Exploring Single Black Mothers' Resistance Through Homeschooling (Palgrave Studies in Alternative Education) 3030425630, 9783030425630

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PALGRAVE STUDIES IN ALTERNATIVE EDUCATION

Exploring Single Black Mothers’ Resistance Through Homeschooling Cheryl Fields-Smith

Palgrave Studies in Alternative Education

Series Editors Helen Lees Independent Researcher London, UK Michael Reiss UCL Institute of Education London, UK

This series emerges out of a recent global rise of interest in and actual educational practices done with voice, choice, freedoms and interpersonal thoughtfulness. From subversion to introversion, including alternative settings of the state to alternative pathways of the private, the series embraces a diverse range of voices. Common to books in the series is a vision of education already in existence and knowledge of education possible here and now. Theoretical ideas with potential to be enacted or influential in lived practice are also a part of what we offer with the books. This series repositions what we deem as valuable educationally by accepting the power of many different forces such as silence, love, joy, despair, confusion, curiosity, failure, attachments as all potentially viable, interesting, useful elements in educational stories. Nothing is rejected if it has history or record as being of worth to people educationally, nor does this series doubt or distrust compelling ideas of difference as relevant. We wish to allow mainstream and marginal practices to meet here without prejudice as Other but also with a view to ensuring platforms for the Other to find community and understanding with others. The following are the primary aims of the series: • To publish new work on education with a distinctive voice. • To enable alternative education to find a mainstream profile. • To publish research that draws with interdisciplinary expertise on pertinent materials for interpersonal change or adjustments of approach towards greater voice. • To show education as without borders or boundaries placed on what is possible to think and do. If you would like to submit a proposal or discuss a project in more detail please contact: Eleanor Christie [email protected]. The series will include both monographs and edited collections and Palgrave Pivot formats.

More information about this series at http://www.palgrave.com/gp/series/15489

Cheryl Fields-Smith

Exploring Single Black Mothers’ Resistance Through Homeschooling

Cheryl Fields-Smith Department of Educational Theory and Practice University of Georgia Athens, GA, USA

Palgrave Studies in Alternative Education ISBN 978-3-030-42563-0 ISBN 978-3-030-42564-7 (eBook) https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-42564-7 © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG, part of Springer Nature 2020 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, expressed or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. The publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. Cover illustration: © Marina Lohrbach_shutterstock.com This Palgrave Macmillan imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature Switzerland AG The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland

To my Heavenly Father, who supplies all my needs (Phil. 4:19), lifts my head (Psalms 3:3), and makes all things possible (Matt 19:26). To my West African ancestors who endured and survived the horror of slavery; I am because you are. To my earthly mother and father, the late Howard and Doris Fields, who provided wonderful models of faith and walking in the Light even through tough times. I miss you so much, but your lives, your faith in God, and our love for one another continue to inspire me. To Steven and Cherranda Smith, my gifts from God who fill my life with the hope and joy necessary to keep pushing forward.

Preface

(Basis and personal motivation for this book) Why would an educational research/teacher educator at a state university and former public school teacher whose children attended public schools decide to write a book on single Black mothers who homeschool? The abbreviated answer to this question emerged after an intellectually and emotionally challenging, but necessary journey. I persevered through the journey because of the people listed the Dedication and Acknowledgements sections of this text. The journey began when while conducting a study aimed at replicating my dissertation on Black parental engagement someone referred me to a mother who homeschooled her children. Amazed to know that Black people homeschooled, I scheduled an interview, which ended up being four hours long. Intrigued, I searched for research on Black homeschooling, but only limited empirically-based items existed; nothing that focused solely on Black families. Still using theories and frameworks found in family engagement research, I received a Small Spencer Foundation Grant to pursue a line of inquiry focused on the motivations and practices of 46 Black home educators primarily representing the in the MetroAtlanta area. But, I soon realized that family engagement frameworks did not fully capture the motivation or practices of Black homeschool parents. Later the data would reveal that these particular Black parents’ decisions to homeschool represented something much more significant than parental vii

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involvement. But, first I had to learn to live with, and embrace, the political implications and controversy surrounding this research. Academically, it made sense to engage in research on Black homeschooling because no one else was doing so at the time. This was the much searched for “gap in the literature” and actually represented a launching of a new line of research. But, I needed to find my own personal connection to the work. In this era of School Choice, homeschooling might be conceived as in opposition to public schooling, but for Black families this thinking is oversimplified. The “choice” to homeschool does not usually come easy for Black families. We cannot ignore historical context when examining any aspects of Black families’ experiences in the U.S. Historically. In particular, schooling has not come easily to African Americans in the U.S. I detail this further in Chapter 1 of the book, but suffice it to say that some people, including many family members of Black home educators, view homeschooling among Black families as a slap in the face to the Brown v. Board of Education case, which desegregated public schools. The problem is 60 years later, schools have become resegregated and typically under resourced in predominantly Black communities. While many home educators love their communities and even hold public education in high regard, how long should they wait for the high-quality education they want for their children and that their children deserve? In 2011, I was invited by a special panel interested in the diversity of school choice to give a talk at the annual American Educational Researchers Association (AERA meeting in New Orleans. I titled the talk, Reclaiming and Redefining the Village: Homeschooling Among Black Families. My conception of Black homeschooling had shifted from a parental engagement lens to a Black Feminist Theory (BFT) lens, but at that time, this was focused solely on bell hooks’ notion of Homeplace. I related homeschooling among Black families now as a representation of a reprioritizing of Homeplace, which bell hooks described as what Black mothers did during the Jim Crow Era to empower and build up their children so that they could endure the racial prejudice and hate they would face beyond the safety of their home. Similarly, I believed Black parents’ decisions to homeschool today could be conceived as a form of resistance destructive institutional and individual policies and practices their children either experienced, or parents thought they might experience in conventional schools. Black homeschooling today embodies a contemporary Homeplace. It was in New Orleans that I would meet a passionate, deep thinker in the form of the late, Dr. Monica Wells Kisura.

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Monica had completed a dissertation focused on Black homeschooling in the Washington, D.C. area. But, Monica’s dissertation viewed Black homeschooling from the sociopolitical context. I still have her initial email dated 4/10/2011 with the subject, Hello/Your Homeschooling Research. We spoke the day after she sent the email and we bonded over our similarities, but also our differences. We were each other’s missing link in many ways. Monica had never taken a course on educational theory, but she pushed me to see the implications of Black homeschooling beyond Homeplace. Our conversations together, whether over the phone or in person, frequently became heated because of the clashing of our different perspectives. But the voices of our participants kept us united and we published, Resisting the Status Quo.1 Working with Monica helped me to see the “big picture’ of Black home education, but more importantly, it contributed to the formulation of my personal motivation for continuing to do this work. Overall, I have come to view homeschooling among Black families as a radical marker of Black families’ self-agency and their refusal to except inferiority and mediocrity in our children’s learning. Pursuing a research agenda focused on Black home education has also been a personal journey. One which I believe has been wholly divinely orchestrated. From my doctoral experience to most recently, three trips to Ghana, West Africa, I have been inspired to share the voices of Black home educators. Additionally, my role as parent has influenced the writing of this particular book. But, I am not just any parent, I am a single parent, which is why I have chosen to write my first book focused on the single parent families who comprised 15% (7 out of 46) of the original two-year study. Being a single parent can come with a great deal of shame, self-imposed or otherwise. People around you, even family, will sometimes view you from a deficit lens falsely thinking you either ‘allowed’ your marriage to fail or you ‘whored’ around and ‘got yourself’ pregnant without being married. These narrow-minded, polarizing, and extremist views contribute to our shame, or the shame I have felt as a single parent. They fail to consider that perhaps you did not choose to be a single parent. They also naively ignore the tremendous strength it takes to choose life over abortion or to not fall into the arms the first man that comes along just so you won’t have 1 Fields-Smith, C. & Wells Kisura, M. (2013). Resisting the status quo: The narratives

of Black homeschoolers in Metro-Atlanta and Metro-DC. Peabody Journal of Education, 88(3), 265–283.

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to carry the shame. Your life is forever altered and you do not always see the positives of these changes right away, particularly, if you never wanted to be a single parent. As a Christian, single parent(ness) rocked my beliefs because I knew God did not intend for me to raise my children alone and I questioned, why He allow my divorce to happen, which attempted to challenge my faith.

Reflexivity Statement My roles as a parent and teacher educator positioned me as an indigenousinsider2 for this study. My teacher educator and pro-public schooling stance may appear to position me an outsider to home educators, but my participants came to see me as an ally through the research process and frequently encouraged me with statements like, “Who else could tell our story?”. Like my participants, I am a divorced, Black mother. Somewhat analogous to their decision to homeschool, I chose to forgo full-time employment to pursue a doctoral degree full-time. As the primary caregiver for my children (ages 6 and 10 at the time) and working through the shame others tried to impose on me, I never lingered too long on what people thought I was ‘supposed to do’ as a single parent. Mourning the death of my marriage had turned into dreaming of new possibilities with my single-mother reality, and so, I found myself 1000+ miles away from home working on my doctorate. This leap of faith enabled me to empathize with the decisions made by the homeschoolers in this study. Deciding to quit my job to return to school led people close to me to question my mothering because what single-parent would forgo household income in order to go back to school, especially when I had two degrees already? My faith gave me the strength to take a risk. It is on this common ground that the homeschoolers and I built a strong connection, which facilitated the research process. Fully believing we all have free will to express our beliefs surrounding religion/spirituality or not all, the reader should understand that faith, spirituality and religion expressed through a Black, Baptist, Christian perspective permeated the context of the participating mothers’ lives.

2 See Banks, J. (1998). The lives and values of researchers: Implications for educating citizens in a multicultural society. Educational Researcher, 27(7), 4–17.

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Given the deep historical connections of religion/spirituality among people throughout the African diaspora and particularly in U.S. context where the Black church served as the epicenter of the Civil Rights Movement, these expressions of religion/spiritually/faith should be expected. Indeed, the influence of faith/religion/spirituality became so inextricably integrated within the narratives that to remove them would render Black home educators’ stories as sterile and incomplete. The home educators and I held common ground on our collective Blackness, gender, and motherhood. However, we also pushed each other, as iron sharpens iron.3 At times, home educators referred to parents in the schools as too complacent, for example. Would they have considered me a complacent parent? In my mind, I did all I could do to ensure my children had the best educational experiences. Working with these women enabled me to question definitions of engagement, sacrifice, and commitment toward the raising of Black children. These questions enhanced my intentionality/connection within the study. Over time, I found, we did not necessarily share similar beliefs, but my participants and I had a spiritual connection, which heightened my need to depict their stories accurately. Through my lens as a teacher educator and proponent of public education, I viewed Black homeschool parents as an untapped resource toward understanding what works in education of Black children. This stance enabled me to fully listen to the voices of single, Black home educators and for them to entrust me with their stories.

Purpose Though research on Black homeschooling has increased, the experiences of single Black home educators have continued to be overlooked. Ignoring the experiences and voices of single parent homeschool families continues the false narrative that homeschooling is a two-parent, white, middle class phenomenon. Therefore, this book provides a rarely acknowledged perspective of homeschooling; that is the experiences and voices of single, Black mothers, who homeschool, which offers a counter narrative to imagery of home educators as middle-class, stay-at-home mothers. On the contrary,

3 Biblical reference, Proverbs 27:17.

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at the time of the study these single moms were not fully employed and they lived on incomes below or close to the poverty line. One mom reported that she lived in a low-income housing community. Certainly, it would be much easier for a single mom to drop her children off at school so she could go to work to support her family. Why do these mothers decide to do what seems so impossible, forgoing income in order to serve as their children’s primary educator? The answer relates to the factors represents our legacy of self-determination and agency in the pursuit of excellence in education. The mothers presented in this book are driven in large part by a sense of purpose that transcends conventional wisdom. As a result of reading this book, you should expect to see examples of the strength, resourcefulness, and amazing faith of single Black mothers. By highlighting the diversity that exist within the motivations and practices of the single Black mothers represented in this text, it is my hope that you will be inspired to work toward deeper understanding of single Black mothers’ school choice decision-making, their engagement in their children’s lives, and possibly further exploring their experiences with home education in your work as well. Athens, USA

Cheryl Fields-Smith

Acknowledgements

Many people stood with me from the inception of this work through its completion. Those people represent my “village” and Ubuntu: I am because you all are. The Chief of my village, God, provided divine intervention, which led me to this research. I am grateful for Your direction, grace, and the sense of purpose You have provided for my work. The willingness of the four single home educators who generously gave of their time and energy, and then trusted me with their stories. This book would not have been possible without the support of a Spencer Foundation grant awarded from 2006–2008. I am forever grateful that a review committee found value in the voices of Black home educators’ experiences. My Writer Sisters: Drs. Gayle Andrews, Kyungwha Lee, Dorothy White, who encouraged me in ways to overcome self-doubt and for always seeing the best in me. Dr. Vanessa Siddle Walker, who took me on as a doctoral student, gave me an opportunity to experience ethnography firsthand, modeled ethics, morality, and reciprocity in research practice, and always believed in me. Deacon/Dr. Rob Branch, who took time to help me conceptualize this book and to read multiple versions of many of the chapters. Dr. Joe Tobin, who took time to review and engage my work and also has provided much encouragement along the way.

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Dr. Cynthia B. Dillard, who has served as a source of inspiration, encouragement, and support for this work. Dr. Meca Johnson-Williams, who worked by my side as a doctoral student as we conducted the original study. The late Dr. Monica Wells Kisura, for graciously challenging me in thinking deeply in our collaboration for Resisting the Status Quo. I truly miss your voice. The continuous prayers of Mr. Niles Philpot. (James 5:16).

Contents

1

1

Voices Speaking Truths from Our Past and Our Present

2

Conceptualizing Contemporary Black Homeschooling and Single Black Mothers’ Resistance

21

3

Margaret: Homeschooling as a Mother’s Right

43

4

Dahlia: Homeschooling as a Last Resort

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5

Yvette: Homeschooling as Split-Schooling—Homeschooling One of Two

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6

Chloe: Homeschooling as Way of Life

105

7

The Significance of Single Black Mothers Homeschooling

127

Index

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List of Tables

Table 1.1 Table 2.1

Major indicators and themes found among Black homeschool motivations Summary of participant characteristics

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CHAPTER 1

Voices Speaking Truths from Our Past and Our Present

Today, more than 60 years after the Brown vs BOE mandate, Black families increasingly choose to homeschool their children. Black students represent an estimated 8% of the estimated two million homeschooled students in the USA (McQuiggan & Megra, 2017). Moreover, Ray (2015) indicated that homeschooling has increased by 90% among Black families between the years 1999 and 2010. Given the varying reporting policies state to state, these numbers most likely represent underestimations; not all states report number of students homeschooled. But the trend toward increasing Black home education in USA signifies a growing departure from a cultural heritage of looking to traditional schooling for uplift and is worthy of further understanding. The rise in homeschooling among Black families serves as a counternarrative to characterizations of Black parents’ disinterest in their children’s education. As Ford (2017) indicated, such negative stereotypes have been perpetuated for decades, in part, by the policies and practices that stemmed from the Moynihan Report. Black mothers in particular have faced undue scrutiny and characterization as ‘absent’ or from a deficit perspective. Continued privileging of White, middle-class norms surrounding appropriate family engagement (Cooper, 2009), and effective mothering (Lois, 2013) have promoted deviant perceptions of lowincome and Black mothers’ ways of being. For example, Cooper’s (2007, 2009) work posited Black mothers’ ways of engaging in their children’s learning represented elements of caring through their fighting against and © The Author(s) 2020 C. Fields-Smith, Exploring Single Black Mothers’ Resistance Through Homeschooling, Palgrave Studies in Alternative Education, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-42564-7_1

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resisting inequity, and injustice, which looked very different from White, middle-class parental involvement norms and often depicted Black mothers as confrontational. As home educators, Black mothers assume full responsibility for their children’s education. Even if they use a third-party source to provide instruction, parents must research their options and they remain ultimately accountable to their children to provide an effective education outside of traditional schools, when they choose to homeschool. Further, research on today’s Black home education documents Black parents’ decision-making in the era of school choice. The Black community has rarely functioned as a monolith. In fact, even during the implementation of the Brown decision, the late Dr. Horace Tate, former Georgia senator and educator, critiqued the plan for integration. He so accurately forewarned, But, in trying to wipe out segregation, it is not my desire and it must not be your desire to substitute second-class integration for segregation, for second-class integration is evil no matter who thinks otherwise. In a manner, second-class integration is more evil than was segregation because second-class integration has a way of [entering into] the psyche and penetrating the fibers of the brain and of the soul. (as found in Walker, 2009, p. 272)

This fragment taken from a speech given Dr. Tate in 1970 indicates that he perceived something of great value to Black children would be lost in the integration process as conceived. The lived experiences of single Black home educators, and Black homeschooling in general, demonstrate the ways in which Dr. Tate’s speech has become prophetic. Definitively, the significance of contemporary Black homeschooling lies in the ways in which their voices speak to African American educational history and Black children’s schooling experiences in today’s schools. Waters (2016) explained, “From a historical perspective, she [an African American Mother] is raising her children to enter, perform, and gain success within systems that have been designed to destroy them psychologically, intellectually, economically, and physically” (p. 4). The tumultuous historical context of the education of Black children in the USA distinguishes the significance of today’s Black home education from homeschooling among any other group in the USA. Further, Llewellyn (1996)

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posited, “ Many black people homeschool to save themselves from a system which limits and destroys them, to reclaim their own lives, families, and culture, to create for themselves something very different from conventional schooling” (p. 13). This quote suggests that contemporary homeschooling offers Black families a way to overcome the challenges associated with education of Black children in traditional schools. Black families’ need to ‘save themselves’ from traditional1 schools by homeschooling, as suggested by Llewellyn’s quote above, thwarts the deficit-thinking regarding Black parent’s concern, indicts the systemic practices within public schools that promote the myth of Black inferiority, and represents Black homeschooling as a return to something that previously existed (reclaiming) as a form of agency and resistance. Written 20 years later, Waters’ quote above speaks to the persistently lingering destructive factors that continue to serve as the backdrop of many Black families’ educational experiences today. These practices and policies, which will be detailed in this chapter, have been well documented and further corroborated by the existing literature on Black homeschooling. The remainder of this chapter provides an overview of the historical and contemporary context of contemporary Black homeschooling.

