Record: Baidi Baidi, “The Role of Parents’ Interests and Attitudes in Motivating Them to Homeschool Their Children” in Journal of Social Studies Education Research 10(2019): 156-177. [Abstract here]
Summary: I was unable to locate any information about this author, and the website for the State Islamic Institute (IAIN) of Surakarta did not work when I tried it. There is a Wikipedia page about this institute here. The Journal of Social Studies Education Research seems to be an English-language, open-access, online journal based in Turkey.
This article reports the results of a survey of a sample of 100 Indonesian homeschooling parents about their motivations. Baidi begins with a meandering literature review, mostly of American sources, noting some of the benefits and a few of the potential problems with homeschooling. While his summaries of this literature, most of which we have reviewed over the years on this blog, were recognizable, it was not always clear to me that he actually understood what was being discussed in the articles or that he grasped the larger picture of which the articles he chose to emphasize form a part. For example, at one point (p. 158) Baidi mentions that Vigilant’s point about spiritual beliefs being a prominent feature of homeschooling agrees with Charlotte Mason’s beliefs, not seeming to understand that Vigilant is a 21st century researcher studying conservative Christian homeschooling fathers, while Charlotte Mason was a British education reformer of the late 19th and early 20th centuries whose writings inspire a particular subset of modern homeschoolers. Elsewhere he asserts that “homeschooling was officially approved in 50 states under the auspices of the homeschooling policy set by Bauman” (p. 161). Bauman was actually just a researcher providing some very good early analysis of statistical data regarding homeschooling in the United States.
After the lit review Baidi explains his study. He recruited 100 homeschooling parents from “10 community of homeschooling areas in five districts in Surakarta city, each of which involved 10 parents.” (p. 167). 70 of these parents had elementary-aged children, while 30 had secondary-aged children. Each subject filled out a questionnaire with 75 questions. He subjected these questions to multiple regression analysis. Baidi spends a lot of time in this article explaining the various tests he conducted, all of which collectively point to the finding that a parent’s interests and attitudes influence her motivation to homeschool her child(ren). Baidi concludes, “interest and attitude contributes 42.2% of parents motivations to send children to homeschooling.” (p. 173). Though the article nowhere explains the nature of the survey or provides the actual questions or responses, Baidi wraps it up by saying, and here I quote exactly, “The most reason that appears in the perspective is himeschooling is considered more secure to protect from morality and relegions.” (p. 173).
Appraisal: If you’re still reading you know already what I’m going to say. This article was absolute rubbish. One could forgive the English prose perhaps despite the claims this journal makes for its rigorous vetting and editing process. The raw material does seem to be there for what could be a decent article. Baidi did clearly read a lot of the secondary literature. He seems to really have conducted a survey of 100 Indonesian homeschoolers. Homeschooling research could truly benefit from a good summary of the motivations of 100 Indonesian homeschoolers. Who are these people? What are they doing? What is the situation in Indonesia? Are these families rare exceptions or part of a broad, organized movement? How did Baidi find them? How many children are we talking here? Are these families demographically typical of the population in Surakarta or distinct somehow? There is precious little known about homeschooling in Indonesia. A researcher with a sample of 100 families could have told us so much. But this article tells us nothing at all.
Milton Gaither