Dr Harriet Pattison Dr Harriet Pattison

Biography

Harriet joined Norland in 2025. She has a long-standing commitment and passion for the education and care of young children in home, alternative and non-institutional settings which she has pursued at grass roots in Europe and beyond. A long term stay-at-home mother herself, she has an ongoing fascination with the possibilities of home educare and is keen to raise its political profile. She has an eclectic academic background from science policy to social anthropology and is always keen to consider the alternative view. Her PhD research was on children learning to read at home and she continues to be fascinated by child-led and alternative approaches in this area.

Harriet is currently Senior Lecturer in Early Childhood at Liverpool Hope University and researches and publishes on a variety of subjects to do with early childhood and education, including the pedagogy, practice, philosophy and politics of home based educare.

Publications and scholarly activities

In press

Rethinking Learning to Read (French translation). Pattison H. Forges les Bains: Myriadis

20216

Rethinking Learning to Read. Pattison H. Shropshire: Educational Heretics Press

2016

Informelles Lernen (German translation of "How Children Learn at Home"). Thomas, A and Pattison. H. Leipzig: Tologo Verlag.

2013

A l’ecole de la vie (French translation of "How Children Learn at Home"). Thomas, A and Pattison, H.Paris: Editions L’instant Present.

2024

Pattison, H., & Holmes, S. Whose children are they? Using Kymlicka on multiculturalism to evaluate rights and freedom in Christian home education. Oxford Review of Education, 1–19.

2024

Holmes, S. E., & Pattison, H. Misunderstood, Marginalised or Embraced? Examining the place of home education in the Christian community. Practical Theology, 17(5), 456–468.

2024

Holmes, S. E., & Pattison, H. Who controls the agenda? theological perspectives on state-controlled home education in the UK. Journal of Beliefs & Values, 1–18.

2023

Pattison, H. D. A. ‘Education professionals who home educate – from maverick anomaly to bridge-building opportunity?’, Norland Educare Research Journal, 1(1)

2023

REA, Diversity, Respect and Religious Education: Online, international

2022

Pattison, H. D. A. “Lessons from lockdown: could pandemic schooling help change education?”, Pedagogy, Culture & Society, online first

2020

Pattison, H. Fundamental British and ‘the Other’ Values – An Analytical Reflection. International Review of Qualitative Research 00(0) 1–19

2020

Pattison, H. Muslim Home Educators in the Time of Prevent. International Review of Qualitative Research 00(0) 1–23

2020

BERA, Alternative Education Special Interest Group Webinar. A Case Study of Self Directed Education

2019

ECEERA, Muslim Home Education in the UK, Thessalonika: Greece

2018

Pattison, H. Discourses of Home Education and the Construction of the Educational Other in Educational Futures 9 (1)

2018

BERA. Muslim Home Educators in the Time of Prevent. University of Newcastle: UK

2018

EECERA. Young Children’s Perspectives on Home and School Education. Budapest: Hungary

2018

Debates in Child and Family Well-being Conference. Fundamental British Values and Alternatives to the Good Family Liverpool Hope University: UK

2017

Pattison, H. (2017) The Natural Child in Owen , A. (ed) Childhood Today: An Exploration of the contemporary experiences of children. London: Sage

2016

Pattison, H. Education and the Time of our Lives in Other Education The Journal of Educational Alternatives ISSN 2049-2162 5 (2)

2016

Pattison, H and Thomas A. Great Expectations: Agenda and Authority in Technological, Hidden and Cultural Curriculums in eds Noddings, N and Lees, H in Palgrave International Handbook of Alternative Education Basingstoke, Palgrave MacMillan

2015

Pattison, H. How to Desire Differently: Home Education as a Heterotopia in The Journal of Philosophy of Education, 49 (4)

2015

Thomas, A and Pattison, H. The Informal Acquisition and Development of Literacy in: P. Rothermel (Ed.) International Perspectives on Home Education, Basingstoke, Palgrave MacMillan

2013

Thomas, A. & Pattison, H. Informal home education: philosophical aspirations put into practice. Studies in Philosophy and Education, 32, 141-154

2013

Thomas, A. and Pattison, H. Informal Learning and Home Education, in: Hancock, R. & Collins, J. (Eds) Primary Teaching Assistants: Learners and Learning, London, Routledge/Open University Press

2007

How Children Learn at Home. Thomas, A and Pattison, H. Continuum, London Continuum, London