Speaking to Our Past: Relevant Historical Context of Black Homeschooling Inevitably, when I give a talk related to research on Black home education I am asked, “Is there really any difference between homeschooling among Black families compared to families of other ethnic/racial backgrounds?”. In addition to Waters (2016) quote above, the response to this question also depends on what one knows and believes regarding the historical and contemporary experiences of Black families in public because the sociocultural historical and current sociopolitical context in which Black children have, and continue to learn in, remain quite distinct from children of other racial backgrounds. The rise in homeschooling among Black families speaks directly to these unique set of circumstances (historical and contemporary).

1 Traditional and conventional schools refer to both public and privately governed institutions of grades Pre-K—12th.

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For decades, scholars have provided credible evidence of the diligence and resiliency exhibited in Black parents’ efforts to provide their children with excellence in education (e.g., Anderson, 1988; Cecelski, 1994; Gutman, 1977; Walker, 1996; Williams, 2005). Yet, negative images of Black families’ involvement in their children’s education linger. Today, however, Black parents increasingly chose to educate their children themselves through homeschooling. Superficially, the rise in homeschooling among Black families may appear to be a sharp contrast to African American’s historic pursuit of access to equal education within public schools, which led to the Brown v. Board of Education decision to desegregate public schools sixty plus years ago. However, the history of African American communities’ fervor for excellence in education has been relatively ignored by most public schools, but relates directly to contemporary Black homeschooling. Beginning with slavery, slave owners, for the most part, determined that African slaves should not be taught to read or write because they viewed literacy as a threat to the master-slave positioning; as a result, slave owners joined forces to quell the rise of literacy among slaves to protect their profits (Williams, 2005). Though laws forbade slaves to read or write, they risked their lives to learn nonetheless. African slaves believe that literacy equated to freedom fueled bravery to defy/resist the laws. As a result, African slaves employed deeply clandestine strategies to learn to read including the creation of pit schools (Cline-Ransome, 2013; Williams, 2005). As Williams (2005) described, “Slaves would dig a pit in the ground way out in the woods, covering the spot with bushes and vines. Runaways sometimes inhabited the pits, but they also housed schools” (p. 20). Late into the night, African slaves would sneak out into the woods to go into the pit for their lesson, which would usually be taught by an African slave who had managed to learn. In addition, Williams used phrases such as “web of secrecy” and “patchwork of teachers” to describe how a free woman in Georgia found ways to become educated. As the author reported, “They truly had to “steal” an education” (2005, p. 20). In addition to pit schools, slaves and freed people’s clandestine learning strategies included sneaking into willing teachers’ homes, learning from White children, hiding books in their clothing, and trading what little they had (or could find) of value to learn. Gutman (1977) also described how African slaves even used sewing classes as a cover to learn to read while someone served as a lookout. These examples and

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others have documented that African Americans have a legacy of being self-taught. However, the collective nature of African American self-taught(ness) must be noted. Self-taught did not reflect individualism. Instead, selftaught referred to African slaves’ collective sense of agency and a communal determination to be shared by all. Much like the Sharers philosophy in Armah’s (2002) KMT: In the House of Life, the knowledge of being able to read was like blood, “Blood flows throughout the body, everywhere, bringing life and removing the seed of death. It makes no sense for blood in its movement to stop in any one place. It brings freshness to every part it reaches and removes stale poisons (p. 153).” Similarly, the accounts of African slaves’ innovations to circumvent disenfranchisement from reading suggest once one person knew how to read they willingly shared the knowledge with others who were also willing to take the risk, for the good of the community. Communal self-agency and self-determination did not end with emancipation. Former African slaves made the first attempts toward establishing schools for themselves (Anderson, 1988). Native schools were one such attempt. These common schools were founded and maintained exclusively by ex-slaves who were often taught by the most literate person within their community (Anderson, 1988). Furthermore, when denied schools, African Americans built their own, or established Sunday schools (Anderson, 1988; Walker, 1996). During segregated schooling, Black communities strove to educate their children. To this end, they sacrificed land, lumber, and transportation to overcome barriers put in place by local school boards’ denial of resources to support schooling for their children, even if they did not have children of their own. Additionally, most Black parents had tremendous respect for learning and trusted that their principals and teachers had their children’s best interests at the forefront of their actions to the extent that parents rarely entered their children’s school during the day (Walker, 1996). Teachers and school leaders tended to live within the same communities as the children and families they served, which promoted trust. As a result, Black children were enveloped by the interconnected, close-nit, functions of home, school, and church. Black educational leaders exhibited communal sharing of knowledge for self-agency as well. Black administrators and teachers bonded together, across state lines, to develop strategies to resist the actions of the local school boards, which would otherwise challenge their capacity to obtain

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quality education for their children (Walker, 2009). They met, sometimes in highly clandestine settings reminiscent of their enslaved ancestors, to create an intricate network, which provided direction for professional development of Black teachers and school leaders, and to establish common strategies to resist oppressive policies in order to establish schools of excellence for Black children. Yet, the mandated desegregation of segregated schools largely dismantled this network. Describing the significance of the context in which Black educational leaders worked, Walker (2015) explained, In the era in which they lived, these leaders understood well their goals. They lived in a world where the barriers and aspirations were easily visible. They forged collectives that bound them in advancing mutual interests and relied upon the strength of the whole to advance each individual part. Thus, their clearly defined goals resulted from a sense of urgency that emanated from their segregated circumstances. Without the dire circumstances, sense of urgency these created, and collective desire, the system may not have operated with the same degree of commitment. (p. 238)

For decades, history has taught that segregated Black schools were inferior. However, this perspective has ignored the powerfully effective professional network of Black educators, which created an educational environment of excellence for children under highly oppressive circumstances. Furthermore, the deficit view of segregated schools has failed to acknowledge African American’s legacy of self-agency, self-determination, and resiliency to resist. Contrary to popular perception, African Americans did not respond with a monolithic reaction to desegregation. Veritably, factions of the Black community opposed integration. As noted earlier, Horace Tate, leader of the Georgia Teacher Educators and Administrators organization for Black educators, warned against the desegregation plan proposed, and he described it as a “second-class integration” (Walker, 2009). Foreseeing the issues, he knew that the plan would result in the loss of Black schools, Black teachers, and all the strengths embodied within them. Additionally, Along Freedom Road, Cecelski (1994) detailed an account of a Black community who fought against the integration of their segregated Black school in North Carolina. Moreover, research has also documented streams of Black families who chose to avoid integration altogether and sent their children to Catholic schools instead (Irvine & Foster, 1996).

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To summarize this abbreviated account, throughout our history, African American families and their communities have demonstrated deep desires to provide their children, and themselves, with educational freedom and excellence. When our educational desires met oppression through denial or educational restrictions, we resisted with a ‘by any means’ determination to ensure that we, and our children, would be able to read, write, and think. The historical context of African American education has served as a testament to a collective sense of purpose for community and for self that fueled our resistance and perseverance. However, within our struggle toward educational freedom, Black families sometimes chose different paths of resistance toward self-agency and selfdetermination. Nonetheless, our educational legacy has always been to do what needs to be done in order to gain educational freedom and excellence. When we consider current statistics and research on the contemporary context of Black schooling, educational freedom and excellence seem far removed for many African American children.

Voices Speaking to Our Present Black parents’ motivations to homeschool, as expressed in the available literature, personalize the extent to which the hopes and dreams of Brown v. Board of Education have not been realized. Therefore, in this section, I employ the voices of Black home educators found in the existing literature to demonstrate their corroboration of existing issues surrounding Black education in the USA, particularly in urban settings. A critical review of the available published and empirically based literature focused on Black homeschooling revealed five themes (discipline disproportionality, lack of sociocultural synchronization, low expectations, school safety and climate, and marginalization of Black families in the home-school partnerships) among Black parents’ motivations to homeschool. Each indicator has been well documented as major issue in contemporary Black education. Table 1.1 presents the alignment between these major indicators and the common themes among Black families’ lived experiences within or perceptions of traditional schools. Research on Black homeschool remains limited; therefore, two of the works (Llewellyn, 1996; Penn-Nabrit, 2003) cited in Table 1.1 represent anecdotal accounts written by home educators themselves. As demonstrated in Table 1.1, though the literature has remained scant, the existing research on Black home education has consistently

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Table 1.1 Major indicators and themes found among Black homeschool motivations Themes

Black homeschool literature

Discipline disproportionality • Child labeled a “trouble-maker”, males in particular • Communication from school focused only on behavior perceived as negative

• • • •

Lack of sociocultural connection in curriculum and teaching style • Lack of African American perspective in curriculum content • Mono-cultural approach to teaching/learning style • Restriction of movement

Low expectations • Informal referral to Special Education • Denied access to Gifted Education • Negative Self-identity Development • Acceptance of Meritocracy • Limited focus on critical thinking and cultivating a love of learning

School safety and climate • Perceived or experienced school violence • School reputation of low achievement/teaching to the test • Bullying, teasing, or ridicule • Lack of access to school choice • Inequity of school resources • Disenfranchisement of parental advocacy

Fields-Smith and Wells Kisura (2013) Mazama and Lundy (2013) Lundy and Mazama (2014) Penn-Nabrit (2003)

• Fields-Smith and Williams-Johnson (2009) • Fields-Smith and Wells Kisura (2013) • Llewellyn (1996) • Mazama and Lundy (2012) • Mazama and Lundy (2015) • Penn-Nabrit (2003) • Fields-Smith and Williams-Johnson (2009) • Fields-Smith and Wells Kisura (2013) • Llewellyn (1996) • Mazama and Lundy (2012), Lundy and Mazama (2014) • Ray (2015) • Penn-Nabrit (2003) • Fields-Smith and Williams-Johnson (2009) • Fields-Smith and Wells Kisura (2013) • Fields-Smith (2015) • Llewellyn (1996) • Mazama and Lundy (2012) • Ray (2015) • Penn-Nabrit (2003)

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aligned with prevailing patterns of the racialized experiences of Black children in traditional schools, perceived or experienced. In the next section, I provide an overview of the racialized experiences/perceptions as presented within each of the themes identified in Table 1.1 based on the existing Black homeschool literature.

Discipline Disproportionality Generally defined as an overrepresentation of ethnic-minority groups in frequency of disciplinary actions relative to their composition of a student population, discipline disproportionality has been documented for decades (Carter, Skiba, Arredondo, & Pollock, 2016; Kirwan Institute, 2014). Recent reports from the US Department of Education indicated that the rate of suspension and expulsions has decreased overall, but the racially lopsided nature of doling out those consequences has remained (US Department of Education, 2014). Moreover, findings indicated that disproportional punishments begin as early as Pre-K where even though Black children made up 18% of the enrollment, they represented 48% of the children who received multiple suspensions outside of school. In comparison, White students consisted of 43% of Pre-K enrollment, but they represented 26% of suspensions. Black boys and girls experienced disproportional punishments. Moreover, southern states had higher rates of discipline disproportionality compared to other US regions and have implications for both Black girls and boys (Smith & Harper, 2015). The researchers found that while nationally, 45% of the suspended and 42% of expelled students consisted of k-12 grade Black girls, across southern states, Black girls represented 56% of suspensions and 45% of expulsions, which represented the highest suspension and expulsion rates among all of ethnic groups. Furthermore, in Georgia, where the present study took place, Black girls were 73.3% of suspended students and 65.1% of expelled students. Contrary to popular belief, Black boys nationally, regionally, and in the state of Georgia appeared to be fairing slightly more favorably compared in discipline proportionality. Smith and Harper (2015) reported that nationally, 35% of suspended students represented Black boys and 34% of students expelled. In the south, Black boys made up 47% of suspended students and 44% of expelled students. However, in Georgia, Black boys were 64.2% of suspended students and 63.1% of expelled students. Of great consequence,

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regardless of race, Black children in Georgia received punishments of suspension and expulsion significantly more frequently than their counterparts nationally, regionally, or at the state level. Moreover, discipline disproportionally occurred as early as and prekindergarten and kindergarten. Hatt’s (2012) ethnography captured and explained the role of implicit bias mediated by a kindergarten teacher’s use of seemingly benign classroom management tools such as the much too familiar “pull your clip” or “stoplight,” which in turn constructed perceptions of Black children as “deviant” and not smart among other students in the classroom. Once labeled as a trouble maker, these little ones remained under constant ridicule and positioned as inferior even when their White counterparts engaged in similar behaviors. Numerous studies have demonstrated that implicit bias, low expectations, and prejudice contribute to discipline disproportionality among ethnic-minority students (Carter et al., 2016; Kirwan Institute, 2014). Black home educators described their experiences with discipline disproportionality through the lived experiences of their children in conventional schools (public and private), particularly Black males. Homeschool teachers from Metro-Atlanta and Metro-D.C. represented in Fields-Smith and Wells Kisura (2013) linked their concerns to cultural misinterpretations of behavior and concern for their children’s positive sense of self. Mazama and Lundy’s (2012), Lundy and Mazama (2014) study of 76 Black homeschool families representing five metropolitan areas conceptualized Black homeschooling as racial protectionism against parents’ perceptions of teachers’ misinterpretation of their children’s behavior as aggressive, again among males in particular. Penn-Nabrit’s (2003) personal memoir of her experiences as a home educator described a situation where one of her sons became deeply concerned by what he perceived as his teacher’s “picking on” another Black male in his private school. At her son’s urging, she tried to advocate, but to no avail because of the teacher’s perception of that child and the teacher’s dismissal of the situation as not being of Penn-Nabrit’s concern. Across each of the literature, Black parents described situations of school staff refusals to accept, or even consider, misinterpretations of Black children’s behaviors or inequitable applications of discipline policy. This lack of acknowledgment and subsequent marginalization of parental participation led to the frustration of children and parents, and ultimately contributed to Black parents’ decisions to homeschool. Hammond

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(2015) used the terms microassaults, microinsults, and microinvalidations to describe incidences of punishing Black children more severely than White children for the same behavior, insensitivity to cultural and linguistic differences, and dismissal of realities of structural barriers, respectively, which have been corroborated by many Black homeschool teachers’ descriptions of experiences within public and private traditional schools (Fields-Smith & Wells Kisura, 2013; Fields-Smith & Williams-Johnson, 2009; Mazama & Lundy, 2012; Mazama & Musumunu, 2015). Discussions of racially charged misinterpretation of student behavior and unfair application of discipline policy would require trust and safe spaces to be handled effectively. Thus, that Black home educators frequently reported such experiences also indicated ineffective home-school partnerships/relationships and provided examples of Black parents’, including middle-class families, challenges faced in attempting to advocate for their children within traditional schools.

Lack of Sociocultural Connection in Curriculum and Teaching The disconnect between cultural norms of families and school has been well documented for over 20 years. Irvine (1991) established the term “lack of sociocultural synchronization” to identify the disconnect and differences between home culture and school culture experienced by many Black students. These differences stem from the unique values, beliefs, and ways of being within a culture. The criticism of school cultures typically adhering to White middle-class cultural values and beliefs and therefore, patterning themselves to only support and value a mono-cultural perspective gave rise to multicultural education, culturally responsive pedagogy, and culturally sustaining pedagogy. Scholars have used science to demonstrate the ways in which mono-cultural curriculums, linguistic practices, and teaching style/pedagogy contribute to the poor selfidentity/image of Black children and the persistent achievement gap or educational opportunity gap (Delpit, 2006, 2012; Delpit & Dowdy 2002; Hammond, 2015; Irvine, 1991; Milner, 2010). Research on Black homeschooling has provided insight into how Black parents and their children experience a lack of sociocultural synchronization in terms of curriculum and teaching styles. As posited by Mazama and Musumunu (2015), if traditional schools served as their only source of knowledge, Black children would think their history began with

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slavery and ended with Martin Luther King. This deficit in conventional school curriculum guided Black homeschool families’ curricular decisions. Reviewing the literature, Black homeschool parents frequently sought curriculum materials that assumed an Afrocentric perspective (FieldsSmith & Wells Kisura, 2013; Fields-Smith & Williams-Johnson, 2009; Mazama & Musumunu, 2015). Moreover, extracurricular activities sometimes included African drumming or dance. In addition, some Black home educators infused an African American and global perspective into their instruction (Fields-Smith & Wells Kisura, 2013). For Black homeschool teachers, cultural curricular connections served as critical sources toward self-identity development, empowerment, and motivation for their children.

