RELIGIOUS HOMESCHOOLERS AND PART-TIME PUBLIC SCHOOL ENROLLMENT

Record: Jesse Thomas, “Perspectives of Homeschoolers Motivated by Religious and Moral Reasons” in Journal of Research on Christian Education 28, no. 1 (2019): 21-42.

Summary: Thomas, a math teacher at Curry Ingram Academy in Brentwood, TN, previously wrote a 2016 report  on homeschooling parents’ pedagogical motivations.  This article, like his 2016 report, draws on a very large sample (n=1055) who took an online survey with both quantitative and qualitative aspects, a survey Thomas originally created for his 2015 doctoral dissertation.

For this article Thomas wanted to know more about the relationship between religious motivation to homeschool and willingness on the part of homeschooling parents (actually mothers.  His sample is 97% female) to enroll their children part time in public schools.  Continue reading

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HOMESCHOOLERS IN THE LIBRARY

Record: Sarah Pannone, “Homeschoolers’ Experiences with the Public Library: A Phenomenological Study” in Children and Libraries 17, no. 1 (Spring 2019): 5-10. [Preview Here].

Summary: Pannone, an Adjunct Instructor and doctoral director at Liberty University and author of previous articles on the experiences of new homeschooling mothers and on connections between homeschooling and entrepreneurialism, here examines homeschoolers and use of the public library.

Like her previous studies, this one is a small convenience sample (seven families in this instance), and, as in the past, she organizes her data under three main findings.

After a brief literature review establishing that homeschooling families have long been found to frequent public libraries at high rates, she introduces her study, which seeks to find out why. Continue reading

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WHERE DO WE BELONG: A Lawyer Argues for Federal Regulation of Homeschooling

Record: Alicia Kreh, “Where do We Belong: A Call for Consistency in Homeschooling Regulation” in University of La Verne Law Review 36 (2015): 237-273. [Contents here]

Summary: Kreh, an attorney in Fort Worth, TX, here presents an argument for norming state regulation of homeschooling by federal mandate.   This article was published back in 2015 but escaped my noticed until recently.  When she wrote it Kreh was still a student at the Michigan State University College of Law.

Kreh’s thesis is that the U.S. Congress should pass legislation that “creates a regulatory scheme that recognizes parental rights while encouraging consistent systems of homeschool regulations among the various states.” (p. 239-240)  Those regulations should include required notification and monitoring of homeschooled children, including with testing comparable to testing required of public schooled students. Continue reading

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STEM and Homeschooling Parents

Record: Courtney Gann and Dan Carpenter, “STEM Educational Activities and the Role of the Parent in the Home Education of High School Students” in Educational Review 71, no. 2 (2019): 166-181. [Abstract Here]

Summary: Gann is a former doctoral student at Texas Tech University, and Carpenter was previously her adviser at Texas Tech but now is an Associate Professor of STEAM Education at Concordia University.  Here they present the second article they have published together on the topic of STEM education and homeschooling.

This article is based upon the same study they conducted for their first article.  It begins with a solid literature review that is entirely different than the equally compelling review presented in the first piece.  This time there is less emphasis on the overall homeschooling phenomenon and more on scholarship specific to the practices of parent-educators. Continue reading

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HOMESCHOOLING IN THE UNITED STATES

Record: Kyle Greenwalt, “Homeschooling in the United States” in Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Education (February 2019) [Abstract here]

Summary: Greenwalt, Associate Professor of Education at the University of Minnesota, here attempts a broad summary of homeschooling in the United States in the form of an encyclopedia article.

Greenwalt divides his article into four parts: the definition of homeschooling, the history of homeschooling, sociological study of homeschooling, and the future of homeschooling.  We’ll take each in turn. Continue reading

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CHRISTIAN HOMESCHOOLING IN CHINA

Record: Xiaoming Sheng, “Christian Homeschooling in China” in British Journal of Religious Education 41, no. 2 (2019): 218-231. [abstract here]

Summary: Xiaoming Sheng should be a familiar name to veteran readers of this blog.  We have previously covered her work on Chinese homeschool law and on a small group of Confucian homeschoolers involved in a very interesting collective.  In this study she shifts her attention to Chinese Christians who homeschool, particularly examining why and how they do it. Continue reading

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HOW I STARTED: Parental Motivations in Parents’ Own Words

Record: Ari Neuman and Oz Guterman, “How I Started Home Schooling: Founding Stories of Mothers Who Home School Their Children,” in Research Papers in Education 34, no. 2, (2019): 192-207. [abstract here]

Summary: Neuman and Guterman, who have been on a publishing bender over the past three years, here present the results of interviews with 25 Israeli homeschooling mothers, which they interpret to say something new and interesting about the much-studied topic of parental motivation for homeschooling. Continue reading

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HOMESCHOOL BACKGROUND: Homeschoolers at Patrick Henry College

Record: Daniel L. Bennett, Elyssa Edwards, and Courtney Ngai, “Homeschool Background, Time Use and Academic Performance at a Private Religious College” in Educational Studies 45, no. 3 (2019), pp. 305-325. [abstract here]

Summary: Bennett, an economics professor at Baylor‘s Libertarian-leaning Baugh Center who taught for two years at Patrick Henry College (PHC), along with Edwards and Ngai, both former students at PHC, here present the results of a comparison between the homeschooled students at PHC with those who attended conventional schools. Continue reading

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Reaction to Dwyer and Peters, HOMESCHOOLING

In a previous post I summarized the new book by Shawn F. Peters and James G. Dwyer, Homeschooling: The History and Philosophy of a Controversial Practice (University of Chicago Press, 2019).  In this post I will make some comments about it. Continue reading

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A New Scholarly Book on Homeschooling

Record:  James G. Dwyer and Shawn F. Peters, Homeschooling: The History and Philosophy of a Controversial Practice (University of Chicago Press, 2019).

It has been several years now since we’ve had a rigorous scholarly book on homeschooling.  This new book by Peters and Dwyer is a welcome addition.  I will take two posts to review it.  This first post will summarize the book’s contents.  In a second post I will make some comments of my own. Continue reading

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