How Homeschooling Evolved from Subversive to Mainstream

The pandemic helped establish homeschooling as a fixture among

educational options in the US. But it’s been around—and gaining in
popularity—for a while.
We are in the midst of a homeschooling boom. The US Census Bureau
reported that, between the spring of 2020 and the beginning of the new
school year later that fall, the number of homeschooling families had
doubled, to 11.1 percent of all US households. Among Black families, the
Census Bureau found that the share had increased by five times, from 3.3
percent in the spring to 16.1 percent in the fall.
Like many pandemic-induced changes to American society, what remains to
be seen is whether homeschooling is having a moment, or whether it is
establishing itself as a permanent feature among educational options in the
US. There are reasons to suspect it could be the latter. Chalkbeat, in
collaboration with the Associated Press, reported on how public school
districts across the country, anxious about prolonged declines in enrollment,
are trying creative ways to register families—including equipping bus drivers
to call parents. An analysis by the New York Times and Stanford University
compared fall enrollment numbers in 2019 and 2020, and found that 10,000
public schools across 33 states saw their kindergarten populations shrink by
at least 20 percent. Their reporting also indicates that some of these schools
are concerned that the numbers aren’t likely to bounce back in the fall of
2021.
In the midst of what looks to be a new era for interest in homeschooling,
scholarly investigations into its challenges, cultural forms, and outcomes are
more relevant than ever. But while curiosity about homeschooling is
especially pronounced now, homeschooling has tracked a steady uptick in
the US since the 1960s.
Five Phases of Development
The path from marginal educational choice to widespread legal and cultural
acceptance has not been without its share of conflict and pushback. The
education scholars J. Gary Knowles, Stacey E. Marlow, and James A.
Muchmore trace this dramatic history in an article in the American Journal
of Education, breaking the early growth of US homeschooling into five
phases.
These scholars point out that while, for centuries, most children around the
world were educated at home by parents or tutors, there was a marked shift
toward schooling away from home by the mid-1800s, when compulsory,
formal education emerged in the US. Between 1850 and 1970, few families
educated their children at home. But in the mid-1960s and early 1970s, with
stirrings of dissatisfaction with the public-school system, homeschooling
began to catch on.

By the broader public,

homeschooling was considered
to be strange, a practice
conducted by people on the
fringes of society.
These stirrings kicked off phase one of the researchers’ five phases: the
“contention” phase. This phase was characterized by education reformers
vocalizing their concerns about the shortcomings of traditional schooling. By
the broader public, homeschooling was considered to be strange, one
conducted by people on the fringes of society. “In the early 1970s,” the
authors write, “home education was segmented and was seen primarily by
the public and media as a subversive educational activity carried out by
idealists, often surreptitiously or underground.” What’s more, it was illegal
in most states.
The second phase, “confrontation,” began in the early 1970s and peaked at
the end of the decade, bringing with it some high-profile legal fights. In
1972, the Supreme Court heard Wisconsin v. Yoder, which proved to be a
seminal moment for the homeschooling movement—ultimately granting
Amish parents the right to educate their children at home after eighth
grade. At the same time, the decision qualified that “the parental interest
must be religious in nature rather than philosophical or personal.” This
decision kicked off a host of state-level court cases addressing a number of
issues related to home education. Knowles, Marlow, and Muchmore note
that “while most litigation proceedings were initiated by school officials, in
most states a majority of legal cases in the 1970s were decided in favor of
the parents.” Still, homeschooling would not be legal in all 50 states until
1993.
The third phase, “cooperation,” emerged from the easing of legal
restrictions and the enactment of new policies that allowed homeschooled
students to use public-school facilities. By 1985, some estimates report that
approximately 200,000 US families homeschooled their children.
In the early 1990s, the fourth “consolidation” phase marked a new strength
in homeschooler networks and lobbying power.
The final stage, “compartmentalization,” evolved soon after, as
homeschooling became more widely accepted and the “strange
bedfellows”—as the journalist Kathleen Cushman put it—comprising the
homeschooling movement no longer had to form a united front against
other educators. These “strange bedfellows” consisted of families who were
motivated by religious beliefs, by pedagogical ideals, by a desire to foster
close family relationships, and by a host of other overlapping reasons.
Another reason motivating some families: the desire among families of
color, especially Black families, to protect their children from pervasive
racism in the educational setting.

Parents’ Motivations for Homeschooling

Researchers Oz Guterman and Ari Neuman presented questionnaires to 62
homeschooling parents in Israel. Based on their responses, they divided the
parents into two groups: those whose reasoning for homeschooling was
“pedagogical only” (or squarely focused on curricular control and a concern
about a low standard of education in schools), and those whose reasoning
was driven by “pedagogical and family reasons” (that is, a desire to foster
strong relationships among the family unit, sometimes coupled with a
responsiveness to children’s health needs).