Low Expectations Teachers’ low expectations and deficit-thinking regarding Black children have been described and documented throughout teacher education literature (Irvine, 1991; Love, 2019). Teacher bias regarding the capabilities of culturally and linguistically diverse students as well as children from low-income families contributes to a culture of low expectations (e.g., Hammond, 2015; Milner, 2010). In addition, Gershenson, Holt, and Papageorge (2016) found that low expectations of Black students increased when they had non-Black teachers compared to when they had Black teachers. Bandura (1993) found that teachers’ sense of their ability to impact or influence student learning will determine the ability to which they will be able to actually do so and also guides teacher decisionmaking regarding the type of classroom environment they establish for children (Bandura, 1993). But, teachers’ self-efficacy research does not necessarily consider or even acknowledge the impact of teachers’ implicit bias on teachers’ beliefs or decisions. Therefore, teachers’ low self-efficacy regarding their ability to make a difference could be relegated to certain ethnic and racial groups compared to others resulting in low expectations for Black children. The existing literature on Black home education literature has corroborated and informed understanding of teachers’ low expectations; Black homeschool studies revealed that low expectations stemmed from school staff, policies, and practice. Most notably, Black homeschool teachers enumerated experiences with challenges advocating for the capabilities of their children (Fields-Smith & Wells Kisura, 2013; Mazama &

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Musumunu, 2015). Black parents who became home educators reported having experienced blockades and barriers when attempting to request more challenging work for their children while enrolled in conventional schools. Part of what fueled the blockades and barriers included teachers’ beliefs in the limited capabilities of their children and acceptance of lowquality work, which contributed to Black parents’ belief that the instruction their children experienced in school fostered mediocrity in their children. These experiences aligned with findings from family engagement studies have demonstrated Black parents get blocked from advocating on behalf of their own children (e.g., Lareau & Horvat, 1999), and White middle-class parents sometimes limit ethnic-minority parents’ attempts to gain access to decision-making (power) to address inequities on behalf of all children in the school (e.g., Abrams & Gibbs, 2002). The Black homeschool literature also included several accounts where teachers and other school personnel suggested that Black children needed special education services for their children (Fields-Smith, 2015; FieldsSmith & Williams-Johnson, 2009; Mazama & Musumunu, 2015). In addition, the Kirwan Institute (2014) report found connections between teachers’ increased referrals for special education regarding behavior related to implicit bias against Black students. Fields-Smith and WilliamsJohnson (2009) found that eight out of their 24 homeschool families consisted of children who received special education services and an additional two families had the experience of teachers suggesting their children required special education. Yet, when parents decided to homeschool, the children thrived. However, when Black parents sought gifted education for their children, they experienced a barrier based on their child’s behavior, which according to school staff did not appear indicative of a gifted education student. School representatives refused to consider that the child’s behavior represented boredom or lack of challenge in the classroom. These documented experiences of Black parents prior to deciding to homeschool corroborate issues reported regarding the underrepresentation of Black students in gifted education (Ford, 2014).

School Safety and School Climate Issues related to school safety and school climate have been documented throughout the literature with an emphasis on urban schools. School safety has been a broadly used term to encompass trends in bullying and school violence. School climate has included issues such as negative

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socialization, low achievement, and factors overlapping with teachers’ low expectations, discipline disproportionality, and the lack of sociocultural synchronization between homes, which combined to create a disturbing and destructive school environment for children of color. Hammond (2015) asserted, In reality schools do a lot more to influence a negative academic mindset than we’d like to admit sometimes. Most schools still have structural inequities that are predictive of who will be a high achiever and who will be a low achiever along racial lines. Unfortunately, these structural inequities begin to shape a student’s internal story about himself as a learner. (p. 112)

Black children’s lived experiences related to school safety and school climate vividly underscore the hurtful, sometimes traumatic, conditions from which homeschooling provided a refuge. Moreover, research on Black home education has captured the sense of the harm experienced by Black children and the despair their parents feel when trying to advocate for them. As an example, a mom described her experience, “I got so disrespected to my face and I just felt my boys were treated like criminals, like little precriminals” (Mazama & Lundy, 2012, p. 736). Unable to improve the conditions under which their children must learn within traditional schools, Black families felt compelled to rescue them by homeschooling. Additionally, the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) required publication of school data related to school violence, and Black parents assigned to schools with reported high rates of violence have used that information to support, and even motivate, decisions to homeschool (Fields-Smith & Wells Kisura, 2013). Similarly, parents acknowledged that data made available via NCLB regarding school achievement contributed to their negative perceptions of the school climate and therefore, informed decisions to homeschool. Moreover, Fields-Smith (2015) identified inequity of school choice has an additionally motivating factor for Black families to homeschool as the schools their children would have attended represented resegregated, under-resourced schools with high rates of reported violence. In conclusion, the voices of Black homeschool teachers speak to the long-standing belief in inferiority among African Americans and the ways

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in which it has been enacted and embodied within the policies and practices existing in conventional schools in past and today. Inequity in schooling of Black children, disenfranchisement of Black parents’ advocacy and agency within schools, and racialized schooling experiences signify distinctions between Black parents’ home education and the homeschool decisions of their ethnic/racial counterparts. How long should Black parents endure a less than education for their children? Moreover, how can Black parents work toward school reform when their voices face disrespect and deaf ears as they try to exercise self-agency and advocacy on behalf of their children within traditional schools?

Purpose The existing literature on Black homeschooling has provided an emerging foundational understanding of Black parents’ motivations and some insight into homeschool practices, yet, further examination of the diversity existing within the group is needed. Like the mainstream literature, Black homeschool research has for the most part promoted the stereotypes associated with homeschooling as a two-parent and middle-class phenomenon. This approach ignores the trend toward increasing diversity within the homeschool population. Additionally, the existing research has tended to present Black parents’ motives to homeschool as a listing of categories, rather than providing more richly detailed description of the events and the complexity of parents’ thinking surrounding their decisions to homeschool. Therefore, the work presented within these pages privileged the voices of home educators who do not represent the stereotypes associated with homeschooling. The lived experiences of these normally discounted home educators challenged the preconceived notions of who homeschools and why. This study sought to understand the homeschooling experiences of four single Black mothers who did not fully participate in the labor force to provide strong counter-narratives to the lazy, unemployed ‘Welfare Queen’ and wayward ‘jezebel’ image of single Black mothers and to address the misconception that Black parents do not care about their children’s education. The voices of the mothers represented here also speak sometimes tough to hear truths about our schools, either through their experiences or through perceptions contrived from others including the media. Simultaneously, they demonstrate the understanding of the pressure teachers

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face in today’s classrooms. These truths complicate and challenge the cultural and historical relationship between schools and our children. Their voices give life and meaning beyond statistics. Yet, the point here is not to bash schools, but instead to hear the Other so that we might understand issues surrounding marginalization of Black parents as they attempt to participate in the home-school partnership on behalf of their children or why they choose to exercise their power not to engage that partnership at all. The single mothers whose voices fill the majority of these pages speak to the truths of past and present challenges related to Black education. But, they also demonstrate the ways in which African American resistance to racism and societal norms frequently imposed on single mothers. In the next chapter, I present the conceptual framework for this study of single Black mothers who homeschool their children and an overview of the methodology employed. Next, Chapters 3–6 each chronicle the lived experiences of Yvette, Margaret, Celeste, and Dahlia, who resisted and persisted to homeschool their children without full-time employment, shattering the stereotypes associated with home education. In the final chapter, I discuss the significance of Black homeschooling based on the lived experiences of these particular home educators and implications for home-school partnerships within conventional schools and for future research in Black home education.

References Abrams, L. S., & Gibbs, J. T. (2002). Disrupting the logic of home-school relations: Parent involvement strategies and practices of inclusion and exclusion. Urban Education, 37 (3), 384–407. Anderson, J. (1988). Education of Blacks in the south, 1860–1935. Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press. Armah, A. (2002). KMT: In the house of life: An epistemic novel. Popenguine, Senegal: Per Ankh—The African Publishing Cooperative. Bandura, A. (1993). Perceived self-efficacy in cognitive development and functioning. Educational Psychologist, 28(2), 117–148. Carter, P., Skiba, R., Arredondo, M., & Pollock, M. (2016). You can’t fix what you don’t look at: Acknowledging race in addressing racial discipline disproportionalities. Urban Education, 52(2), 207–235. Cecelski, D. (1994). Along freedom road: Hyde County, North Carolina, and the fate of Black schools in the South. Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press.

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Cline-Ransome, L. (2013). Light in the darkness: A story about how slaves learned in secret. New York: Disney, Jump at the Sun Books. Cooper, C. W. (2007). School choice as ‘motherwork’: Valuing African-American women’s educational advocacy and resistance. International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, 20(5), 491–512. Cooper, C. W. (2009). Parent involvement, African American mothers, and the politics of educational care. Equity & Excellence in Education, 42(4), 379– 394. Delpit, L. (2006). Other people’s children: Cultural conflict in the classroom. New York: The New Press. Delpit, L. (2012). “Multiplication is for White people”: Raising expectations for other people’s children. New York: The New Press. Delpit, L., & Dowdy, J. K. (Eds.). (2002). The skin that we speak: Thoughts on language and culture in the classroom. New York: The New Press. Fields-Smith, C. (2015). Black homeschoolers: Nowhere left to go. In P. Rothermel (Ed.), International perspectives on home education: Do we still need schools? London: Palgrave Macmillan. Fields-Smith, C., & Wells Kisura, M. (2013). Resisting the status quo: The narratives of Black homeschoolers in Metro-Atlanta and Metro-DC. Peabody Journal of Education, 88(3), 265–283. Fields-Smith, C., & Williams-Johnson, M. (2009). Motivations, sacrifices, and challenges: Black parents’ decisions to home school. Urban Review, 41, 369– 389. Ford, D. (2014). Segregation and the underrepresentation of Blacks and Hispanics in gifted education: Social inequality and deficit paradigms. Roeper Review, 36(3), 143–154. Ford, D. (2017). Telling our stories: Culturally different adults reflect on growing up in single-parent families. Charlotte, NC: Information Age Publishing Inc. Gershenson, S., Holt, S. B., & Papageorge, N. W. (2016). Who beliefs in me? The effect of student-teacher demographic match on teacher expectations. Economics of Education Review, 52, 209–224. Gutman, H. (1977). The Black family in slavery and freedom, 1750–1925. New York: Vintage Books. Hammond, Z. (2015). Culturally responsive teaching and the brain: Promoting authentic engagement and rigor among culturally and linguistically diverse students. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin. Hatt, B. (2012). Smartness as cultural practice in schools. American Educational Research Journal, 49(3), 438–460. Irvine, J. J. (1991). Black students and school failure: Policies, practices, and prescriptions. Westport, CT: Praeger Publishers. Irvine, J. J., & Foster, M. (1996). Growing up African American in Catholic schools. New York: Teacher College Press.

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Kirwan Institute. (2014, February). Racial disproportionality in school discipline: Implicit bias is heavily implicated (Kirwan Institute Issue Brief). Kirwan Institute for the Study of Race and Ethnicity. Columbus, OH: The Ohio University. Lareau, A., & Horvat, E. M. (1999). Moments of social inclusion and exclusion: Race, class, and cultural capital in family-school relationships. Sociology of Education, 72, 37–53. Llewellyn, G. (Ed.). (1996). Freedom challenge: African American homeschoolers. Eugene, OR: Lowry House Publishers. Lois, J. (2013). Home is where the school is: The logic of homeschooling and the emotional labor of mothering. New York: New York University Press. Love, B. (2019). We want to do more than survive: Abolitionist teaching and the pursuit of educational freedom. Boston: Beacon Press. Lundy, G., & Mazama, A. (2014). ‘I’m keeping my son home’: African American males and the motivation to homeschool. Journal of African American Males in Education, 5(1), 53–74. Mazama, A., & Lundy, G. (2012). African American homeschooling as racial protectionism. Journal of Black Studies, 43(7), 723–748. Mazama, A., & Lundy, G. (2013). African American homeschooling and the question of curricular cultural relevance. Journal of Negro Education, 82(2), 123–138. Mazama, A., & Lundy, G. (2015). African American homeschooling and the quest for a quality education. Education and Urban Society, 47 (2), 160–181. Mazama, A., & Musumunu, G. (2015). African Americans and homeschooling: Motivations, opportunities, and challenges. New York, NY: Routledge. McQuiggan, M., & Megra, M. (2017). Parent and Family Involvement in Education: Results from the National Household Education Surveys Program of 2016 (NCES 2017-102). U.S. Department of Education. Washington, DC: National Center for Education Statistics. Retrieved October 2, 2018 from http://nces.ed.gov/pubsearch/pubsinfo.asp?pubid=2017102. Milner IV, H. R. (2010). Start where you are, but don’t stay there: Understanding diversity, opportunity gaps, and teaching in today’s classrooms. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Education Press. Penn-Nabrit, P. (2003). Morning by morning: How we home schooled our African American sons to the Ivy League. New York, NY: Villard Books. Ray, B. (2015). African American homeschool parents’ motivations for homeschooling and their Black children’s academic achievement. Journal of School Choice, 9(1), 71–96. Smith, E. J., & Harper, S. R. (2015). Disproportionate impact of K-12 school suspension and expulsion on Black students in southern states. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania, Center for the Study of Race and Equity in Education.

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U.S. Department of Education Office for Civil Rights. (2014, March 21). Civil rights data collection: Data snapshot (school discipline). Available: https:// ocrdata.ed.gov/downloads/crdc-school-discipline-snapshot.pdf. Walker, V. S. (1996). Their highest potential: An African American school community in the segregated south. Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press. Walker, V. S. (2009). Second-class integration: A historical perspective for a contemporary agenda. Harvard Educational Review, 79(2), 269–284. Walker, V. S., with Byas, U. (2015). Hello professor: A Black principal and professional leadership in the segregated south. Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press. Waters, S. W. (2016). We can speak for ourselves: Parent involvement and ideologies of Black mothers in Chicago. Boston, MA: Sense Publishers. Williams, H. A. (2005). Self-taught: African American education in slavery and freedom. Chapel Hill, NC: The University of North Carolina Press.

CHAPTER 2

Conceptualizing Contemporary Black Homeschooling and Single Black Mothers’ Resistance

This chapter contends that single Black mothers’ homeschooling motivations and practices represent a form of resistance against their perceptions and their understanding of experiences associated with conventional schools, public or private, and their beliefs regarding Black single parentness and motherhood. Moreover, spirituality fuels single Black mothers’ ability to resist through homeschooling. Accordingly, the constructed conceptual framework used for this study represents elements surrounding resistance and spirituality, and it has been informed by sociohistorical cultural linkages to African American resistance, Black Feminist Theory, and Endarkened Feminist Epistemology (EFE). The chapter ends with an overview of methodology used and a description of the remaining chapters of the text. Homeschooling might be conceived as an extreme form of parental engagement in children’s learning, but none of the theoretical frameworks associated with family engagement fully capture the how, what, and whys, related to single Black home educators. As discussed in Chapter 1, historically, Black parents often experience marginalization as they attempt to engage in, and advocate for, their children’s education in conventional schools. Therefore, Black parents’ involvement at school frequently occurs in opposition to, rather than in partnership with, the agents serving schools. This work has been framed in part based on historical conceptions of African American and Black women’s resistance and argues that contemporary homeschooling © The Author(s) 2020 C. Fields-Smith, Exploring Single Black Mothers’ Resistance Through Homeschooling, Palgrave Studies in Alternative Education, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-42564-7_2

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among Black families serves as a mechanism to resist, counter, overcome, and/or avoid racialized, discriminatory school-based experiences, and non-school-based experiences as well, toward support and development of their children’s positive cultural self-identities.

Historical Conceptions of African American Resistance The term resistance can conjure images of public protests, walkouts, picketing, and the like. But, Zamalin’s (2017) framework of African American resistance based on an analysis of critical moments in history, distinguished between resistance and protests by clarifying that unlike protests, African American resistance specifically, is not directly connected with a politically acceptable way of being. Rather, resistance represents a breaking “free of conventional ways of being (p. 9).” In short, protests work within a system, while resistance typically creates new ways of existing within or outside of a system. The author surmised, “Resistance is distinct, not only from protest, but also from formal politics, and protest is, much more closely than resistance, situated within the field of formal politics (2017, p. 7).” Additionally, Zamalin’s (2017) Struggle on Their Minds highlighted the importance of recognizing that African American resistance has taken myriad forms and a wide range of strategies. He related, “African Americans today resist through everyday talk in barbershops and through hip-hop music and fashion (p. 5).” These everyday actions represent the agency of African American resistance. Zamalin (2017) further explained, “Resistance entails taking charge of one’s life and refusing to accept the extant configurations of the way things are. Resistance can be public or private, collective or individual, directed internally or externally, enacted by those who are powerful or those who are weak. Resistance can also be intellectual (p. 3).” He posited resisters often wrestled with questions of norms, while they simultaneously strove to create something new. Therefore, Zamalin acknowledged that resisters frequently find themselves in a condition with much risk and limitations. Zamalin’s (2017) work focused on the moment of resistance, which he described as, This moment-when the resister is saying “no”, engaging in direct action or a critique of the system-…The resister is trying to break free from conventional ways of being while trying to legitimize why it is happening. The

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resister challenges what is practice and illuminates what isn’t, juxtaposing what encourages human flourishing with what disables it. The resister grapples with the question of means and ends—the question of the norms of action—while trying to create a new language for a future that doesn’t yet exist. The resister, just like the act of resistance, is often in a precarious state, where risk is ever present, where limitation is abundant. To resist, one must be moved to resist. So, the resister is in an existential state of flight and is often possessed by some feeling, whether joy and ecstasy or pessimism and anguish (p. 9).

