocates use a vocabulary of rights and freedoms, and even of moral pluralism, but in the conservative reading human rights are reframed and used to defend a pro‐family agenda that establishes the patriarchal family as the ultimate source of authority and the primary carrier of rights.

Funding

For this publication, Kristina Stoeckl acknowledges funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (POSEC, grant agreement no. ERC-STG-2015-676804). Julia Mourão Permoser acknowledges funding from the Austrian Science Foundation (FWF) under the START Program (Post-secular Conflicts, grant agreement no. Y-919).