Aurini, Janice; & Quirke, Linda. (2011). Does market competition encourage strategic action in the private education sector? Canadian Journal of Sociology/Cahiers canadiens de sociologie 36(2) 2011, 173-197. (Mentions homeschooling only once: “We interviewed key actors in the private education field — the head of a private school lobby group, educational consultants, representatives of [p. 181 ends] the Canadian Franchise Association, and home-schooling organizations. The first author also conducted a participant observation study, tutoring in a learning centre franchise for one year” (p. 180-181). “Abstract. According to the market hypothesis, market forces encourage schooling organizations to strategically outsmart their competition in ways that improve the quality of teaching and learning. Based on eighty interviews with private education owners or managers in Toronto, Ontario [Canada], we find little evidence that entrepreneurs respond to competition in the way that the theory predicts. Market competition does not inform how entrepreneurs understand their role in the wider education sector or how they make sense of their actions. Instead, entrepreneurs tie their program, hiring, and customer service decisions to an ideological commitment to students, defining themselves as educators. Our data suggest that this perception guides their actions more than market forces. This paper opens the black box of private education organizations, and offers a nuanced addition to mounting research that challenges the connection between market competition and school performance” (p. 173). (Keywords: market hypothesis, market competition, private education, private, schools, tutoring, school choice, homeschooling, Canada)