Single Black mothers who forgo full-time employment in order to homeschool their children embody each of these characterizations of resistance in their decision to ignore conventional norms, which speak to their sense of urgency. Conventional norms would impose a need for single mothers to work full-time in order to provide for their children and those same norms often condemn, or ridicule, single mothers who do not work full-time. Similarly, Zamalin (2017) recalled that throughout history, and even today, African American resistance has frequently been framed in criminality. None of the mothers in this study had been homeschooled as a child, nor had they ever taught in conventional schools, and therefore, their decision to homeschool represented a venture into an unfamiliar way of being. Their stories illuminated the precarious nature of their finances while they also sought ways to ensure their children reached their full potential. Moreover, through a critical analysis of the lives of abolitionists David Walker and Frederick Douglass, journalist Ida B. Wells, the Black Panthers, and Angela Davis, Zamalin (2017) demonstrated that African American resistance has been informed by (1) lived experiences rather than relying on intangible thoughts, (2) the power of language (naming), and (3) redefining notions of community. In the next sections, I discuss the alignment of these features of African American resistance with elements of Black Feminist Thought (BFT), which more specifically consider the ways of knowing among Black women, including Black mothers more specifically, and therefore, also informed this research.

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Conceptions of BFT and Single Homeschool Moms’ Resistance One way to avoid assuming a deficit perspective in research on Black families is to commit using a lens developed by us and for us. The epistemology of BFT provides a dynamic lens through which to study single Black women’s “every day, taken-for-granted knowledge” (Collins, 2009, p. 36) and experiences. Daily, Black women face similar adversities, or what Collins (2009) refers to as a “legacy of struggle” with institutions and structures such as housing, the workplace, and education, yet our responses to those challenges faced can be quite diverse. Employing the Black feminist lens promotes understanding of these experiences from the perspective of Black women and at the same time promotes new awareness of how Black women cope with and address the adversity they face. In other words, BFT enables us to understand Black women’s empowerment through resistance, reaction, and resolution. More specifically, BFT values and promotes the self-agency and selfdetermination of Black women’s everyday lives. The themes of self-agency and self-determination have been well documented in Black educational history, yet research on the self-agency and self-determination among single Black mothers remains scarce. Furthermore, the study of single Black home educators does not currently exist. BFT provides a counternarrative to the negative images of Black single mothers and augments the image of US homeschooling as a White, two-parent, and middle-income phenomenon. Zamalin’s (2017) African American resistance framework and hooks’ (1990) conceptualizations of “homeplace,” based on BFT, overlap in that both theories of thought represent a refusal of assuming the role of victim and instead, demonstrate both agency and activism in everyday practices. BFT, as discussed by Collins (2009), also imputes agency and activism in the everyday work of Black mothers on behalf of their children and their communities. Homeplace serves as a foundation for understanding contemporary Black homeschooling. Vivid portrayals in all types of media have depicted the harrowing accounts of Black children engaged in the initial attempts to integrate public schools in the south and marching for Civil Rights. Faced with daily threats, violence, insults, hatred, …racism, photos of the time frequently give the appearance of their parents’ invisibility and suggest that

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the battle against racism took place primarily outside of Black families’ homes. But, hooks’ (1990) concept of ‘homeplace’ indicates otherwise. Like the framework of Afrocentricity, homeplace draws on our African ancestry. However, homeplace focuses on the prominent and critical role of women within the family and community. Today, given the low expectations, destructive labels, and other forms of differential treatment frequently experienced by Black children in traditional schools, homeschooling enables Black families to create spaces where their children can be edified while they learn in order to become more fully equipped to thrive within a world dominated by a hegemony that would otherwise relegate them to second-class citizenry. Thus, homeschooling among Black families represents a reprioritizing and reclaiming of “homeplace” today. Homeplace refers to the way Black women made their homes a critical cite of resistance to thwart the prejudice and injustice their children faced during the Jim Crow Era. More specifically, framed in BFT, homeplace positioned Black mothers as a critical source of edification and empowerment within their homes. Scholar bell hooks asserted, In our young minds, houses belonged to women, were their special domain, not as property, but as places where all that truly mattered in life took place- the warmth and comfort of shelter, the feeding of our bodies, the nurturing of our souls. There we learned dignity, integrity of being; there we learned to have faith. (1990, p. 41)

Black women have established homeplaces throughout history and throughout the world. Homeschooling enables Black families to convert their homes into learning environments that serve as “safe places,” which Collins (2009) described, “These spaces are not only safe--they form prime locations for resisting objectification as the Other” (p. 111). The concept of “Homeplace” explained by bell hooks (1990) further illuminates the importance of safe places in relation to our unique past. “Historically, African-American people believed that the construction of a homeplace, however fragile and tenuous (the slave hut, the wooden shack), had a radical political dimension. Despite the brutal reality of racial apartheid, of domination, one’s homeplace was the one site where one could freely confront the issue of humanization, where one could resist (hooks, 1990, 42).” Yet, hooks (1990) called attention to the ways in which this work has tended to be overlooked and devalued. The author recalled Frederick

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Douglas’ writing admonishing of the institution of slavery as an affront on familial bonds, which left him with little to no experience of his mother’s care. But, conceptualizing homeplace as a site of resistance, hooks reframed Frederick Douglass’ mother’s commitment to walk/run the 12 miles between the fields, where she worked as an African slave, and her home every evening just to be able to hold him at night as he went to sleep as her means of resisting the institution of slavery. Further, hooks exhorted the powerful impact of Douglass’ mother’s determination to hold him at night, which Douglass appeared to devalue in his writings. The author pointed that Douglass’ mother made a choice to hold her child every night as a way to give something to him, even though he had not acknowledged this, and that choice represented her awareness of the need to do something to undo the effects of the dehumanizing treatment her child faced and witnessed daily. Though her ability to act had been severely hindered by slavery, Douglass’ mother took action toward resistance. The need to do something suggests a sense of urgency in the midst of struggle/oppression. Reflecting on the women surrounding her as a childhood, hooks (1990) described, Their lives were not easy. Their lives were hard. They were black women who for the most part worked outside the home serving white folks, cleaning their houses, washing their clothes, tending their children -black women who worked in the fields or in the streets, whatever they could do to make ends meet, whatever was necessary. Then they returned to their homes to make life happen there. (p. 42) [emphasis added]

We cannot continue to underestimate or overlook the activism of Black mothers, particularly single Black mothers. Homeplace provided a foundation for understanding the centrality of Black mothers’ roles in the development of children’s self-identity and self-efficacy in their ability to endure racism. Explaining the significance of ‘homeplace,’ hooks (1990) wrote “Those who dominate and oppress us benefit most when we have nothing to give our own, when they have so taken from us our dignity, our humanness that we have nothing left, no ‘homeplace’ where we can recover ourselves (p.43).” Today, Black families homeschool to heal/shield their children from lingering historic racism/prejudice that can appear in schools through policy and practice and instead provide

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their children with educational opportunities intended to secure their ability to thrive. Further, Collins (2009) discusses the tensions and challenges Black motherhood as ever-changing and mediated connections to each other, their children, community, and sense of self, situated in the context intended to benefit oppressive notions of race, gender, and class. As an example, Collins wrote, The controlling images of the mammy, the matriarch, and the welfare mother and the practices they justify are designed to oppress. In the context of a sexual politics that aims to control Black women’s sexuality and fertility, African-American women struggle to be good mothers. In contrast, motherhood can serve as a site where Black women express and learn the power of self-definition, the importance of valuing and respecting ourselves, the necessity of self-reliance and independence, and. Belief in black women’s empowerment. (p. 191)

Further, we should expect that Black mothers will respond and therefore, resist in a variety of unique ways in the differentiated and dynamic circumstances of Black motherhood (Collins, 2009). The heightened emotion of Black mothers attempting to participate in their children’s education has served as an exemplar of these differences. Hankins (2003) described her encounter with an apparently defiant Black mother of one of her students, She clinched her purse in her hands, continued to stare out the window, and nearly whispered, “Look…I never met you, I don’t even know your name. But you are my enemy. I hate you and everybody connected to this school and any other school for what you are trying to do to my baby, my precious child (p. 2).”

Note that this Black mother whispered these powerful words full of anger and pain as well. In contrast, Cooper (2007) found that Black mothers’ engagement in their children’s education included a variety of interactions characterized as placid, critical, or assertive, which represented Black mothers’ style of care. Yet, “Educators tend to view African-American mothers’ resistance as negative and counterproductive to good schooling, rather than understanding that it represents caring (p. 506).” Colorblind conceptualization of care leads to the mispositions Black mothers’ sometimes confrontational style of care as inferior to the mild-mannered approach linked to White mothers (Cooper, 2007). In the context of

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racism, prejudice, and inequity, Black mothers do not have the luxury of remaining calm when their children’s sense of self-worth and access to educational excellence are jeopardized. Black mothers who choose to homeschool have exercised their agency to resist and overcome such battles. Black Feminist Theory also asserts the importance of self-definition rather than accepting labels defined by society. The power of self-naming is critical when studying single Black families who homeschool. For example, contrary to traditional definitions of homeschooling found in the existing literature, where it is assumed that parents serve as their children’s sole educators, in several states, including Georgia, home educators have the right to outsource much of their instructional responsibilities to another entity such as a co-op. Therefore, homeschool families might not translate to a parent and her children sitting around the kitchen table to learn as would be suggested by traditional definitions of homeschooling. Further, in their creativity and out of need, single Black home educators would likely create new ways to meet their children’s needs through the activism of homeschooling. Further, we must accept that single families are whole families, and therefore, they are not broken. Taylor (2013) posits, “The ideal family is one such construct that can have marginalizing consequences for Black homeschooling families” (p. 32). As she explains, social norms tend to privilege middle-class, heterosexual, White men and the ideal family became a derivative of this normalization. “Although the ideal image of family often positions the wife as a stay---at---home mother, children are expected to attend traditional forms of schools-such as public or private schools. Homeschooling, shading the family brown, adding extended family members, and/or depicting two mommies or two daddies immediately distort the ‘recognizable’ and normalized image of family” (Taylor, 2013, p. 32). Similarly, considering the perspective of single Black home educators would further alter the image of an ideal family, and even an ideal homeschool family, on the basis of gender (head of household), race, family composition, and even social class. Taylor brilliantly conceptualizes the expectations and privileged social norms, which are often used to compare families, as coloring within the lines; thus, Black homeschooling would then represent coloring outside the lines. Thus, Black homeschooling among single Black mothers would be coloring even further beyond those lines because in this study, single-parent families represent the norm.

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Though recent Census data suggest that most US children (69%) reside with two parents, only 38% of Black children live with both parents. Furthermore, close to two-thirds of the population’s children have consistently lived in single-parent households over the past five years. The point being that within the Black community, children residing in single-parent households represent a norm. When my daughter was in the 3rd grade, we lived in one of the same predominantly Black communities represented in this study and she therefore attended a predominantly Black public school and had Black teachers as well. She came home extremely excited one day saying, “Guess what? We are not so unusual after all!” When I asked what she meant, she shared that to practice using fractions her teacher had students stand up in response to statements such as “if you have a pet” and “if you have a younger sibling.” Then, the teacher would have the children figure out the fraction represented by those who stood up. This teacher also included the statement, “Stand up if you live with one parent” and the result was 2/3 of the class lived with their mothers only. Therefore, like my daughter concluded, single Black households headed by mothers are normal, whole, and accepted for the purposes of this study. When Black families homeschool, they assume control of the influences on their children and seek to strengthen the family bond while they also aim to reduce those outside forces that would suggest their children are less than or not capable. Oftentimes, Black moms initiate the decision to homeschool, select the curriculum, and organize homeschool support groups while they also maintain their homes. The decision to homeschool comes with tremendous sacrifice as the family will often forgo a second income and mothers frequently forfeit entire careers (Fields-Smith & Williams-Johnson, 2009). BFT helps us to understand why single Black mothers, who have experienced decades-long disparity in obtaining wealth, would be willing to surrender opportunities to obtain increased financial security. Instead, the reprioritizing of homeplace through homeschooling enables Black families to invest fully in the spiritual, academic, social, and psychological development of their children with the aim of ensuring uplift, upward mobility, and positive racial identity. Conceptualized this way, Black home education is self-agency and self-determination in the twenty-first-century. Moreover, single Black mothers have additional stereotypes and associate deficit views imposed on them, which they must resist, particularly if they choose to forgo full-time employment. Doing so would appear to be

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irresponsible to many people. But, Fields-Smith and Wells Kisura (2013) explained, “It could be argued that today, Black homeschooling mothers are ‘flipping-the-script’ on their previously ascribed roles as ‘domesticother’ and ‘working-mother’ and they are instead powerfully reclaiming domesticity as their personal choice and individual right (p. 267).” Purposefully, choosing to homeschool full-time as a single mother represents a departure from Black mothers’ integration of financial independence with beliefs surrounding motherhood as expressed by Collins (2009). Whereas in middle-class, White, mainstream society, working outside of the home has been deemed in conflict with family values, “work for Black women has been an important and valued dimension of motherhood (Collins, 2009, p. 199).” Yet, the single Black mothers presented within these pages refrained from full-time employment in order to reprioritize homeplace, repositioning the center of their children’s education away from traditional schools to fully empower themselves in educational decision-making. Homeschooling as a single mother represents an exercising their power. But, what is the source of their power to do so?

Conceptualizing Spirituality Quoting one of her teacher-mother participants, Lawrence-Lightfoot (2003) wrote, “Teachers are no longer dealing with the whole person, with the spirit of each child” (p. 33). For me, this quote harkened the voices of Black home educators as well when describing their motivations to assume full control of their children’s learning. It seemed to me that the idea expressed within the quote, that is, public schools no longer focused on a child’s spirit, or whole-being, represented the essence of why Black families homeschool. To be clear, Black families elect to homeschool for a multitude of reasons, but they coalesced into what appeared to be a fundamental shift in schools’ focus from teaching the ‘whole child’ to a concentration on student test scores brought on by the narratives of neo-liberalism and the era of accountability. Teaching the whole child represents a spiritual connection between teacher and student, spiritual, but not religious. In this section, I provide a review of relevant literature on spirituality in teaching and learning beginning with distinctions made between religion and spirituality and then relating the significance of spirituality in teaching to the African American context. I originally reviewed this literature with the intended purpose of providing a guiding model toward understanding

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the many facets of spirituality in teaching and learning among Black home educations, but in the end, I discovered critical elements of spirituality that should be present in any educational setting, yet these concepts have a limited presence in teacher education practice (Schoonmaker, 2009). This is most likely due to a misperception of the separation of church and state mandate and perhaps confusion between the terms, religion and spirituality.

Distinction Between Spirituality and Religion Scholars typically agree on definitive distinctions between the terms, spirituality and religion. Generally speaking, religion, or the state of being religious, has been depicted as relatively external in nature and as having a tendency toward exclusiveness or setting boundaries with distinct, absolute truths, values, or beliefs and zero tolerance for any values or beliefs difference beyond those truths (Kunzman, 2009, 2010). Alternatively, researchers depicted spirituality as more of an internal connection to oneself, other people, and a Higher Power (Dillard & Okpalaoka, 2013; Mata, 2014). Spirituality has a fluid, internalized nature and included (1) connection to self, (2) connection to others, and (3) connection to nature/Higher Power. Important to note, Zhang (2012) categorized spirituality as religiously tethered or religiously untethered. Given the contrasts between religion and spirituality, we can surmise that to be spiritual means to be open to multiple truths, to relate to others, to understand self, and to establish a sense of purpose beyond oneself. Describing the absence of spirituality in classroom, Miller (2009) stated, I suggest that often in the classroom, students are not welcomed wholly to exist. Students are asked to check the vast majority of their inner life at the school entrance—relationships to each other, concerns quite immediate about their feelings, the purpose or meaning of life, death of loved ones, justice and compassion for themselves or others they know. The heart of living, as it is being experienced right now, in the here and now, is not discussed. In that we ask students to leave much of their awaking selves behind, it hardly seems surprising that often students are not wholly present in class. The classroom chair has been occupied, but the spirit lives elsewhere; a disintegrated presence is created. (p. 2705)

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Love (2019) referred to this disembodied educational experience as spirit-murdering of Black children who experience racism and prejudice in schools. Spirit-murdering of Black children can occur pedagogically, institutionally, or individually. Sadly, whether intentional or not, spiritmurdering of Black students occurs daily in classrooms. It can be found in the way teachers use common disciplinary practices (e.g., Hatt, 2012), teachers’ attitudes regarding children with special needs (Lee, 2017), or in systemic special education practices (Aviv, 2018). Among other strategies, Love (2019) invokes the establishment of a homeplace consisting of any adult who cares for, and believes in, children within a community as a way of resisting and ultimately overcoming the damage of spiritmurdering. Homeplace represents one way of embodying spirituality in Black children’s educational experiences.