Balancing the teacher role

against various other parenting
and domestic duties could
quickly overwhelm.
In their paper in the International Review of Education, “Different Reasons
for One Significant Choice: Factors Influencing Homeschool Choice in
Israel,” they describe their findings. It turned out that families who decided
to homeschool based on both pedagogical and family reasons viewed the
impact of homeschooling on their children more positively than did those in
the “pedagogical-reasons only” camp:
It is possible that families who choose homeschooling for family-related
reasons as well dedicate more time to other activities, such as family trips,
joint preparation of meals and so on… The two groups of families may view
the very definition of learning differently.
They found that parents whose motivations were strictly pedagogical
devoted more hours per week to learning.
The mindsets that parents bring to homeschooling also may be tied to their
experiences of burnout, finds researcher Jennifer Lois. In her article in the
journal Symbolic Interaction, she explored how homeschooling parents (all
mothers, in her study) adjusted to their roles. She found that they were
often optimistic in the early days, but that balancing the teacher role against
various other parenting and domestic duties could quickly overwhelm. In her
ethnographic study of a homeschooling support group—and in interviews
with 24 homeschooling mothers in the Pacific Northwest—she found that
some types of “emotion work” did help homeschooling mothers reduce and
overcome burnout.
She concludes that the mothers who moved past (or completely avoided)
burnout did so by achieving what she called “role harmony”—that is, finding
ways to integrate and prioritize their various roles. For one thing, they
prioritized the role of mother over the role of homemaker, which meant, for
example, that they lowered their standards for housework in favor of more
time with their children. They also tended to relax their curricular structure
and devise more independent learning opportunities for their kids, adopting
more of a “facilitator” role. Importantly, Lois also found that homeschooling
moms who moved past burnout almost always had partners who supported
them in their housework, childcare, and teaching duties.

What about the Kids?

How does homeschooling affect the children themselves? Plenty of
researchers have sought answers to this question, too. In an article in the
International Social Science Review, the education scholars Cynthia K.
Drenovsky and Isaiah Cohen had 185 college students complete a
questionnaire—35 of whom had been traditionally schooled and 150 of
whom had been educated at home for at least one year. The questionnaire
sought to measure their engagement on campus (for example, via
participation in internships and student-faculty research) as well as their
self-esteem and self-reported symptoms of depression.
The researchers found that, while levels of self-esteem didn’t significantly
differ, the homeschooled students had lower depression scores and higher
reports of academic success. They also tended to rate their entire
educational experience more positively.
In “Differences in Competence, Autonomy, and Relatedness between
Home Educated and Traditionally Educated Young Adults,” the educational
psychologist Gina Riley gets into the question of outcomes for
homeschooled children from a slightly different angle. She is curious about
the “social and environmental factors that facilitate rather than undermine
intrinsic motivation,” and points to three psychological needs that help
foster self-motivation:
• competence (the need to successfully solve a problem or figure something
out);
• autonomy (the need for a sense of choice and self-direction); and
• relatedness (the need for a sense of connection to others in the learning
setting).
Riley sought to test whether homeschooled young adults’ needs for
competency, autonomy, and relatedness were better satisfied than in peers
who were traditionally schooled. To do this, she administered the Basic
Psychological Needs Scale to 58 homeschooled students and 41 traditionally
schooled students. Her results suggested that, on average, homeschooled
students had higher levels of satisfaction in their autonomy and competence
—with no difference on relatedness.
With homeschooling sharply on the rise, these findings are heartening. But
it’s also important to note that homeschooled children are likely, in certain
ways, to be a privileged group—many researchers find that their parents
tend to have higher education and income levels than average, not to
mention a strong commitment to their children’s education.
https://daily.jstor.org/how-homeschooling-evolved-from-subversive-to-
mainstream/
Glossary:
Subversive – wywrotowy
In the midst – w trakcie
Uptick – wzrost
Pushback – protest
Stirring - przypływ
Questions:
1. What are the five phases of development of homeschooling?
2. When did homeschooling start gaining popularity?
3. Why is homeschooling so popular?
4. How did the number of homeschooled children change during the
pandemic?
5. What are three needs that help foster self-motivation mentioned in
the article?
Discussion:
1. Would you like to be homeschooled? Why? Why not?
2. Think about 3 advantages and 3 disadvantages of homeschooling.
3. Discuss your views on homeschooling in Poland.