LEGITIMATE PERIPHERAL PARTICIPATION: How Commitment to Homeschooling Grows

Posted on November 23, 2012 by Milton Gaither

Record: Leslie Safran, “Legitimate Peripheral Participation and Home Education” in Teaching and Teacher Education 26, no. 1 (2010): 107-112.

Summary: Safran, a British researcher who has written a few other works on homeschooling and in 2008 completed her doctoral dissertation, titled Exploring identity change and communities of practice among long term home educating parents, here introduces an interesting theoretical concept that she thinks helps explain how novice homeschoolers only marginally or temporarily committed to the practice become more engaged practitioners. Continue reading →

Posted in International, Parental Motivation, Socialization | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on LEGITIMATE PERIPHERAL PARTICIPATION: How Commitment to Homeschooling Grows

THE TEMPORAL EMOTION WORK OF MOTHERHOOD: How Homeschooling Mothers Deal with the Time Crunch

Posted on November 23, 2012 by Milton Gaither

Record: Jennifer Lois, “The Temporal Emotion Work of Motherhood: Homeschoolers’ Strategies for Managing Time Shortage” in Gender and Society, 24, no. 4 (August 2010): 421-446.

Summary: Lois, a professor of sociology at Western Washington University, here continues her work focusing on the lived experiences of homeschooling mothers.  For a review of an earlier article by Lois on similar themes, click here.

In this piece she’s looking at how homeschooling mothers deal with the frustrations they feel due to the lack of free time they have.  Continue reading →

Posted in Gender, Parental Motivation | Tagged , , , , , , | Comments Off on THE TEMPORAL EMOTION WORK OF MOTHERHOOD: How Homeschooling Mothers Deal with the Time Crunch

HOME EDUCATION IN THE POST COMMUNIST COUNTRIES: the Czech Republic

Posted on November 20, 2012 by Milton Gaither

Record: Yvona Kostelecká, “Home Education in the Post Communist Countries: Case Study of the Czech Republic” in International Electronic Journal of Elementary Education, 3, no. 1 (October 2010).  Available Here.

Summary: Kostelecká, a member of the education faculty at Charles University in Prague, here tries to get purchase on homeschooling in the wider world of post-Communist Eastern Europe by looking in detail at the Czech Republic.  Her conclusion?  It’s legal but rare and heavily regulated. Continue reading →

Posted in International, Parental Motivation, Special Needs | Tagged , , , , | Comments Off on HOME EDUCATION IN THE POST COMMUNIST COUNTRIES: the Czech Republic

THE BUSINESS OF EDUCATION: Home Study Programs in the 1920s-1930s and Today

Posted on November 20, 2012 by Milton Gaither

Record: Robert Hampel, “The Business of Education: Home Study at Columbia University and the University of Wisconsin in the 1920s and 1930s.” in Teachers College Record 112, no. 9 (September 2010): 2496-2517.

Summary: Hampel, a professor at the University of Delaware, here provides a fascinating look at a once popular but now largely forgotten form of education that was based in the home.  In the early 20th century millions of Americans enrolled in all sorts of programs by correspondence.  Most of them enrolled in classes with for-profit companies who often promised the moon, used aggressive recruitment strategies, and played hardball if you failed to make payments.  But several thousands of Americans also took study-at-home courses from the nation’s universities.  In earlier work Hampel has given us fine history of the for-profit companies.  Here he looks at the universities. Continue reading →

Posted in College/Postsecondary, History, Public Schools | Tagged , , , , , | Comments Off on THE BUSINESS OF EDUCATION: Home Study Programs in the 1920s-1930s and Today

IS HOME SCHOOLING ‘IN THE BEST INTERESTS OF THE CHILD?’: Divorce and Homeschooling

Posted on November 16, 2012 by Milton Gaither

Record: Charles J. Russo, “Is Home Schooling ‘in the Best Interests of the Child?’ The Supreme Court of New Hampshire Answers – Not When Divorced Parents Disagree!” in Private School Monitor 33, no. 2 (Fall 2011).

Summary: Russo, a prolific scholar on legal issues in education who has had several occasions in the past to turn his attention to homeschooling, here examines the legal status of homeschooling in light of the recent In re Kurowski (2011) case in New Hampshire that pitted a divorced homeschooling mother against her ex-husband who disapproved of the practice. Continue reading →

Posted in Legal | Tagged , , , , , | Comments Off on IS HOME SCHOOLING ‘IN THE BEST INTERESTS OF THE CHILD?’: Divorce and Homeschooling

HOME EDUCATION: Three Types of Homeschoolers

Posted on November 16, 2012 by Milton Gaither

Record: Ruth Morton, “Home Education: Constructions of Choice” in International Electronic Journal of Elementary Education 3, no. 1 (October 2010) Available Here.