Spirituality and the Education of Black Children Black families have a long-standing history with both religion and spirituality, which can also be linked to a context of resistance (Dantley, 2005). The A PEW (2010) survey found that as a group, Black people most frequently identified with a religious affiliation of some sort. However, research on Black homeschooling has indicated that, unlike the stereotypes associated with White home education, Black parents typically do not homeschool specifically for religious purposes (Fields-Smith & Williams-Johnson, 2009; Ray, 2015; Williams, 2016). Yet, the existing literature does indicate that Black families create an educational experience for their children that encompasses developing their sense of self, connections to community (others), and a sense of purpose. The home educators presented in this work further demonstrate that spirituality and religion are not necessarily exclusive of one another. Dantley (2005) so eloquently explained, “Our spirit enables us to connect with other human beings; it underpins our ability to take steps to dismantle marginalizing conditions while simultaneously creating strategies to bring about radical changes to less-than-favorable circumstances (p. 654).” Thus, understanding the relationship between African American spirituality, education, and resistance remains essential. Among the academic literature, there have been numerous invitations to understand classrooms as spiritual places (e.g., Dantley, 2005; Miller, 2009; Schoonmaker, 2009), or sacred places, and teaching as a spiritual practice (Dillard & Okpalaoka, 2013). Dantley (2005) highlights the ways

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in which Walker’s (2000) description of segregated Black schools in the south functioned as spiritual places and thus, enabled teachers to instill and sustain Black children’s sense of self-worth and hope for a life beyond the oppression of Jim Crow laws. Therefore, African American spirituality must include a sense of faith in the yet unseen (see Hebrews 11:11). Though the legalized segregation laws have been dismantled, Black children today still need this type of hope given our continued racially oppressive context, which needs movements such as Black Lives Matter. Educational spaces framed in African American spirituality nurture individuals and community simultaneously (Dantley, 2005). Through dialogue, critical reflection, and problem-solving, instruction based on African American spirituality helps students develop a positive sense of self—a sacred self. The author explained, “The sacred self refuses to accept the racial inequities in the U.S. culture as concretized realities. The sacred self refutes the marginalized status that has been assigned to African Americans through prevailing stereotypes and transcends this and other designations of social malaise that have historical haunted many African Americans (Dantley, 2005, p. 657).” Likewise, historically, an African American-based education establishes “a sense that what takes place in the schoolhouse is integral to the ultimate liberation of the entire community from the oppressive rituals of the dominant culture” (Dantley, 2005, p. 656). Research on Black home education has been limited to documenting the benefits of a spiritually based instruction. Williams (2016) studied the experiences of four college-aged Black males homeschooled through the use of co-ops, where parents teach each other’s children. She found that the young men characterized their homeschooling experiences as “journey in self-discovery” where they described experiences based on their own interests and expected to direct their own learning. A participant shared that as a result, “I got to know myself, and therefore, because of that, I came to college knowing who I am, I can understand other people better. I can understand my peers better (Williams, 2016, p. 115).” Moreover, the participants provided examples indicating their homeschooling experience contributed to their sense of cultural pride. Given the African American cultural heritage of looking to education as a source of liberation, single Black mothers choosing to homeschool their children in the absence of full-time employment most definitely represent a sense of sincere faith. Therefore, this study explored the ways

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in which single Black mothers’ homeschooling motivations and practices represented elements of African American spirituality in addition to aspects of BFT such as self-naming, self-agency, and resistance through homeplace. Endarkened Feminist Epistemologies as described by Dillard (2006, 2012) provided a lens through which to further conceptualize the methods for this study.

Endarkened Feminist Epistemology and the Study of Single Black Homeschool Mothers With EFE, Dillard (2006) has offered researchers a culturally relevant perspective on our thinking about knowledge, research purpose, and methods. Dillard’s (2006) statement, “One’s epistemological basis for research must engage in relevant cultural understanding and ‘theorizing’ that is informed by the insights of those experiencing the world as the very phenomena being explored” (p. 6), touched the very heart of why I do research and therefore, validated my researcher stance. Knowledge is best understood within frameworks/theories informed by those who are being studied. To date, I have primarily approached research with Black families using a phenomenological framework, as described by Creswell (2007), because simply put, the focus required understanding the phenomenon under study from the perspective of participants. However, EFE has contributed a way of thinking about research that adds a cultural, historical, and spiritual lens. Rather than relying on positivistic notions of research, which tend to seek disconnection between researcher and participants, EFE has enhanced the sense of purpose and therefore, meaning to this work as well. For a description of the connections to my participants and how those connections enhanced this work, please see my reflexivity statement in the preface. This remainder of this section will focus on connections between EFE and the methods used in this study. One of the assumptions of EFE that has been central to this work included the recognition that “Knowing and research are both historical (extending backwards in time) and outward to the world: To approach them otherwise is to diminish their cultural and empirical meaningfulness” (p. 24). For this study, this assumption means that in order to fully understand single Black mothers’ decisions to homeschool, we must understand the historical and cultural roles that have shaped their knowing regarding the education of their children. To honor this recognition, the one-on-one interviews with each homeschool mom included a query

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of their childhood. Beginning the interviews in this manner provided me with a sense of their family life, how their parents engaged in their learning and maintained their motivation to do well in school or not. Participants described the setting (urban, suburban, or rural) they group up in as well as the time frame. I also inquired as to how the moms engaged in their children’s education prior to the decision to homeschool. Understanding the historical context provided sense of who the mothers are outside of their home educator roles. We found ways to connect as they shared their background as well, which enabled us to develop rapport. By the time we began discussing their homeschool practice, connections and discussions from their childhood compared to their current values and practices became more evident. Most importantly though, through the process of research, the mothers and I bonded. Our interviews were more like conversations among kindred spirits. My interviews became dialogues, which represented an equality between myself and the single mother home educators sharing their stories with me. The strength of our bonds as Black women, Black mothers, and educators of Black children transcended any aspects of my so-called “outsider” status as a former public school teacher and teacher educator. I also owned, and continue to own, the responsibility for telling their stories accurately and from their perspective. Because I believe nothing happens by accident, I also conceived of this work as divinely ordained and deeply spiritual. With EFE, research represents an endeavor of intellect and also a spiritual act. I did not set out to study homeschooling. Using community nomination for a completely different study, someone referred me to a Black mother who homeschooled. This led me to study homeschooling. Some people might call this luck or coincidence, but I attribute it to divine intervention. Initially, pursuing this line of research seemed to contradict my work in the academy, and it took a ‘leap of faith’ for me to continue to do so. The controversial nature of homeschooling positioned me in front of camera and recorders of various media outlets. Again, this is not where I intended to find myself as an academic. But, the sense of purpose to the work became ingrained in me, and also an acknowledgment that something much greater than my research agenda was at work within this research, which has enabled me to persevere. This purpose spoke to Dillard’s (2006) call for “research as responsibility, answerable and obligated to the very persons and communities being engaged in the inquiry”

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(p. 5), through EFE. Dillard’s EFE framework also assumes that individuals can best be seen in the context of community as well as dialogue, and that meaning making stems from everyday actions. The four mothers featured in this text represented a subset of a larger homeschool community, yet each individual home educator’s experience formed a unique collective as well. Their work as home educators also represented a spiritual act.

Methods This qualitative study sought to understand how single Black mothers interpreted their decisions to homeschool, what factors sustained their ability to homeschool, and how their interpretations aligned with conceptions of Black resistance presented earlier in this chapter. Participants The four home educators represented in this study originally participated in a larger two-year study of homeschooling among 46 Black families. I chose to focus on Chloe, Dahlia, Yvette, and Margaret (pseudonyms) because neither of them worked full-time, which signified a particularly extraordinary, yet under-researched, homeschool context. Their lived experiences illustrated the diverse and complex circumstances of single mothers’ decisions to homeschool. Table 2.1 provides a summary of participant demographics including number of children, age, level of education, and income. Three mothers held master degrees, while one mother was a full-time, undergraduate student at the time of the study. A native and citizen of the UK, Yvette was an international student as well. None of the mothers held degrees in K-12 education. As found in Table 2.1, Margaret, mother of five children, represented the oldest home educator and the veteran home educator having homeschooled for 14 years. In contrast, Dahlia and Chloe had one child each and they had homeschooled for six years and nine years, respectively. None of the single mothers earned over $20,000, but these salaries did not necessarily include alimony or child support received. Each mother had been married; Chloe divorced prior to her decision to homeschool, but Margaret and Dahlia shared they began homeschooling as married

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Table 2.1 Summary of participant characteristics Participant

Number of children

Age

Level of education

Employment status

Reported income

Margaret

5

48

Masters

Unemployed

Chloe

1

32

Masters

Dahlia

1

42

Masters

Yvette

2

37

Some college

Unemployed disabled veteran Part-time employee at a non-profit organization Full-time student

$6000 annually (interview) $17,500 annually (survey) $16,640 annually (survey) n/a

women, and they had remained committed to homeschooling after experiencing divorce. Yvette had recently started homeschooling within two years of the study and therefore, had the least experience as a home educator. Context Chloe, Dahlia, Yvette, and Margaret resided in three different counties outside of Atlanta, Georgia. Farthest from Atlanta, the Census Bureau classified Margaret’s county as rural compared to Dahlia, Yvette, and Chloe, who lived in different metropolitan suburbs of Atlanta. Based on attendance zone policies, the children represented in this study would have been locally assigned to predominantly Black resegregated public schools. Georgia’s state laws regarding homeschooling conceptually bestowed homeschool families rights similar to private schools. The homeschool policies required home educators to have high school diplomas or equivalent. Further, at the time of the study, homeschool parents had to (1) submit a letter of intent, (2) submit monthly attendance, (3) test children every three years, and (4) maintain records of their children’s progress. However, Georgia’s homeschool laws did not include ramifications for lack of academic progress among homeschool children.

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Data Sources Data collection strategies consisted of semi-structured interviews, focus groups, and surveys. Interviews followed a modified version of Seidman’s (2013) multi-phase interview model. The first phase queried parents’ experiences growing up as described in the previous section on Endarkened Feminist Epistemologies, while the second phase explored how parents decided to engage in their children learning before homeschooling and how they perceived their homeschool practice. Interviews lasted between 90 and 120 minutes. They were transcribed verbatim. Each of the participants represented in this sub-study participated in a focus group. During focus groups, I gathered data through documents created by participants and recorded discussions. The 28-item survey queried demographic data including household income, number of children homeschooled, and level of education. Additionally, 17 survey items focused on home educators’ self-efficacy in teaching their children. Analysis This research sought a deep understanding of the unique homeschooling decisions and practices from the perspective of three single Black mothers. The study conceptualized homeschooling as a form of resistance and assumed that the three single Black mothers held self-described definitions of their home educator roles and practices. For this paper, I reviewed interview transcripts coding based on African American conceptions of resistance as described by Bogdan and Biklen (2006), to capture the discrete description of each homeschool teacher. Themes emerged in categories such as perception of schools, motherhood role, and spirituality/faith. Several strategies ensured trustworthiness of the findings. First, each participant reviewed a copy of their interview transcript for accuracy. Corrections typically reflected misunderstanding of pronunciation of words on tape. I maintained a researchers’ journal in the original study where I recorded my responses to data collected including impressions following each interview. Phenomenology consists of different traditions (e.g., transcendental or hermeneutic phenomenology) regarding how researchers should use their preconceived thoughts, and developing understanding of the phenomenon under study, which had implications for trustworthiness.

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Grounded in the EFE, this study valued connections between myself as an African American researcher, mother, educator, and my Black homeschool mothers. Therefore, I employed both a descriptive and interpretative tradition of phenomenology as described by Vagle (2009). The descriptive approach (finding meaning) required scholars to bracket or separate researchers’ preconceived thoughts and developing understanding of a phenomenon from the analysis of process to keep the data ‘pure’ or free from researcher bias/judgment. This is where I used a researcher’s journal. Conversely, the interpretative approach (giving meaning) espoused that in truth, “the researcher is always in an intentional relationship with the phenomenon under investigation” (Vagle, 2009, p. 586). Therefore, from the interpretative perspective, researchers cannot, in truth, isolate themselves from the phenomena under study, which aligns with EFE as well. I needed both approaches in order to be engaged in the bridling process of analysis. Vagle (2009) described the bridling process to capture both the giving and finding of meaning represented in each tradition. He suggested that bridling actually begins upon selection of the phenomenon and posited, “bridling does not remove, set aside, or render the researcher non-influential as bracketing implies, but animates and illuminates the researcher more fully in his or her intentional relationship with the phenomenon. In this way, bridling is a reflexive act” (p. 592). The researcher journal documented my preconceived notions about Black homeschooling and my developing understanding based on interactions/relationships with each participant, but those reactions also informed my subsequent questions and understanding of the data. Vagle related reflexivity to validity, I suggest that any acknowledging, questioning, reflecting, and marking of my continued understandings of the phenomenon will continue to demonstrate my pursuit of validity, because the validity will always move with and through my intentional relationship with the phenomenon-not simply in me as the researcher, in the participants as the experiencers, in the text, in our respective power positions, but in the intentional relationships that tie participants, me, the produced text, and our positionality together. (p. 602)

As the author experienced, in a sense, my participants and I collaborated to make meaning of Black homeschooling, which enhanced the validity/trustworthiness of the study.

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The narratives of each home educator’s experience have been presented in four separate chapters, which mother having her own chapter (Chapters 3–6). The chapters have been structured to begin with background contextual information related to the upbringing of the homeschool moms, and the time period leading up to their decision to homeschool, as appropriate. Following a presentation of the homeschool mother’s conception of homeschooling motives and practices, each chapter attempts to summarize meaning related to the themes of spirituality, motherhood, and race found within the narrative. In order to fully honor the meaning making of each homeschool mother’s experience, chapters contain large segments of data directly pulled from their interview transcripts. In addition, I have attempted to refrain from discussing findings within the chapters in order to reserve this function for the final chapter (Chapter 7).

References Aviv, R. (2018, October 1). Georgia’s separate and unequal special education system. The New Yorker. Retrieved January 15, 2019 from https://www. newyorker.com/magazine/2018/10/01/georgias-separate-and-unequalspecial-education-system. Bogdan, R. C., & Biklen, S. K. (2006). Qualitative research in education: An introduction to theory and methods. Boston, MA: Allyn and Bacon. Collins, P. H. (2009). Black feminist thought. New York: Routledge Classics. Cooper, C. W. (2007). School choice as ‘motherwork’: Valuing African-American women’s educational advocacy and resistance. International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, 20(5), 491–512. Creswell, J. (2007). Qualitative inquiry and research design: Choosing among five traditions. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Dantley, M. E. (2005). African American spirituality and Cornel West’s notions of prophetic pragmatism: Restructuring educational leadership in American urban schools. Educational Administration Quarterly, 41(4), 651–674. Dillard, C. B. (2006). On spiritual strivings: Transforming an African American woman’s academic life. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press. Dillard, C. B. (2012). Learning to (re)member the things we’ve learned to forget: Endarkened feminisms, spirituality, & the sacred nature of research and teaching. NY: Peter Lang. Dillard, C. B., & Okpalaoka, C. L. E. (2013). Engaging, culture, race, and spirituality: New visions. New York: Peter Lang.

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Fields-Smith, C., & Wells Kisura, M. (2013). Resisting the status quo: The narratives of Black homeschoolers in Metro-Atlanta and Metro-DC. Peabody Journal of Education, 88(3), 265–283. Fields-Smith, C., & Williams-Johnson, M. (2009). Motivations, sacrifices, and challenges: Black parents’ decisions to home school. Urban Review, 41, 369– 389. Hankins, K. H. (2003). Teaching through the storm: A journal of hope. New York, NY: Teachers College Press. Hatt, B. (2012). Smartness as a cultural practice in schools. American Educational Research Journal, 49(3), 438–460. hooks, b. (1990). Yearning: race, gender, and cultural politics. Boston: South End Press. Kunzman, R. (2009). Understanding homeschooling: A better approach to regulation. Theory and Research in Education, 7 (3), 311–330. Kunzman, R. (2010). Write these laws on your children: Inside the world of conservative Christian homeschooling. Boston: Beacon Press. Lawrence-Lightfoot, S. (2003). The essential conversation: What parents and teachers can learn from each other. New York: Random House. Lee, K. (2017). Making the body ready for school: ADHD and early schooling in the era of accountability. Teachers College Record, 119(9), 1–38. Love, B. L. (2019). We want to do more than survive: Abolitionist teaching and the pursuit of educational freedom. Boston: Beacon Press. Mata, J. (2014). Sharing my journey and opening spaces: Spirituality in the classroom. International Journal of Children’s Spirituality, 19(2), 112–122. Miller, L. (2009). Present to possibility: Spiritual awareness and deep teaching. Teachers College Record, 111(12), 2705–2712. P.E.W. (2010, September 28). U.S. religious knowledge survey. Pew Research Center. Accessed August 1, 2018 https://www.pewforum.org/2010/09/28/us-religious-knowledge-survey/. Ray, B. (2015). African American homeschool parents’ motivations for homeschooling and their Black children’s academic achievement. Journal of School Choice, 9(71), 71–96. Schoonmaker, F. (2009). Only those who see take off their shoes: Seeing the classroom as a spiritual space. Teachers College Record, 111(12), 2713–2731. Seidman, I. (2013). Interviewing as qualitative research: A guide for researchers in education and the social sciences (5th ed.). NY: Teachers College Press. Taylor, T. (2013). Coloring outside the lines: An intersectionality approach to understanding the homeschool experiences of Black families (Sociology thesis). Georgia State University, Atlanta, Georgia. Retrieved November 10, 2015 from https://scholarworks.gsu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?referer=& httpsredir=1&article=1036&context=sociology_theses.

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Vagle, M. D. (2009). Validity as intended: ‘Bursting forth toward’ bridling in phenomenological research. International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, 22(5), 585–605. Walker, V. S. (2000). African American teaching in the South: 1940–1960. American Educational Research Journal, 38, 751–780. Williams, J. D. (2016). Homeschoolers: Experiences of African American male students—A Phenomenological study. Urban Education Research and Policy Annuals, 4(1), 110–121. Zamalin, A. (2017). Struggle on their minds: The political thought of African American resistance. New York, NY: Columbia University Press. Zhang, K. (2012). Spirituality and early childhood special education: Exploring a ‘forgotten’ dimension. International Journal of Children’s Spirituality, 17 (1), 39–49.

