On the third Tuesday of each month we post a quick roundup of some recent academic publications and news about homeschooling, offered for your interest. These are typically university research papers, and they may have a positive, negative, or neutral outlook on home education. The title links generally point to the full text of each publication, which is often a printable pdf file. In some cases, a paid subscription may be required to read the whole article. The article abstracts or introductions below are quoted in full whenever possible, without editing.
We have six items this month, including two books, both with anti-homeschool outlooks.
(1) Homeschool Support Groups: A Model for Parental Involvement in Education — M.L. Morse (2019)
Abstract: The homeschooling movement in the United States has developed a network of local homeschool support groups that support homeschooling families in their educational efforts. This study presents a rationale for studying homeschool support groups as educational organizations, like public or private schools. Epstein’s (2001) model of parental involvement was used as a framework for studying parental involvement with these groups. Studying homeschool support groups as educational organizations using Epstein’s model of parental involvement provides the opportunity to gain unique perspectives on parental involvement that may contribute to the understanding of parental involvement in traditional education settings. Findings indicated that for participating parents (n = 278), the desire to be more involved in their child(ren)’s education in substantial ways was very important. For example (using a scale of 1–5), a mean score of 4.72 was reported for the survey question “How important is being involved in decisions about your child’s learning environment to your decision to homeschool?” A mean score of 4.68 was reported for the question “How important is being able to be involved with choosing curriculum for your child to your decision to homeschool?” A high level of satisfaction in all six categories of parental involvement was reported. Data related to perceptions of satisfaction with opportunities for parental involvement with the homeschool support group and perceptions of the importance of different categories of parental involvement were very closely correlated.
(2) Homeschooling: A Guidebook of Practices, Claims, Issues, and Implications [Book] — T.J. Brewer (2020)
Publisher’s description: In this volume, the author offers an exploratory analysis of the history of homeschooling in the United States, current curricular practices, religious and political rationales for homeschooling, a critique of the claims by homeschooling advocates that the practice leads to greater efficiency and effectiveness, and what homeschooling and individualistic-oriented approaches mean for society.
Teaching the next generation at home is, with little doubt, the oldest form of educating children. Yet, this simplistic understanding of “homeschooling” does not adequately capture the growth of homeschooling as a practice in the 21st century nor is it a widely accessible form of “school choice” for most families. While many parents keep their children out of formal schooling – public and private – for myriad reasons, what is clear is that homeschooling is the epitome of a conceiving of education as an individualistic good – a commodity – that can, or should, be done outside of a conception of the common good, a reasonable understanding of teaching as a profession, and the elevation of ideological echo chambers of information which can have deleterious impacts on the students who are homeschooled and society, broadly.
(3) Homeschooling the Right: How Conservative Education Activism Erodes the State [Book] — H. Brown (2020)
Publisher’s description: Heath Brown provides a novel analysis of the homeschooling movement and its central role in conservative efforts to shrink the public sector. He traces the aftereffects of the passage of state homeschool policies in the 1980s and the results of ongoing conservative education activism on the broader political landscape.
(4) Transitioning Autistic Students from the Traditional Classroom to the Homeschool: A Phenomenological Study of Parents’ Perceptions — R. Corbitt (2020)
Abstract: Deficits and problematic or fractured support systems are causing parents of autistic children to return to the foundational education system in this country: the homeschool. Since the CDC identified in 2016 that about 1 in 54 children live with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), there is an ever-intensifying need to investigate and identify reasons why parents of autistic children are withdrawing from traditional school settings and, in lieu, are homeschooling. This phenomenological study highlights the homeschool theoretical framework of Bronfenbrenner and Morris (2006) and is supported by their bio-ecological model. Finally, this study concludes with recommendations for parents of autistic children acting as parental advocates who positively promote their child’s academic success.
(5) Homeschooling the Gifted: What Do We Know from the Australian, Chilean, and US Context? — M.L. Conejeros-Solar & S.R. Smith (2021)
Abstract: The homeschooling movement has steadily developed in the last couple of decades, especially in the USA. In Australia and Chile, the movement is still growing as an alternative to school education. The social growth of homeschooling entails visions of support and criticism. Some consider it an approach to meet and foster children’s interests and needs, and others consider it a private movement against public education and democratic societies. Motivations for homeschooling are mostly related to ideological and pedagogical conceptions in the way families approach homeschooling. In terms of research, in the last two decades, there’s been a growth in peer-reviewed publications to better understand its motivations, implications, educational provisions, and outcomes. Homeschooling for gifted students in particular has little research, and the findings from the few studies that are available suggest that these families start homeschooling for different reasons compared to the general homeschool population. While research on homeschooling gifted students from the USA dominates, not much is heard about homeschooling research in Australia and even less is evident from the Chilean homeschooling experience. In this scenario, more research is needed about gifted homeschooling and the inner experiences these families and children face. In this chapter, findings are presented from a theoretical review in an effort to contribute to the understanding of this educational provision for gifted children and delve deeper into the options these families have in the context of Australia, Chile, and the USA.
(6) A Comparison of Parents and Inspectors Views Regarding Homeschooling — O. Guterman (2021)
Abstract: The present research examined the application of EBP in homeschooling, by comparing the attitudes and views of homeschool inspectors and homeschooling parents regarding academic, emotional, and social issues with the findings of the relevant research. The results indicated a considerable gap between the views of the inspectors and parents and the research-based evidence. A significant difference was also found between the views of the inspectors and those of the parents regarding the effects of homeschooling, where each group held unequivocal views that contradicted those of the other. The discussion suggests possible explanations and implications of these findings.
What interesting homeschool news and research have you come across this Orion Term? 👩🏻🎓
❡ Explore more: If you’d like to investigate the current academic literature on homeschooling yourself, the best place to start is Google Scholar, the special academic search engine from Google. Just enter a search term or phrase of interest (“homeschool,” “unschooling,” “classical homeschooling,” “deschooling,” etc.), and Google Scholar will return a list of academic publications that mention your topic. 🔎
❡ Explore more: For a comprehensive review of homeschooling research prior to 2020, see the paper by Kunzman and Gaither that is linked as the first item in our Research & News post for July 2020. 📖
❡ Stay in the loop: This is one of our regular Homeschool Research & News posts. Add your name to our weekly mailing list and get great homeschool teaching ideas delivered right to your mailbox all through the year. 🗞
