African American Homeschooling and the Question of Curricular Cultural Relevance

African American Homeschool Parents’ Motivations for Homeschooling and Their Black Children’s Academic Achievement

“…In addition, some of them mentioned race/ethnicity-related issues as part of their many reasons for homeschooling. Findings in this study offer no solid evidence that this group of Black homeschoolers chose home-based education primarily to promote anything like Afrocentrism or its thinking to their children, even though Mazama and Lundy (2013b) found in their study that "many African American homeschoolers believe that a Eurocentric curriculum is bound to gravely interfere with their children's self-esteem and sense of purpose" (p. 123). Evidence from the current study, however, indicates that these parents are not promoting Afrocentric essentialism.…”

“…Apple (2000) and Lubienski (2000), for example, associate the choice to homeschool with selfishness on the part of parents. Scholars have found, however, that Black homeschool parents are highly motivated to proactively seek out and construct the best education possible for their children, for their children's sake (Fields-Smith & Kisura, 2013;Fields-Smith & Williams, 2009;Mazama & Lundy, 2012, 2013a, 2013bTaylor, 2005). There is still relatively little known about homeschooling by Black families.…”

“…Also, the Black homeschooling community is relatively new and has not had as much time to develop support infrastructure. Finally, I hypothesized that Black parents' reasons for homeschooling are similar to those of homeschool parents in general, except that they might mention shielding their children from racebased or racist behaviors in public schools (Fields-Smith & Kisura, 2013;Fields-Smith & Williams, 2009;Mazama & Lundy, 2012, 2013a, 2013b.…”

“…(p. 266) Mazama and Lundy (2013b) interviewed 74 Black parents, and surveys, focus groups, and participant observations of Black homeschooling parents were also done. Regarding reasons for homeschooling, they found that: most parents gave two to three reasons for homeschooling and rarely were they motivated by a single cause.…”

Today’s Choices for Selecting a School: What is the Emerging Story?

“…Research on investigating issues related to equity and diversity related to home-schooling have brought in evidence that African American home-schoolers were able to gain a more comprehensive understanding of American history beyond the typical ethnocentric curriculum found in many public schools (Mazama & Lundy, 2013). There has also been a positive shift in the attitude those admission officers' attitudes toward and perceptions of the home-schooled graduates.…”