Despite a significant increase in scholarly interest for homeschooling, some of its most critical aspects, such as instructional daily practices, remain grossly understudied. This essay thus seeks to fill that void by presenting empirical evidence regarding the homeschooling practices of a specific group, African Americans. Most specifically, the purpose of this essay is to answer the following questions: Who teaches Black homeschooled children? How are they taught? And, what are they taught? What emerges is that while African American homeschooling practices vary widely based on parents’ teaching and learning philosophies and ultimate objective, a common tendency is the implementation of a curriculum inclusive of African/African American history and culture. Moreover, contrary to previous claims, this study does not lend credence to the notion that Black homeschooling is overly structured and rigid.
AsanteM (2003) The Afrocentric Idea. Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press.
2.
AudSHussarWKenaG. (2011) The Condition of Education 2011 (NCES 2011-033). Washington, DC: National Center for Education Statistics, Institute of Education Sciences, U.S. Department of Education.
3.
BeckerGS (1964) Human Capital: A Theoretical and Empirical Analysis, with Special Reference to Education. New York: Columbia University Press.
4.
BlautJ (1993) The Colonizer’s Model of the World: Geographical Diffusionism and Eurocentric History. New York: Guilford Press.
5.
BushM (2011) Everyday Forms of Whiteness: Understanding Race in a ‘Post-Racial’ World, 2nd edn. New York: Rowman & Littlefield.
6.
CharmazK (2013) Constructing Grounded Theory: A Practical Guide through Qualitative Analysis. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE.
7.
ColemanS (2003) Home schooling is increasing among African Americans. In:MurC (ed.) Home Schooling at Issue, pp. 22–25. San Diego, CA: Greenhaven Press.
8.
FergusonR (2008) Toward Excellence with Equity: An Emerging Vision for Closing the Achievement Gap. Boston, MA: Harvard Education Press.
9.
FulbrightL (2006) Blacks take education into their own hands. San Francisco Chronicle, 25September, p. A1.
10.
GathierM (2007) Homeschool: An American History. London: Palgrave Macmillan.
11.
GradySBielickS (2010) Trends in the use of school choice 1993 to 2007. Report no. NCES 2010-004, April. Washington, DC: National Center for Education Statistics, Institute of Education Sciences, U.S. Department of Education.
12.
HoltJ (1967) How Children Learn. New York: Pitman Publishing Corporation.
13.
LareauA (2000) Home Advantage: Social Class and Parental Intervention in Elementary Education. Oxford: Rowman & Littlefield.
14.
LawtonD (2000) Values and education: A curriculum for the twenty-first century. In: CairnsJGardnerRLawtonD (eds) Values and the Curriculum, pp. 25–36. London and Portland, OR: Woburn Press.
McDowellSSanchezAJonesS (2000) Participation and perception: Looking at homeschooling through a multicultural lens. Peabody Journal of Education75(1–2): 124–146.
17.
MazamaALundyG (2012) African American homeschooling as racial protectionism. Journal of Black Studies43(7): 723–748.
18.
MazamaALundyG (2013) African American homeschooling and the quest for a quality education. Education and Urban Society20(10): 1–22.
19.
MazamaAMusumunuG (2015) African American Homeschooling: Motivations, Challenges and Opportunities. London and New York: Routledge.
20.
MurphyJ (2012) Homeschooling in America: Capturing and Assessing the Movement. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin, A SAGE Company.
21.
MurphyJ (2014) The social educational outcomes of homeschooling. Sociological Spectrum34(3): 244–272.
22.
NAEP (2014) The Nation’s Report Card: 2013 Mathematics and Reading at Grade 12 – Academic Preparedness Research. Available at: http://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/
23.
NoelAStarkPRedfordJ (2013) Parent and family involvement in education, from the national household education surveys program of 2012. Report no. NCES 2013-028. Washington, DC: National Center for Education Statistics, Institute of Education Sciences, U.S. Department of Education. Available at: http://nces.ed.gov/pubs2013/2013028rev.pdf
24.
NogueraAYonemura WingJ (2008) Unfinished Business: Closing the Racial Achievement Gap in Our Schools. New York: Wiley, Jossey-Bass.
25.
RayB (2000) Home schooling: The ameliorator of negative influences on learning?Peabody Journal of Education75(1–2): 71–106.
RayB (2015) African American homeschool parents’ motivations for homeschooling and their black children’s academic achievement. Journal of School Choice: International Research and Reform9(1): 71–96.
28.
RommT (1993) Homeschooling and the transmission of civic culture. Unpublished Doctoral Dissertation, Clark Atlanta University, Atlanta, GA.
29.
StraussA (1987) Qualitative Analysis for Social Scientists. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
30.
StraussACorbinJ (2008) Basics of Qualitative Research: Techniques and Procedures for Developing Grounded Theory, 3rd edn.Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE.
31.
ValenciaR (2010) Dismantling Contemporary Deficit Thinking: Educational Thought and Practice. London: Routledge.
32.
ValenciaR (2015) Students of Color and the Achievement Gap: Systemic Challenges, Systemic Transformations. London: Routledge.
