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 four items this month, on school psychology; black rural homeschooling; homeschooling in Indonesia; and homeschooling in India:
(1) Homeschooling in Children and Adolescents [book chapter in Desk Reference on School Psychology]Β β M.L.Β Cashel & L.A.Β Theodore (2023)
Introduction: Prior to the passage of compulsory education laws in the mid-19th century, the practice of educating children at home was common for many families in the United States, most notably for those living in rural and remote locations. By 1950, children in most states were required to enroll in either a public or private school before the age of seven. The resurgence of what has since been referred to as “homeschooling” emerged around 1980, promoted largely by conservative Christian groups who achieved legislative changes through highly successful advocacy efforts. Since 1990, homeschooling has grown increasingly popular among families of diverse racial, ethnic, cultural, and religious backgrounds. […]
(2) Centering the Lived Experiences of Rural Black Homeschool FamiliesΒ β C.Β Fields-Smith & T.L.Β BakerΒ (2023)
Abstract: Compared to all other options, homeschooling provides parents with the most control over their childrenβs educational experiences. The COVID-19 pandemic led to a surge in the U.S. homeschool population. Black families had the largest increase in home educators from 3.3% to 16.1% between April 2020 and October 2020. The emerging literature on Black home education has focused almost entirely on urban areas. This paper presents findings from a pilot study designed to begin to address the omission of rural setting representation in Black home education research literature. This qualitative study employed conceptual frameworks that value Black womenβs ways of knowing (e.g., Black Feminist Theory, Endarkened Feminist Epistemologies, and Critical Race Theory) to emphasize the role of participating mothers who represented a single-parent household or a household where the mother maintained primary responsibility for the home education of children.
(3) Reconstructing the Meaning of Education: An Exploration of the Homeschooling Experience Among Families in Yogyakarta, IndonesiaΒ β S.Β Listiarini & I.Β Abdullah (2023)
Abstract: This paper presents the phenomenon of homeschooling in Yogyakarta, a city known as one of the centers of education in Indonesia, through a social construction perspective. Previous studies on homeschooling in Indonesia have mostly focused on the pedagogical perspective. This research aims to outline the process that homeschooler families go through in choosing to homeschool instead of sending their children to school. The qualitative method used is in-depth interviews with parents who have been practicing homeschooling in their families for years. The findings in this study show that the informants have experienced the reconstruction of the meaning of education from school to homeschooling through three stages: first, the informants get various information about homeschooling from various sources but mainly from previous homeschooling practitioners and pioneers; second, the concept of homeschooling is crystallized by the informants into their thinking; third, the informants implement the concept of homeschooling by educating their children at home rather than sending them to school. Parenting-related materials play an important role in fostering parents’ initial interest in homeschooling. The development of information technology made it easier for informants to access various information related to homeschooling.
(4) Perception of Teachers on HomeschoolingΒ β T.Β Parab & N.P.Β Khanvilkar (2023)
Abstract: To study the perception of teachers about Homeschooling by understanding the concept of homeschooling and the teachers those are going to be part of the process. The concept of Homeschooling is discussed and the perceptions of the teachers are taken into consideration. The teachers involved are in-service teachers and pre-service teachers. Survey method is used to collect information about the perceptions of 56 entry-level pre-service teachers, 36 exit-level pre-service teachers and 56 in-service teachers. The questionnaire is bifurcated in three parts dealing with perception about traditional schooling, perception about homeschooling and comparison between the two. The conclusion drawn out of the observation is that the participants have only heard the concept of homeschooling but do not know what it exactly is. The differences in the responses of the entry-level and exit-level pre-service teachers exist because of the exposure that the exit-level pre-service teachers receive in the process of their long duration of internships in regular schools. The in-service teachers may be expecting a change in the regular education system to be more conducive to the current changing trends in the world around.
What interesting homeschool news and academic research have you come across this Orion Term?Β π
β‘β Explore more: If you’d like to investigate the academic literature on homeschooling more extensively, 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 research publications that mention your topic. In addition, for research prior to 2020 in particular, see the comprehensive bibliographic essay by KunzmanΒ & Gaither (2020), “Homeschooling: An Updated Comprehensive Survey of the Research.” π
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