CHAPTER 3

Margaret: Homeschooling as a Mother’s Right

Because I understand I’m not looking for the “superior education”, I’m homeschooling to spend time with my kids. I wouldn’t be able to do that if they were in public school. I would only get a limited number of hours in the afternoon and weekends. —Margaret

At 48, Margaret represented the oldest of the four home educators featured in this text, and she would be considered a veteran with over 20 years of experience in homeschooling. Unlike the other home educators, Margaret’s children never attended conventional schools, public or private. She initially made the decision to homeschool just when her oldest child, Mary, approached school-age and ended up homeschooling Mary into college. Sadly, Mary died of leukemia while attending college. Margaret remained determined to continue homeschooling her remaining children, four children, because despite the fact that she and her husband separated and later divorced, she believed homeschooling fostered her ability to bond with her children. At the time of the study, Margaret’s next eldest child, Deborah, attended an in-state university to study music. Therefore, when Margaret and I met, she focused largely on the homeschooling of her remaining three sons (Robbie, 16, Steven, 13, and Dan, 9). She and her sons lived in low-income community located in a rural county more than an hour

© The Author(s) 2020 C. Fields-Smith, Exploring Single Black Mothers’ Resistance Through Homeschooling, Palgrave Studies in Alternative Education, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-42564-7_3

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outside of the Metro-Atlanta area, which made for a unique setting for homeschooling for research. As a recipient of federal aid, some might be offended by Margaret’s single-parent, full-time home educator status. However, from Margaret’s perspective, her circumstances, motherhood beliefs, parent self-efficacy, and religious beliefs sparked, supported, and sustained her right to homeschool her children. She viewed homeschooling as an extension of motherhood and her religious beliefs gave her the right to resist the assumed norm for single parents of sending your children to public school and working full-time to support the family. Margaret’s homeschooling account documented her values lived and spoken related to motherhood, religion, and the education she desired for her children.

Background Margaret grew up in Atlanta and stated, “My schools started out segregated, but ended up integrated.” Yet, she did not experience the same hatred depicted in the experiences of the ‘Little Rock Nine’ integration in Arkansas. In describing her childhood, Margaret shared, “My mother was a single parent, so she worked most of the time. I have four older brothers and sisters and four younger brothers. and sisters so I’m in the middle of eight siblings. My parents were separated. She made sure we got to school.” Thus, Margaret had witnessed the challenges of growing up in a single-parent home. At the time of the study, Margaret shared that she and her husband had been divorced for three years. She started homeschooling while she was married, but her husband remained uninvolved. Because of the divorce, Margaret had to relocate a little over an hour outside of Atlanta to a rural Georgia county. She shared, “I separated from my husband and one of my friends offered me a house temporarily that I lived in for the first year and half. I’m still here [same county] now, but I’m living in the projects”, she disclosed. She also recounted, “But now, I’m living in the projects, which is, you know, [pause] not the best environment, but it is better than where we were. I grew up in the projects. So, from a house to the projects to house, back to the projects. (laugher), and I expect that I’ll be in a house again one day. But I would like to be out of debt.”

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Part of Margaret’s debt included school loans. She graduated with an undergraduate degree in construction management and a master’s in counseling education. She had hopes of eventually obtaining the credentials needed to become a Christian counselor within the church community. According to Census Bureau data, Margaret’s rural community measured just three-square miles and had a population of 2428 people in 2010. Additionally, her community had one low-income housing complex consisting of 58 home units. Margaret represented the 13% of the community that made $10,000 or less per year. She reported having earned $6000 annually the year prior to the study. She explained her current work status, I’m sort of unemployed because of the market and my location. I am in [rural county] and it is just a small town. One county inspector with everyone waiting on him to retire or die. I have worked for construction companies. I worked for MARTA, City of Atlanta, Dekalb County. Now I’m currently a federal employee as a federal inspector, but there has not been any work in probably close to a year from them. [In the past], I worked up until I got married. Then I stopped working for a while and then I went back to work for a while. When I had children and I stopped working again. I haven’t worked outside the home full-time since 1993. Since I’ve been here in [rural county], I worked nightshift for about 3 months. I sat with an elderly lady from December to March, but it was at night. That way I could homeschool during the day.

Margaret made her ends meet with a combination of federal aid, tutoring, and occasionally sitting with elderly people in the evenings. When asked how she accomplished so much on so little, Margaret replied, The Lord! I can only tell you it has just been the Lord. I sign them [her sons] up for recreation, but you know, they have to have the pants, the cleats, and the gloves. There have been times when, like this year I got a scholarship for one of my boys, I had two playing baseball. It happened I found some baseball pants. So, I didn’t have to buy pants this year and nobody out grew their shoes. Thank you Lord they can still play.

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Margaret continued, If the state gave the money that they give the public schools for each child, then no problem… I wouldn’t have to have to wonder where my money will come from to get through the next day. Cause it is a headache. I think it is something like $5000 per student per year. I have three kids that’s $15,000. I was looking at my taxes for last year, and I said Lord, I don’t get it. $2000 how in the world are you going to make $2000 for that whole year, how did I live? This year wasn’t much more, I think it was $6000. I looked at it and I said, “Lord!”, [laughing]. So, when I think if I got the money that the public school gets for each child then we could do field trips. I mean I love…our last field trip we went down to Macon to the museum of Arts and Science and we also went to the sports museum. Before that we went to the Harriet Tubman museum. Now we have to figure out how to do this.

Margaret’s meager earnings did not deter her from homeschooling, but it did defer her pedagogical hopes and dreams at times. As she continued to describe her rationale for choosing homeschooling despite her financial poverty, it became clear that the construction industry’s slow-down did not fully account for why Margaret remained unemployed. Motivation to Homeschool Religious Beliefs Margaret chose to remain unemployed full-time in order to be able to educate her children herself and her faith/belief in a Higher Power sustained her ability to do so. She elaborated, Because I could, you know, the simplest easy thing to do is putting them in public schools and try to find a job or commute somewhere with an hour drive somewhere, but that would not be what the Lord would require of me. He has commanded me to teach my children. He tells us to teach them diligently from when they rise up to when they sit down. How you going to do that if you are working? (laughing). You can’t do both. There’s a lot of people homeschooling, if they are black and they are homeschooling they are probably working. And I’m saying why are they working and homeschooling? The income that it produces is not going to be enough to live on. The economy…. everything is going up. Nothing coming down, except the wages. (laughter) So, what is the priority and how can we do it? We just do by day to day, year to year.

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Here, Margaret referred to a Scripture in the Bible found in Deuteronomy 11:19, which reads, “Teach them to your children, talking about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up” [New International Version]. Her interpretation of this Scripture included learning beyond religion and encompassed academic learning as well. Alternative perspectives would assume a narrower focus of the meaning of the word “them” in the Scripture as reflecting specific teaching of the Ten Commandments, which had been presented earlier in the book of Deuteronomy. Instead, Margaret applied the notion of teaching one’s children to include all learning. Thus, Margaret’s faith and religious beliefs informed not only her right to homeschool, but also emboldened her to do so as a parent. Perception of Public Schools As a veteran homeschool teacher of over 20 years, Margaret possessed much self-confidence in her role as homeschool teacher, particularly given that she had effectively homeschooled her two oldest children into college. Margaret’s motivation to homeschool differed from the other single homeschool teachers represented in this study because she decided to homeschool before her firstborn child became school-age. As a result, none of her five children had ever attended public school or even private school. Margaret explained her choice of homeschooling in part, based on her positive perception of homeschooled children and negative perceptions of public schools. She reported, Well, before my oldest child would have entered the public school system, I had friends that were homeschooling for number one. And then, number two my husband took a job with the juvenile court system for the county. So, I would hear of the things that kids did, the things that went on in school, and just like (Ahhh) horrified with the thought of putting my oldest in the public school system.

Over the years, Margaret’s perspective on the need to avoid public schools had been reinforced through observations of public school students in the community. For example, when a coach, who had heard about her son’s athletic talent, attended one of his baseball games, he tried to convince her to enroll him in the public school, she shared,

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I said I will not put him in there because I’m sitting there watching the kids, they are just running around, pants hanging off them acting like fools. If I were their parent they would not be there, I’d be up at the field with them, number one. Number two, if I saw them acting like that I would snatch them off the field. So, I’m like uh uh, no. When I see those kinds of things it reinforces the idea that yes, you need to continue to homeschool.

Thus, Margaret made the decision to resist the norm to place her children in public education, in part, based on her observation of children’s deportment and the reports of negative, potentially destructive influences experienced by public school children. In contrast, she observed the relative success of her friends’ homeschooled children. However, this rationale did not fully explain Margaret’s sense of urgency in the need to homeschool even though it meant forgoing full-time work. Motherhood as a Motivation to Homeschool As indicated in the quote at the start of this chapter, Margaret’s values and beliefs regarding her role as a mother and the ephemeral nature of motherhood also drove her decision to homeschool. As she explained, “Understand, I’m not looking for the ‘superior education’, I’m homeschooling to spend time with my kids.” Margaret continued, If they were in public school, I would only get a limited number of hours in the afternoon and weekends whereas now I have the whole day with them. They actually do go out of the house some afternoons. But, once they finished and they graduate then either they will work full-time or they will be in school, and they’ll be gone. And I won’t ever in my life get the chance to do this again because it won’t happen. They will have their own families and then their family will be doing things.

For Margaret, homeschooling enabled her to establish strong bonds between herself and her children and increased her opportunity to influence her children’s faith, worldview, work ethic, and character, more so than if they attended a traditional school. Margaret’s definition of being a good mother included providing her children with a practical education that supported success, whether or not they attended college, and developing her children’s moral character. Conventional schooling, public or private, would interfere with her ability to accomplish these purposes of

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mothering. Homeschooling extended motherhood as was her motherly right and responsibility to do so. Faith-Based Homeschool Practice As already seen, Margaret consistently expressed her spirituality in conjunction with homeschooling as an act of faith. She declared, “So, as these years go by I have done it a year at a time on faith to continue.” As she homeschooled, Margaret trusted God for the continued ability to do so and for positive outcomes for her children. Through her faith, Margaret did not homeschool with a specific end in mind, which did not refer to any sense of uncertainty in her ability to homeschool, but instead conveyed an attitude of gratefulness for the provision to homeschool. This position of humility signified Margaret’s recognition that given her drastically limited financial means, homeschooling represented a privilege as well. As she acknowledged earlier, sending her boys to public school and finding work, though likely far from home, would in many ways be an easier path. But, only in terms of finances. The costs of working full-time as a single parent would include the loss of precious time raising her children. Margaret’s immense gratefulness for her home educator role led her to observe and acknowledge daily moments of favor such as finding the baseball pants as she discussed above as “blessings” from God making provision for her ability to homeschool and support their interests outside of schooling. Even though God did not necessarily direct Margaret to homeschool, her faith played an ongoing instrumental role in sustaining her ability to do so. Further, unlike Dahlia or Yvette, Margaret relied on a Bible-based curriculum for the foundation of her homeschool practice in conjunction with an eclectic set of instructional strategies, which extended the curriculum. Like many home educators, Margaret’s practice evolved over time. She shared, “I did something a little different. I started out using curriculum and resources that I got from friends in the public school system. I took what they gave me starting out. Then about four years into my homeschooling I enrolled in Advanced Training Institute (ATI) and I’m still enrolled in that now. I’ve been with them for a little over 10 years.” The ATI curriculum provided an intense structure to her homeschool practice.

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Perusing the ATI website, I found that the organization introduced the curriculum as “Learning to see life from God’s perspective”.1 The organization posited that the Bible serves as the primary text for children and youth’s learning. They provided pamphlets called Wisdom Books. Based on a review of a sample of Wisdom Books available online, these texts presented Bible-based lessons with quizzes intended to promote students’ understanding of a subject area content knowledge with an emphasis on interpretation of the Bible. Additionally, to join ATI, parents must complete an intense application requiring them to provide personal information such as an explanation the basis supporting parents’ salvation as Christians, and details of the parents’ Bible study and prayer life. The application also requires parents to sign a commitment to agree to remove all televisions and limited use of the Internet in the home because ATI perceives them to be a distraction and, even destructive, for the purposes of homeschooling. Other restrictions include use of alcohol, tobacco, and rock music. Margaret’s description of the ATI curriculum corroborated the website description, but she also demonstrated her self-determination to go beyond the ATI curriculum. She explained, Well ATI basically is a Christian-based organization that uses the Bible as its basis source for home schooling. You take the Bible and you go into science, math, history, social studies all those other areas based on a portion of Scripture. Along with that I supplement and do other things on my own as well. You choose what curriculum you want to use.

Margaret clearly recognized the limitations of the ATI curriculum in meeting all of her children’s needs. Part of what Margaret added to the ATI curriculum appeared to very school-like focus using textbooks beyond the Bible-based curriculum from ATI. She also clarified that she had been introduced to the ATI curriculum, I knew people that were enrolled in it and then we tried seeing about getting enrolled as well. We were given the curriculum, not a whole lot of books. There’s something called a Wisdom Book that we use. It is very deep. It’s too much, it is almost too much to do other books with it, but what we do we still supplement that with other books because some kids

1 See https://atii.org/about/curriculum/.

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still have to have a regular textbook. So, we have English books and we do phonics, science as well as math and English.

Nothing in our interaction suggested that she wholeheartedly adhered to the lifestyle requirements of ATI such as limiting television watching and avoiding secular music as described on the ATI application online. Therefore, Margaret’s homeschool practice blended the ATI curriculum with more conventional, secular learning materials. Margaret followed a daily homeschool routine that included family time, individual work, and some one-on-one teaching, which was particularly for her youngest child who was in the third grade. The typical homeschool also included Bible study, which she and her sons did together as a family. One of the advantages of using the ATI curriculum is that they provided her daughter with an accredited transcript that colleges recognize, which made for a smooth transition from homeschooling into college. Nurturing Children’s Independence Margaret described her approach to teaching as focused on self-direction and helping her children to become independent learners. Margaret’s approach to homeschooling also included an emphasis on fostering her children’s ownership of their learning. She shared that they began their day by doing Bible study together as a family. Then, they transition to what she referred to as “seatwork.” Her 13-year-old and 16-year-old sons work independently to work through content area books, which she described as, “That’s the actual school books that they would have to use in school, and if they need help with something then I will. Cause I have my teachers’ manual so I can go over it with them.” But Margaret worked more closely with her nine-year-old. She explained, My youngest one, I still do a lot of one on one with him because he is finishing a phonics course that’s like third and half grade. We’re doing a lot of one on one together. The other boys if they need help then the get with me. They tell me when they need help. I don’t just go to them say let me help you do this because if they don’t need any help then I don’t want to interfere. But, I help them when they need the help.

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By working this way, Margaret developed her older sons’ ability to engage in self-evaluation of their learning. When asked how she ensured her sons accurately learned what she intended them to learn, she replied, I check their work. We do corrections. A major part of school work is corrections. We don’t just say I did the work, check it, and then put the grade in. Oh, no. I check the work. If they get it wrong, they have to figure out how to get it right. We have factored in a day to correct. The younger one doesn’t have a lot of corrections cause I’m with him every time he is doing it. So, I see what he does. It is corrected immediately. The other ones, at least once a week is correction day. That’s when pull out the books and check to see what was done and then we will actually correct it. I just knew that you had to check the papers and it is fine if a student gets something wrong, but they need to know why they have it wrong and how to do it right. If they don’t correction is…a grade is no good if a student don’t know to do it …in the end you don’t just keep going to the next lesson you have to make sure the understand the lesson they are on and then the can go to the next lesson. I have a certain amount of work allocated out so that way it won’t be overwhelming. Sometimes I correct it with them which means they will have their book and we’ll sit together and say you got all this wrong let’s look at these problems or I just take all their books and correct them and say see what you got wrong. You have a chance go reread lesson… So, we have different ways of doing it, but we do correct. That is a major part of schooling because if just…if they do it and don’t know why it is wrong then it is a waste of time. Then they go to the next lesson and have problems.

