HOMESCHOOLING BASED ON TECHNOLOGY IN MALAYSIA

Posted on March 7, 2014 by Milton Gaither

Record: Norlidah Alias, Mohd. Nazri Abdul Rahman, Siraj Saedah, and Ruslina Ibrahim, “A Model of Homeschooling Based on Technology in Malaysia” in The Malaysian Online Journal of Educational Technology 1, no. 3 (July 2013): 10-16 [Available Here]

Summary:  The authors begin with a helpful overview of recent developments in Malaysian education policy.  In 2003 the Free and Compulsory Education Act was passed, which compels children age 6 and over to attend a school but allows parental choice for private or home-based learning.

Since that time a small but growing “homeschooling” trend has been documented, and research is being conducted on the families choosing this option.  Continue reading →

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THE TRANSMISSION OF VALUES: Do Homeschooled Christian Kids Keep the Faith as Adults?

Posted on February 28, 2014 by Milton Gaither

Record: Braden Ryan Hoelzle, “The Transmission of Values and the Transition into Adulthood Within the Context of Home Education” in Journal of Research on Christian Education 22, no. 3 (2013), pp. 244-263.

Summary:  Hoelzle, a doctoral student in education at Southern Methodist University, here presents the results of a qualitative study of four young adults, all of whom had been homeschooled for eight or more years.  His goal was to assess the success of the strategy of using homeschooling to pass on parental religious and moral values.

Hoelzle reveals at the outset that he himself is an evangelical Christian who is hoping to use homeschooling as a way to transmit his values to his own children.  But so far the scholarship on this question is very thin.  He mentions Brian Ray’s oft-cited but methodologically weak 2004 survey of young adults who had been homeschooled, finding its generalizations too generic.  He wants to know in a deeper, richer way just what homeschooled children think about the religious convictions of their parents once they leave. Continue reading →

Posted in College/Postsecondary, Parental Motivation, Religion, Socialization | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

“YOU CAN’T RELY ON SOMEBODY ELSE”: How Homeschooling Dads Think

Posted on February 21, 2014 by Milton Gaither

Record: Lee Garth Vigilant, Lauren Wold Trefethren, and Tyler C. Anderson, “‘You Can’t Rely on Somebody Else to Teach Them Something they Don’t Believe’: Impressions of Legimitation Crisis and Socialization Control in the Narratives of Christian Homeschooling Fathers” in Humanity and Society 37, no. 3 (2013): 201-224. [Abstract Here]

Summary: Vigilant, a father of homeschooled children who is also a sociology professor at Minnesota State University Morehead, here joins with two non-homeschooling colleagues to present one of the first studies ever of homeschooling fathers.  Vigilant and his wife, who are African American, turned to homeschooling upon moving to Minnesota, which in his words ranks “among the worst states in the nation for the achievement gap between black and white students in mathematics and reading.” (p. 202)  Noting that the sociological literature on parental motivation focused nearly exclusively on mothers, Vigilant wanted to learn what fathers were doing and thinking about homeschooling. Continue reading →

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HOMESCHOOLING LAWS IN NEW JERSEY: An Argument for Increasing Scrutiny

Posted on February 15, 2014 by Milton Gaither

Record: Elizabeth Richardson, “Homeschooling Laws (or Lack Thereof) in New Jersey–Are Children Slipping Through the Cracks?” in Journal of Law and Education 42, no. 1 (Winter 2013): 173-181 [Abstract Here]

Summary: Richardson, a law clerk at Lynch, Cox, Gilman, and Goodman in Kentucky, here summarizes and comments on New Jersey homeschooling law.  Continue reading →

Posted in Legal, Policy/Regulation | Tagged , , , , , , | 2 Comments

PHYSICAL ACTIVITY AND NUTRITION: Comparing Home and Public Schooled Children

Posted on February 3, 2014 by Milton Gaither

Record: Douglas E. Long, Lisa M. Gaetke, Stephen D. Perry, Mark G. Abel, and Jody L. Clasey, “The Assessment of Physical Activity and Nutrition in Home Schooled versus Public Schooled Children” in Pediatric Exercise Science 22, no. 1 (February 2010): 44-59. [Abstract Here]

Summary:  A few weeks ago I reviewed a recent article by Cardel et al. that found a sample of Alabama homeschoolers to consume on average 120 fewer calories per day than a comparable group of public schoolers.  That article cited this 2010 piece, which I had previously failed to notice.