Summary: Morton, a doctoral student at the University of Warwick whose dissertation is a qualitative study of homeschooling motivations and practice in the United Kingdom, here gives us a taste of what the dissertation will contain, describing how there are three basic motivational types of homeschoolers. Continue reading →

Posted in International, Parental Motivation | Tagged , , , , | Comments Off on HOME EDUCATION: Three Types of Homeschoolers

RACE AND EDUCATION AT THE CROSSROADS: A Hypothetical Thought Experiment

Posted on November 13, 2012 by Milton Gaither

Record: Consuelo Valenzuela Lickstein, “Race and Education at a Crossroads: How Parents Involved in Community Schools v. Seattle School District No. 1 and Wisconsin v. Yoder Shed Light on the Potential Conflict Between the Black Homeschooling Movement and K-12 Affirmative Action Programs” in The Journal of Gender, Race and Justice 13 (Spring 2010): 835-857.

Summary: Lickstein, an associate at Choate Hall and Stewart LLP and recent graduate of University of Iowa College of Law, here presents an interesting thought experiment about homeschooling and diversity in public schools.

It goes like this.  Suppose there were a group of African Americans in an Iowa town who, dissatisfied with the public schools, chose as a group to leave them and homeschool instead.  Now suppose that the Iowa district really wants to increase racial diversity in their public school classrooms and, frustrated by this secession, passes a law prohibiting homeschooling by minorities because they are needed to ensure diverse classrooms.  Now imagine that the African American families sue and that the case makes it to the Supreme Court.  What would happen? Continue reading →

Posted in Legal, Public Schools, Race/Ethnicity | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on RACE AND EDUCATION AT THE CROSSROADS: A Hypothetical Thought Experiment

HOW TO REGULATE HOMESCHOOLING: An Argument for Minority Parents’ Rights

Posted on November 13, 2012 by Milton Gaither

Record: Courtenay E. Moran, “How to Regulate Homeschooling: Why History Supports the Theory of Parental Choice” in University of illinois Law Review, 2011, no. 3 (2011): 1061-1094. [Available Here]

Summary: Moran, a J. D. candidate at the University of Illinois College of Law and former homeschooler himself, here offers an ambitious, historically-grounded legal argument for the viability of limited goverment regulation of homeschooling. Continue reading →

Posted in Civics, History, Legal, Policy/Regulation | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on HOW TO REGULATE HOMESCHOOLING: An Argument for Minority Parents’ Rights

RECOGNIZING AND REGULATING: Another Lawyer Considers Homeschooling Regulations

Posted on November 8, 2012 by Milton Gaither

Record: Paul A. Alarcón, “Recognizing and Regulating Home Schooling in California: Balancing Parental and State Interests in Education” in Chapman Law Review, 13 (2010): 391-416.

Summary: Alarcón here presents a summary of the recent In re Rachel L. and Jonathan L. decisions in California and an argument that the California legislature should pass new legislation that explicitly gives parents a right to homeschool but that also requires parents to submit annual notification of intent to homeschool and annual standardized test scores. Continue reading →

Posted in Legal, Policy/Regulation | Tagged , , , , , , , | Comments Off on RECOGNIZING AND REGULATING: Another Lawyer Considers Homeschooling Regulations

EVIDENCE FOR HOMESCHOOLING: Three Lawyers Argue for Less Regulation of Homeschooling

Posted on November 8, 2012 by Milton Gaither

Record: Tanya K. Dumas, Sean Gates, and Deborah R. Schwarzer, “Evidence for Homeschooling: Constitutional Analysis in Light of Social Science Research” in Widener Law Review, 16, no. 1 (September 2010): 63-87. [Abstract available here]

Summary: The authors here are all lawyers who homeschool their children.  Schwarzer particularly is well-known in California as a member of the Board of Directors of the Gifted Homeschoolers Forum and especially through her work with the Homeschool Association of California’s efforts to overturn the In re Rachel L. decision that caused such consternation back in 2008.

The present article emerges from that case.  Continue reading →

Posted in Legal, Policy/Regulation | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on EVIDENCE FOR HOMESCHOOLING: Three Lawyers Argue for Less Regulation of Homeschooling