Margaret’s approach to teaching included fostering self-direction, but she also relied heavily on the texts and teachers’ guides she had for each subject, which provided structure to her sons’ learning environment. Her practice also valued learning from mistakes, which lends itself to a safe learning environment for her children to challenge themselves. Regarding the state teaching standards, currently called Georgia Performance Standards (GPS), Margaret had checked them in the past, particularly early on in her homeschooling just to make sure she was aligned with the school system standards. Compared to her homeschool practice, Margaret found, “When I look at the standards and then look at what we do, it’s like ahhh! They are well below what we do.” By allowing her children to progress at their own pace, when they understand a concept, they are able to move on even if it meant going to material for the next

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grade level. The reverse would also be true. If her sons needed extra time, the learning pace could be slower. Community Connections in Homeschooling Vocational education and community service served as primary features of Margaret’s homeschool practice. Margaret’s definition of success for her children differed from traditional notions of passing tests and going to college. She believed that vocational education and doing community service provided (1) a critical avenue to help ensure that her sons would always be able to work with their hands so that they would never be unemployed and (2) life lessons in responsibility, character building, and handling money. Therefore, she established a routine of having her sons perform community service on a regular basis, and she also seized an opportunity for her sons to become a carpenter’s apprentice in the process. She explained, Every four weeks we do a five-day character-building exercise, which means we are going to put into practice what we’ve learned all month. That is when the true education begins. A few years ago, I didn’t plan anything out in detail. Instead, they had a choice. We were going to deep clean the house or learn how to fix on a car or whatever. We got a call that our neighbor needed some help. The boys said, “Good we’ll go help Mr. G clear his lot of trees and stuff”. The did manual labor pulling down trees and shrubs and grass. He was trying to get his yard ready to build a house. It is volunteer; he’s not paying anything. You are building true character. You are taking volunteering over pay. The wife said she would feed them. She is a school teacher and he is the school bus driver. She said, “we’ll feed them”. For me that’s a big thing because my boys can eat! The next Sunday we got another call, “Me and my wife have been talking and I am building cabinets during the day in between my bus runs and could use a helper. Do you think [her 13-year-old son] would be interested”? I said, “Mr. G have you been in my prayer closet? Cause I have been praying for some work for him to do because I’m ready for him to learn some skills because he is getting ready to be a young man”. He said, “I’m going to pay him”. I said, “You’re going to pay him!?” I said, “Don’t even matter what it is because the idea is that you are going to train him”. So, Mr. G takes him to the woodshop two days per week to learn how to build cabinets. So, he is also learning how to sand and do wood carving. He made a little fish tank that he sanded and that was his first project. I don’t

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know what he is going to do with the end result, but I’m enjoying the present.

Margaret also shared, “My oldest son works with another carpenter in town. The Lord opened this door for him too. He has his own carpenter skills. He has his belt. He feels like he could probably build a house.” His apprenticeship did not limit his abilities to just one type of carpentry. Instead, his learning could ensure he would likely never be out of work and he could make a career out of it, if he chose to do so. Regarding these opportunities for vocational learning, Margaret quickly reminded, “But none of this has been planned out.” She perceived these apprenticeships as divine intervention into her homeschooling practice and as an assurance her sons would never find themselves in her current condition of being out of work. Aside from the skills gained, Margaret summed up the purpose of her sons’ apprenticeships, If they learn how to do this now then by the time they are 18 they will have some skills; they will have had their own bank accounts, and know all that stuff. Because if you don’t learn that and then you get out there and get a big paycheck you know, you’ll blow it and have bad credit. You learn how to handle your money and how to get up in the morning to get your own laundry, fix your own lunch. They also have chores to do in the house. You know, learning to balance your schedule. So, they get a little taste of what it is going to be luck as an adult.

These life lessons connected to the apprenticeships served as a way for Margaret to help ensure that her children would never find themselves in her current situation as being well educated, but unable to find a job due to the decline of opportunities in her field. While new home construction had decreased drastically, people still needed carpenters to repair, replace, and build things within their homes. Meanwhile, the community service also instilled a sense of giving back to the community and doing for others. Modeling Her Beliefs and Empathy for Public Schools Margaret also modeled her value of community service by tutoring public school children occasionally, and most children for free, as she stated, “Because here in this area, I don’t know if you know about rural towns,

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but people’s incomes is just, there is no income here and the kids put this fear that they won’t be able to come. If they can come for free, then they can come.” Margaret said she has an “open door policy for children.” This also motivated her to offer free tutoring to children in the community. Even though Margaret offered free tutoring, many parents in her community could not take advantage because, as she explained, The problem could potentially be, for me, homeschool is four and half hours a day. And that’s the amount of time that I would spend, I would not expect that they would have their kid with me…I’m not going to have the kid with me. I’m not going to babysit. You know, eight hours of school work is too much. It’s too much. And that working parent would need someone to keep their child. That’s what schools do for some people; it gives them the ability to work full-time and not have to worry about paying child care.

Nonetheless, Margaret did have families who sought her tutoring services, and as she talked about her approach to tutoring, she also exhibited empathy for public schools. She stated, I had one student that I tutored from public school and she was struggling, and I was like what is the problem? The problem was that the teacher was gone on to the next lesson and there were some things that she hadn’t grasped. So, she spent a couple of weeks coming over and going over what she had previously, what they had already passed in class. Teachers couldn’t do the follow up with her and why she was doing it wrong. And how can I do it right? And let (the student) understand it. Let this go in my brain and soak in and be retained for the future. (laugh). See they [teachers at school] went on to the next lesson and see the teacher in the public school can’t say “oh wait some students don’t have it. We’ve got to review before we go on”. They must continue because they have a goal of getting to a certain portion of the book before the year is out.

Here, Margaret embodied the conflict between her perceptions of instruction in school and her own pedagogical values with continued understanding of why public schools tend to function differently. She continued, My focus is on the student learning the information. If the student hasn’t learned, then the teacher hasn’t taught. So, if the student fails then it is like who is the teacher of that student? This is my first question. I have

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had parents call me. Tell me what is going on. If the student is failing then has the student been to school, number one? Yes. Okay, number two has there been a major traumatic experience or event in the child’s life? Oh yes, the student’s daddy died in a truck accident. Do the teachers know this? Are they understanding and working with the student extra knowing that they are dealing with a crisis? Then, how can a kindergartener fail school? They can’t fail. That’s not right. You know, looking at what’s out there on the fringe. What’s going on why is this student failing? They (teachers) don’t take the time to do that. And some teachers just don’t care, you know. The care, but they just don’t have the time to just individually see what’s going on with the students, but if something is happening, grades are dropping then something is going on.

Margaret wisely identified the difference between “covering” a lesson and teaching a lesson. Her perceptions of teachers having to only “cover” lessons conflict with Margaret’s beliefs regarding student learning. This conflict perpetuated her motivation to homeschool. She emphasized, I’m not going to give my children over to the public schools. I see the product they are putting out. It is not a good thing and I am not saying that all homeschoolers turn out perfect, but it just, public school kids tend to not know how to think. I’m trying to train mine so that when they come out that people will not say “Oh my God, go back in the house, lock the door, and keep them in”. But my children are wanted and welcomed in the neighborhood.

As a home educator mom, Margaret took the opportunity homeschooling afforded her to not only teach academics, but also develop her children’s character, sense of community, and their responsibility within the community. She freely shared this with other children in the community when parents could take up her offer to do so. Her work with other children in the community revealed Margaret’s understanding of the limitations placed on public school teachers, particularly in finding time to address students’ needs beyond academics. Athletics and Intellect Margaret’s three sons were heavily involved in community-based athletic programs. Their athleticism became known throughout the small community. As shared earlier, coaches from the local public school sought to enroll her boys so they could join the baseball team. Her boys actually

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played baseball, football, and basketball. Margaret attributed her son’s athletic abilities to their intelligence. She explained, You know they’re out there and it is like my youngest, who is nine years old, is on the pitcher mound. He is left-handed. He’s a Black boy. The people think Black boy pitcher? Pitchers are thinkers you know? That’s what they do. They do point guard on basketball, and quarterback in football; that’s my nine year old. They are running backs and they are adaptive and so they are not the less intelligent athlete. Can I say it that way? But they are the ones that are on the top. One neighbor asked me, “How can your boys be good in all sports?”. I said, “I don’t know”. (laughed). They are bright boys. The brightest one seemed to be the one that just turned 13 last week. He has a goal to complete high school early. He wants to make sure that it is on his resume that he started algebra at age 12. This is the algebra that will count for high school.

Margaret could see the level of intelligence required to be successful given the level of strategy required in particular positions in sports. Though her sons’ athleticism had become well known in the small, rural community, one has to wonder how they would become known to college recruiters in that they did not participate in public school sports. However, given her son’s determination to do algebra by age 12, which would be 7th grade and two years before students traditionally begin algebra, it would seem that success in sports beyond their local community did not represent a main priority. Race Margaret did not dwell on issues of race during our conversation about her homeschooling experience. Only when asked directly, “What role does race play in what you do and why?”, did Margaret elaborate on the topic. She began her response by sharing that she had multicultural friends representing different nations including Thailand, Spanish-speaking countries, Nigeria, and White people as well. Sports and church membership led to her meeting this diverse set of friends. Then, Margaret said, “For me, I don’t know if I was a different ethnicity, or nationality, that I would probably not be homeschooling because I think the pressures from outside would be too great and you know a lot of people can’t handle all the pressure.” She seemed to be saying that as a Black woman she could handle the pressure from non-homeschoolers better than people of other nationalities or races. When asked to clarify, Margaret responded,

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I just feel like that because it seems like Black people have a strong maternal instinct and if I’m wanting to homeschool it is almost foolish to some people for me to homeschool. You have a degree, so go get a full-time job and you’ll have all this money. Just put the kids in public school. Public school isn’t that bad. But, people are afraid to approach me like that. These are not my kids, these are God’s kids he has entrusted them to me. I think other people in my situation would do something different than what I do for them. Even a night job; that was a foolish thing to do, but I thought it would be good for them. It did help some. I don’t have a lot of income because I’m home schooling. But, I have excellent credit because I have paid whatever I had as much as I can. But then, I’m living in the projects which is you know (pause) not the best environment but it is better than where we were. I did grow up in the projects. So, I went from a house to the project to house and back to the projects. (laugher) and I expect that I’ll be in a house one day again. But I would like to be out of debt. But, being black, I think, it just makes you… it makes ME…. because I am black it makes me stronger to continue to do and um, I just think I’m going against all the odds because it’s like no way that someone leave their husband number one, have an education, and no income, and just be able to survive, and then continue to homeschool.

From these words, Margaret demonstrated her strong cultural identity and sense of self as a Black woman, and as a Black mother. She declared, ‘Because I am Black I am stronger’ and more able to withstand the pressures of being low-income and homeschooling full-time instead of working. She understood her cultural identity has a strength. Having grown up watching her single mother work several jobs, but still find ways to ensure she and her siblings knew the importance of schooling, Margaret wanted us to know, as Love (2019) has also declared, Black people do not need to learn how to have grit because the challenges of life as a Black person have already taught us grit. Margaret also clearly related her strength to the position of being a Black single mother as well. Specifically, she attributed her positionality as a single Black mother, who lived in the projects, to fostering her ability to withstand the pressure from other people’s expectations that she should get a job, so she could ultimately provide for her children and get out of the projects. The implications represented the tensions found in issues of race, class, and

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gender. Margaret understood other people held great disdain for her ‘audacity’ to not work, live in government-subsidized housing, and homeschool her children. Some might ignore the homeschooling and accuse Margaret of being lazy for not working, and like she said, some might just not understand why a single mother with a master’s degree would make the decisions she had made. But, such negative views of Margaret’s decision impose an individualistic, ‘American Dream,’ White, middle-class mentality on her. As a single Black mother living in poverty, this just is not, and cannot be, her perspective. Furthermore, these deficit perspectives ignore the economic structures that contributed to Margaret’s situation such as distance from work that would provide a living wage, the decline of the market in her field of work, and cost of housing in Atlanta relative to her rural community. As a divorced, former stay-at-home mother, she could no longer afford to live in the city. The deficit-focused, stereotypical perspectives further assume that Margaret had access to opportunities that may, or may not, have existed for her. Perceiving Margaret’s decisions through these negative lenses disregards her primary motivation, which was to maximize the time she had to raise her children. Yet, imagine if Margaret had adhered to societal norms and found a job, most likely over an hour away from the rural county, where she could afford to live. How well engaged could she have been in her children’s education? With her highly limited visibility in the school, teachers would tend to view Margaret as a disinterested, uninvolved parent (Abram & Gibbs, 2002; Fields-Smith, 2005). Working full-time or not, Margaret understood other people would also find a way to blame her for her situation. Homeschooling provided a way to overcome the limited time she had with her children under her roof, as she so urgently felt compelled to do, in order to ensure they grew into responsible, caring, and capable members of the community. She modeled connections to others throughout the community as well. Ultimately, her homeschool practice aimed to develop her children’s independence as strong thinkers and caring adults who had academic, athletic, and vocational avenues to pursue following their K-12 experiences. Finally, under the oppression of slavery, Fredrick Douglass’ mother was limited to few moments of holding him at night as her method of resistance to the inhumanity he faced as a child (see Chapter 2). Today, in relative ‘freedom,’ Margaret has chosen to garner her rights as a mother to resist expected norms and focus instead on teaching and raising her

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children full-time. The source of Margaret’s strength stemmed from her motherhood beliefs steeped in her spiritual connection to God and the responsibility. He bestowed on her to raise her children. Homeschooling gave Margaret the opportunity to fully align her motherly roles as she believed God wanted. She found freedom in her faith to fully pursue her motherly responsibility, resisting norms through homeschooling.

References Abram, L. S., & Gibbs, J. T. (2002). Disrupting the logic of home-school relations: Parent involvement strategies and practices of inclusion and exclusion. Urban Education, 37 (3), 384–407. Fields-Smith, C. (2005). African American parents before and after Brown. Journal of Curriculum and Supervision, 20(2), 129–135. Love, B. L. (2019). We want to do more than survive: Abolitionist teaching and the pursuit of educational freedom. Boston, MA: Beacon Press.

CHAPTER 4

Dahlia: Homeschooling as a Last Resort

That’s why the fight was so awful for us. Because we trusted them. We trusted them with our babies. —Dahlia

Dahlia’s journey to homeschooling embodies the lived experience of inequity in school choice opportunities and the challenges of the resegregation of public schools within a southeastern metropolitan school district. The rhetoric surrounding school choice suggests that all families have equal access to educational options of excellence. However, it ignores persistent inequalities in the resources of various schools, even among schools within the same district. Dahlia and her son, Jason, lived in the under-resourced, southern, predominantly Black portion of an urban school district. Dahlia’s account highlights the disparities in conditions between the northern and southern segments of the school district and reveals the barriers that confront an engaged parent seeking access to the best possible education for her son. Dahlia’s story depicts the complexity of the decision to homeschool as a single mother. Given that complexity, Dahlia’s narrative makes it clear that she did not want to homeschool. Rather, she believed in public schooling and repeatedly sought settings within the school system that would meet her son’s needs. However, after exhausting the limited options available to her, she found she had no other choice. © The Author(s) 2020 C. Fields-Smith, Exploring Single Black Mothers’ Resistance Through Homeschooling, Palgrave Studies in Alternative Education, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-42564-7_4

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Dahlia’s account also illustrates the relationship between a mother’s spirituality and her need to navigate inter-district disparities and school choice policy. Dahlia’s experience challenges traditional definitions of homeschooling and demonstrates unexpected empathy for public education. In addition, her story illuminates a motivation grounded not only in the individualistic desire for excellence in her own child’s education, but also in a broader concern for other children and a desire to benefit her entire community.

Background Dahlia, 52, and her husband divorced before her son Jason entered elementary school. At the time of the study, Jason was in the ninth grade and Dahlia had been homeschooling for five years. She worked outside the home as a part-time administrative clerk for a local church. Originally from a small Middle Georgia town, Dahlia began her postsecondary experience in nursing school at Tuskegee University, but after completing four years of a five-year program, she realized nursing was not the profession for her. A year later, she moved to New York to be with her older sister and transferred course credits from her nursing program toward completion of a degree in psychology. After graduating in 1985, she enrolled in a graduate program in rehabilitation counseling and began a career as a rehab counselor in upstate New York. Dahlia shared, “Shortly after I graduated from [my master’s program] I met my husband. He fell in love with Georgia and sent out resumes. I loved my job working for the state of New York in rehab counseling, but he wanted to move to Georgia.” Dahlia married in 1990 and soon thereafter had a son, Jason. Just a few years later, Dahlia was divorced and raised her son alone in Georgia. She shared that Jason’s father resided nearby, but added, His dad doesn’t play as much of a role as he should. He isn’t as involved as he should be, but that’s something he has to come to terms with; you know, we can’t force things. As much as we want things for our children, there are some things that I can’t force. I realize my limitations in that. I’m a true believer in supplementation and I’ve always asked God to put good male figures in his life; you know, mentors. I’m talking about an abundance of people. If it is just one good male in his life, you know,

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someone that can pour into his spirit, that can teach him the ways of a man, because I can’t do that. I cannot do that. I just trust God for that.

As a result of her ex-husband’s lack of involvement, like the other mothers in this study, Dahlia made the educational decisions for her child independently.

Navigating School Choice Options from the Under-Resourced Side of the County Dahlia lived in a Metro-Atlanta area school district that had a Minority to Majority (M to M) program. The program enables families who live in predominantly ethnic-minority segments of the district to send their children to the predominantly White, better-resourced schools in the northern portion of the district, with the underlying purpose of encouraging racial integration. Residing in a predominantly Black segment of the school district with resegregated schools, Dahlia jumped at the chance to participate in the M to M program so Jason could attend a more racially balanced and better-resourced school than his district assigned school. In fact, she planned for Jason to graduate from high school having attended the M to M schools in the northern part of the school district, which would provide him with the best possible educational opportunities. However, this decision also meant that Jason would have to attend schools an hour away from his neighborhood. Dahlia’s enthusiastic description of Jason’s M to M school conveyed how much her son and she herself enjoyed and benefited from their experiences there. The M to M school had strong family engagement. Dahlia felt welcomed there, and she frequently volunteered by working with small groups of children and served the school in other capacities. But during the spring of Jason’s second-grade year, Dahlia heard about a new charter school coming to her neighborhood. She became intrigued because instead of being bused an hour away from their community, it appeared that Jason would be able to receive a superior education much closer to home. Describing her participation in one of the interest meetings for the new charter school, Dahlia shared, “I remember standing up that night at one of the interest meetings.” I said to them, “This has to work for me because I can’t go back. Once I pull him out of [the M to M elementary school] we won’t be able to go back.” She explained that she knew she

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could not go back because someone from the Board of Education had, as she stated, “Put me on notice,” warning her that the Board of Education planned to dissolve the M to M program soon. Dahlia shared, He said, “Ma’am, I tell you they are meeting as we speak. They cannot stop Blacks from moving into this neighborhood, but they can stop busing them in because they realized that it is only so many that is going to move up here because it is only so many vacant houses…. So they are going to stop this program altogether.”