In this 2010 article a similar study was conducted to compare the food intake and amount of exercise between comparable groups of home and public schooled children.  Continue reading →

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VACCINE-PREVENTABLE DISEASE: Tetanus Among Oklahoma Homeschoolers

Posted on December 30, 2013 by Milton Gaither

Record:  Matthew G. Johnson, Kristy K. Bradley, Susan Mendus, Laurence Burnsed, Rachel Clinton, and Tejpratap Tiwari, “Vaccine-Preventable Disease Among Homeschooled Children: Two Cases of Tetanus in Oklahoma” in Pediatrics 132 , no. 6 (December 2013): e1686-e1689. Available Here.

Summary:  Johnson and colleagues begin by noting that rates of vaccination among homeschoolers are unknown because in many states they are not subject to the same school-entry vaccination requirements as are other schoolchildren.  The authors then explain that tetanus has become extremely rare in the United States thanks to vaccinations.  In the entire United States there were only 37 reported cases of tetanus in 2012.  In Oklahoma there were only two.  Both were homeschoolers, Continue reading →

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HOME SCHOOLED CHILDREN ARE THINNER: A Nutrition Comparison between Public and Home Schooled Children

Posted on December 19, 2013 by Milton Gaither

Record: Michelle Cardel et al., “Home-Schooled Children are Thinner, Leaner, and Report Better Diets Relative to Traditionally Schooled Children” in Pediatric Obesity (forthcoming, 2013).  Abstract Here.

Summary:  In this piece 11 authors compare the diets of 47 home schooled children in the Birmingham, AL area with 48 demographically similar children from the same region who attend public schools.

Going into the project the authors wondered, given that both homeschooling and childhood obesity have grown markedly since the 1970s, if homeschooled children might be more prone to obesity.  Continue reading →

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THE LONG WAY HOME: Recent Developments in Home Education Law in Spain

Posted on December 10, 2013 by Milton Gaither

Record:  María J. Valero Estarellas, “The Long Way Home: Recent Developments in the Spanish Case Law on Home Education” in Oxford Journal of Law and Religion (2013): 1-25. [Available here].

Summary:  Estarellas, a professor at Centro Universitario Villanueva, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, here summarizes recent case law pertaining to home education in Spain.  In 2010 the Spanish Constitutional Court handed down a major decision that is having a transformative impact on home education cases around the country. Continue reading →

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GENDER, RELIGION, AND HOMESCHOOLING: Michael Apple Weighs In

Posted on December 3, 2013 by Milton Gaither

Record:

Michael W. Apple, “Gender, Religion, and the Work of Homeschooling” in Zehavit Gross, Lynn Davies, and Al-Khansaa Diab, eds., Gender, Religion and Education in a Chaotic Postmodern World (Springer, 2013). Abstract Here.

Summary:

Apple, an education professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, is one of the nation’s best-known education scholars and a long-time observer and critic of conservative educational efforts.  Readers of his 2006 book Educating the Right Way will find the contents of this new chapter very familiar.

Apple begins with a basic orientation to the homeschooling movement, noting its left-wing origins but stressing its dramatic growth among conservative Christians in the 1980s and 90s.  His preferred term for these conservative Christian movement activists is “authoritarian populists,” a phrase that acknowledges both the grass-roots nature of the movement and its long-term goal of restoring the vision of Godly and Patriarchal authority it embodies in the home to the broader American culture. Continue reading →

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USING A SEEDED SAMPLE: Are Homeschoolers Over or Under Represented in Surveys?

Posted on November 26, 2013 by Milton Gaither

Record:  Stacey Bielick, Lina Guzman, Astrid Atienza, and Andrew Rivers, “Using a Seeded Sample to Measure Response among Homeschooling Households” in Survey Practice 2, no. 9 (2009).  Available Here.

 Summary:  Bielick and colleagues used a complex and creative sampling strategy to try to determine whether or not homeschooling families were likely to be under or over represented in The National Center of Education Statistics’ National Household Education Survey (NHES). Continue reading →

Posted in Research Methodology | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment