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ABSTRACT
As increasing numbers of researchers, parents, and youth are rethinking the traditional school system as the default educational option in the United States, homeschooling is not only growing in size but also in philosophical scope and demographic diversity. African Americans particularly have been one of the steadiest-growing homeschooling demographics. Among the few ethnographic accounts of black homeschooling families, youth perceptions tend to be overlooked. This article builds upon scholarship exploring racial injustices in education with new qualitative research: observations and interviews with 15 African American homeschooling families living in Philadelphia. This research reveals a variety of motivations undergirding African American families’ homeschooling decisions and perspectives, including commentary from youth homeschoolers. Previous research has critiqued homeschooling as a neoliberal exercise in privatization that entrenches the social reproduction of inequality, or operates as a destabilizing threat to public interest. Yet, findings from this study complicate these assessments by examining the ways African American homeschoolers enmesh themselves within educational reform conversations, some viewing homeschooling as a form of political protest.
Notes
1 The growth of homeschooling among African Americans in Philadelphia has been covered in local media outlets such as featured pieces in Philly Magazine in March 2016, The Philadelphia Tribune in December 2017, and Philly’s 7th Ward in March 2017.
2 Only pseudonyms of participants are used to protect anonymity.
7 Of the participant observation research with six homeschooling families, one family identifies as “black,” one family identifies as “African American,” one family identifies as “Caribbean,” one family identifies as “Half African, Half White” due to an interracial marriage, one family identifies as “Half black, Half Hispanic” due to an interracial marriage, and one family identifies as “Mixed”-–a white couple who adopted two children of color.
8 Of the 15 homeschooling families interviewed, six families identify as “black,” four families identify as “African American,” one family identifies as “Caribbean,” one family identifies as “Half black, Half White” due to an interracial marriage, one family identifies as “Half African, Half White” due to an interracial marriage, one family identifies as “Half black, Half Hispanic” due to an interracial marriage, and one white mother was also interviewed who homeschools her two adopted children of color.
9 Of the nine youth participants, three youth identify as “black,” two youth identify as “Half African, Half White,” three youth identify as “Half black, Half Hispanic,” and one youth identifies as “Korean.”
10 Many studies, particularly quantitative-based reports, encourage parents to rank reasons for homeschooling by referring to a pre-constructed bulleted list (Isenberg, Citation2007; Van Galen, Citation1991). The U.S. Department of Education particularly utilizes this approach; in 2016, the number one reason parents homeschooled was due to “dissatisfaction with the environment of other schools” (USDE, Citation2016) which is a broad category that my research seeks to further interrogate.
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Lisa Puga
Lisa Puga is a Ph.D. Candidate in the Department of Childhood Studies at Rutgers University-Camden. Her research interests include educational liberation, racial equity, and youth activism. She lives in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania with her husband and three children.