Dahlia reported, “In less than two years it was gone. There was no more M to M program. I was so angry. Because I knew I couldn’t go back to [Jason’s M to M elementary school].” In fact, the school district implemented the M to M program from 1972 until 2002 as an early version of school choice, which differed from today’s school choice movement in that it was intended to promote racial integration of the schools. The charter school starting in Dahlia’s resegregated school neighborhood, in contrast, represented the newer version of school choice. It was not necessarily concerned with integration, but rather with allowing families to “vote with their feet” when it came to their children’s education as a way to create competition among the schools. Though Dahlia was pleased with her son’s experiences and progress in the M to M elementary school, she hoped for an even better experience at the new charter school. Her hope, in large part, was an act of faith and representative of socially responsible individualism, which indicates that even in our individual decision-making we consider the collective. In her words, I believed God for the same equal education on the north end of town; it should be on our end of town, too. We shouldn’t have to drive to [Jason’s M to M school] and [a magnet school with strong reputation for excellence] in the north. I had a friend that had her children at [the magnet school] that I met through the charter school meetings. I remember that’s when [those attending the charter school meeting] said, “She’s right! We can’t go back; if we pull our children out of these programs, we can’t go back.” That’s why the fight was so awful for us. Because we trusted them. We trusted them with our babies.

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Dahlia’s desperation stemmed from her personal experiences with the educational disparities between the northern and southern portions of the school district. Indeed, she had chosen to participate in the M to M program as a strategy to overcome the lesser resourced, resegregated schools available in her predominantly Black community. She and the other families attending this meeting were seeking a better schooling option for their children. The new charter school, which would be run by a private company, promised excellence in education within the predominantly Black setting of Dahlia’s community. Dahlia was all too aware of the risk she was taking. Choosing to attend the new charter school would mean losing access to the privileged schools in the northern part of the county. When the M to M program ended, students currently enrolled in the program were allowed to continue to attend their M to M schools of choice until they had graduated. Therefore, had Jason remained in the M to M school, Dahlia would have realized her dream of seeing him graduate from the high school in the northern part of the district. Dahlia made the decision to transfer Jason to the new charter school at the start of his third-grade year. She recounted, “All summer we prayed about this thing and I said, ‘Okay, I loved [M to M school]! We loved [M to M school]. But, we’ve got to. If there is something that is going to be good in our own community, I want to be one of the first persons that take advantage of it, so we can help build upon everything.’” For Dahlia, the success of the charter school had meaning well beyond her own son’s academic success. Her commitment to the new charter school reflected a commitment to change for the better, not just for Jason but for the entire community. She enthusiastically declared, “I told them, we’ve got to support this because we have to make it work in our neighborhood—to show educators and the Education Department that this can work in our neighborhood. And that’s why we were so hurt when they did not make the effort.” In a sense, Dahlia’s decision to enroll Jason in the new charter school reflected socially responsible individualism in that while Jason would benefit, Dahlia and many other families believed the school would also improve the entire community. Dahlia perceived that a successful Black charter school would send a message of collective success for the Black community and would even stand as a testament against pervasive, longstanding stereotypes of the intellectual inferiority of Black people as

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a whole. Her decision also represented her faith that this was God’s response to unjust educational disparities within the school district. As a demonstration of her commitment to the new charter school’s success, Dahlia compared her level of engagement at Jason’s M to M school with her involvement in helping the new charter school get started. If I was going to be at [M to M school] every day and help kids to learn to read better, then I would do the same at [the new charter school]. The principal [at M to M school] had such an open school; everybody pitched in. We didn’t have to sign contracts to say that the parents were going to give so many hours per semester. No! That’s our job; whatever the school needed, we were there for the school. That’s why the PTA budget was so huge too! [laughs] All the things that we had learned from [M to M school] and other parents coming from other places, we knew we could put that right there in that [new charter school] and help make that school work.

Dahlia’s vision for the new charter school included recreating what she had experienced and learned as an engaged parent at the M to M school. She remained committed to supporting the new charter school even though initially it would have even fewer resources than the underresourced, resegregated surrounding schools. Her belief in the possibilities of the new charter school enabled her to sacrifice access to the privileged schools in the northern district communities, despite the fact that her child would have access to even fewer resources than the locally assigned public schools in her community could provide. The new charter school would not have bus transportation to and from school. There would be no art or music programming, and there would also be no afterschool programs.

Researcher Perspective During the period when the new charter school was being discussed, Dahlia and I lived in the same community but did not know each other. I was a doctoral student, and one of my professors lived in the northern portion of the school district while we lived in the southern section. Her daughter was a year younger than my own, and we often compared notes on our daughters’ educational experiences. I quickly discovered that the disparities between the two schools extended beyond resources and

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facilities and also encompassed vast differences in curriculum and instruction, even though we lived in the same school district. When Dahlia started talking about the new charter school and the interest meetings she had attended, I realized that she and I had attended the same meetings. At that time, I was a single mother also seeking excellence in education for my children and had therefore attended several of the interest meetings for the new charter school in our community. But unlike Dahlia’s son, my children did not participate in the M to M program. Instead, they attended a public elementary school around the corner from our home and down the street from where this new charter school would be established. These revelations came together in my researcher’s journal: Today’s interview with Dahlia was surreal! We are like kindred spirits in a way. This isn’t the first time our paths have crossed; we just did not know it until today. From what I remember, those charter school meetings were packed, standing room only, and with others waiting outside the church where we met. It’s no wonder Dahlia and I did not meet then! The atmosphere of those meetings matched Dahlia’s desperation as she shared her experiences. After the overview presentation of the plan for the charter school, parents’ questions led to heated discussions regarding resources, teacher selection, and pressing questions such as, “How do we know for sure this school is going to work?”

I remember thinking, given the immense interest in this school, that none of the parents at the meeting would be able to get their children in due to limited space. I was grateful to know and have worked with the parent who would most likely serve as the inaugural PTA president. I remember spending several hours volunteering in order to remain “in the know,” and—just like Dahlia—harboring great hopes that given my investment of time, my daughter would be chosen for the initial thirdgrade class. Dahlia and I had probably worked in the office side by side preparing for the opening of the new school! I deeply understood the sacrifices Dahlia had made to enable Jason to attend the new charter school. If it didn’t work out, my daughter could go back to her assigned school and my son headed to high school anyway. But Dahlia’s son would have lost a precious opportunity to obtain a quality education at the highly desired M to M school.

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The disparities between schools located in the north and south of the school district were substantial. Our locally assigned, predominantly Black elementary school had a critical lack of resources compared to schools in the north. For example, our assigned neighborhood school was extremely overcrowded due to the school board’s failure to accommodate the rapid population growth in the district, which added an estimated 2000 new students each year. A history of the school district indicated that from 1999 to 2003, nine schools received additions to create 164 new classrooms, and nine new schools were built during this time period in the district as well. Yet this did not prevent overcrowding in some schools. As a result, children attending our locally assigned school had to stand up to ride the buses to and from school. Months into the school year, parents eventually had to petition the school board to get more buses allocated to our school. I wondered, why did we have to petition to make this happen? Moreover, while serving on the executive board of the PTA, I learned that several years earlier the school district had set aside funding for our school to receive a new gym, yet no gym had been built. We had to write a resolution requesting the school gym be built, and then, we still had to wait for our much-needed gym. In comparison, parents at a school in the northern part of the district, where my professor’s daughter attended, requested a gym, and six to nine months later, construction on their new gym was completed. In addition, schools in the north read classic literature in elementary school, while my daughter’s instruction focused on phonics; she rarely had access to a good novel other than those in our home. To compensate for this, reading classic children’s literature became a priority for our family. These experiences gave me a vivid appreciation for what Dahlia was giving up when she enrolled Jason in the new charter school, as Jason’s M to M school had excellent resources, an enriching learning environment, and strong family engagement, from Dahlia’s perspective. Thinking about our experiences now, though Dahlia and I were both single mothers, we held very different perspectives in making the decision about whether to enroll in this new learning opportunity within our community. The new charter school, once fully functional, would offer a focus on science, technology, and entrepreneurship. The plan included enrolling students initially in grades kindergarten through third grade, then adding an additional grade each year. My daughter, like Jason, would have entered the new charter school at third grade.

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Several issues led me to keep my daughter in her locally assigned school. First, the charter school would not be in a position to provide transportation for several years. Therefore, I would have to be able to drop off and pick up my daughter daily. Even though we lived in very close proximity to the school, my university was approximately 30– 40 minutes away without traffic. As a full-time doctoral student, drop-off and pickup would not be consistently possible for me due to class schedules, assistantship responsibilities, and research schedules. The new charter school would also not offer an afterschool program. Our locally assigned school had bus transportation and an afterschool program, which extended the day to better meet my needs as a single parent and enabled me to more easily arrange for someone to assist by picking up my children after the typical 9–5 workday. In addition, the new charter school would not offer musical instrument instruction, nor would it provide foreign language instruction. Our assigned neighborhood school had both. There were no guarantees that these issues would be resolved in the second year, so I determined that our family would be best served by our assigned neighborhood school. Admittedly, my decision was based entirely on my own family’s needs; unlike Dahlia, I did not take into consideration the benefit of the entire community. Given the large number of people interested in the new charter school, I assumed it would be well supported by the community. Alternatively, Dahlia’s perspective grew out of her desire for the charter school to undermine negative stereotypes of Black communities. Regarding the limited capacity of the new charter school, Dahlia thought, “I know there are certain things that they don’t have, but they’re going to eventually have it and I’m good at supplementing things for my child’s learning. I know how to supplement different things for him.” Thus, Dahlia prioritized the message a successful charter school in our community would convey. Finally, Dahlia’s faith also spurred her support of the new predominantly Black charter school. She declared, “I believed God for the same equal education on the north end of town; it should be on our end of town. We shouldn’t have to drive to the [well-performing schools] in the north.”

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Navigating More Choices Soon after the opening of the charter school, issues between the administration and the parents escalated to such a degree that a new principal had to be hired. Describing the situation, Dahlia shared, “We were there just a few short months because everything started withering away. Everything just started going downhill.” Instead of creating the collaborative and open school environment for parents, teachers, administrators, and students, as she had experienced in Jason’s M to M school, Dahlia described the charter school environment quickly becoming more like parents being out for themselves like crabs pulling each other down instead of lifting one another up to get out of a bucket. She explained, “But they [some of the parents and the administrator] couldn’t see it! It was like the crab thing; once one started getting up to the top or if you sounded a little bit educated or too this or too that; they would feel intimidated or threatened and forget that the goal is for the education of all of the children. We ended up, after the big incident, going down to meet with [the deputy superintendent].” Based on Dahlia’s description of the situation, although the parents intended to work together on behalf of their children and their community to make the school a success, actions taken by the principal led to distrust and a lack of confidence in the principal’s ability to lead the school, and in a matter of months that first principal had to be fired as a result. The big incident in the principal’s decision-making related to hiring teachers who turned out to not be certified and parents’ perceived misallocation of resources. Shortly thereafter, the superintendent of the school district allowed families to leave the new charter school and select from almost any school in the district. However, schools in the northern portion of the district were excluded from parents’ options. Seeking a new start but not wanting to give up on public schools, Dahlia chose a newly opened elementary school that bordered the northern part of the district. Proximity to the northern end made the school slightly more racially diverse than were the predominantly Black and Brown schools in our neighborhood. Homeschooling had not yet crossed Dahlia’s mind, even though she knew people who successfully homeschooled. So Jason transferred to the new elementary school in the middle of his third-grade year. However, it wasn’t long before Dahlia suspected something was not right in this new setting. She explained,

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It was troubling to me because there wasn’t a great expectation for them to do well. There was no encouragement, like, “You can do this.” If Jason had questions about something, he was totally ignored. He and I have always been very open with communication and every day I would pick him up and ask, How was your day? Right away he would start complaining. A child is not supposed to greet their mother with complaints about his day in school at the elementary level. He should be telling all good things that took place.

Dahlia further shared, They were just eating away at his self-esteem. He would cry about different little things. Mostly it was being ignored. If he would ask a question and she ignored him, he would keep asking. He would keep raising his hand, or he would say, “Excuse me, Ms. So and So,” and she would continue to ignore his hand. Then he would walk up to her desk. He didn’t do anything more or less than what the other children were doing. He said, “They were free to come to her desk all day, any time. But, I would go to her desk and have my work with me, and she would tell me to sit down.”

Dahlia’s suspicions were confirmed by another teacher in the school. She revealed, One of the teachers across the hall verified my concerns, saying, “Mother, I’ve seen you in this school and I know that you are a good parent and you are concerned about your child’s education because I’ve seen you in other people’s classrooms working and I know your son is not in the classroom.” She said, “You need to investigate and find out what is going on.” She pulled me to the side and of course I had a meeting and I took a couple of people with me because I knew how angry I was and didn’t want to be responsible for jumping up and hitting [the administrator].

As Dahlia attempted to advocate for Jason within this new school setting, the relationship between her, the school administration, and Jason’s teacher became increasingly strained. Dahlia tried to document subtle occurrences of prejudice and discrimination against Jason, but her attempts proved ineffective. In addition, she reported, “I found out when [Jason’s teacher] didn’t want to be bothered with him she would send him to the assistant principal’s office and he would have Jason walking

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around the school with him all day. I’m thinking my child is in the classroom getting work done and learning. That’s the kind of thing that was going on.” The situation erupted when there was a report of a teacher physically grabbing Jason. Dahlia shared, They did this whole investigation. She said that she did touch him and that she was sorry, but that was to guide him out of the room. I didn’t want to press criminal charges, but I should have. I wasn’t trying to do that. She was new and she was trying to make it in a Black school. I just wanted them to know, and the principal knew that it was bad. I just wanted them to know that we have to protect our children.

In order to protect Jason, Dahlia would eventually end up turning to homeschool.

Navigating Homeschooling Options Ongoing clashes between Dahlia, Jason’s teachers, and the school administration led Dahlia to consider homeschooling more seriously, and she concluded, I said, you know, I am not prepared to homeschool him, but Lord you will help me do this, and I pulled him out. I couldn’t take it anymore; I would have hurt someone. That’s the only time you could make me cry. Is to hurt my child. They were doing it in a way that made it emotional abuse. It could not be documented. We have to protect our children from things like this. So, I didn’t have time; I should have fought it further, but I had to educate my child. I had to turn my focus away from that so that I could prepare myself to educate my child, and that is what I ended up doing.

Like other Black home educators represented in existing Black homeschool literature, Dahlia expressed her decision to homeschool as a need to protect Jason from destructive interactions and conditions perceived to exist in his public school. She turned to homeschooling for refuge. Dahlia completed Jason’s fourth grade school year on her own, using materials gathered from friends who homeschooled. She used what she referred to as a “homeschool program” for Jason’s fifth-grade year. The

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homeschool program consisted of a group of homeschool families who collaborated to form what might be called a homeschool school. Teachers in the program included a mix of other homeschool parents and statecertified teachers. Classes were held in a facility, in this case a donated church space, and parents could choose from a menu of courses for their children. Each family would pay a fee plus expenses for course materials. Dahlia relied on this program to deliver the bulk of Jason’s curriculum initially because of her work schedule. She explained, “In the fifth grade I found out about a couple of programs and I would interview them over the summer. We decided which ones we would use when the school season started.” Though she and Jason collaborated in choosing which program to join, Dahlia found that most of these homeschooling programs were unable to fully meet her child’s needs. Each year, for three school years (Jason’s fifth through seventh grades), she and Jason tried a different homeschool program in the community. She reported, “Overall the different homeschool programs that we participated in were okay. None that I thought were the best to the extent that I would go back to [it] after a year. I didn’t find one like that.” In Dahlia’s experience, parents whose children had been expelled from private schools sometimes used homeschooling as a last resort as well. These parents needed a place to send their children while they went to work, so they would enroll their children in the homeschool school. In a focus group session that included 10–12 Black home educators from the larger study, the home educators reported that they served in an administrative capacity for a homeschool school program and found that the parents of expelled students were not as actively engaged in the educational process or in sustaining the homeschool school program as other homeschool parents. In fact, in contrast to other homeschool parents, parents of expelled students would simply drop their children off at the homeschool school and continue on to work without ever coming inside to inquire about the program or how they could contribute. The homeschool programs would educate their children with little involvement or accountability from the parents themselves. This lack of parental commitment led to a disturbing learning environment for Jason. Dahlia described a situation in which Jason was ridiculed for his manner of speech while enrolled in a predominantly Black homeschool school program,

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Children have things that they go through. He is not very talkative. So he didn’t have a lot of friends at the school. A lot of times the kids—and I don’t think he speaks any better than the kids next door, but kids would say, they would call him “white boy.” This happened in the homeschool programs. Sometimes in the homeschool programs … sometimes children are not all out of school for the same reasons. So for some of those kids, the homeschool program is a last resort. The private school won’t have them back. The private schools would kick them out so they go to the homeschool programs.

Jason’s experience of being accused of “acting White” replicated findings from previous studies. Fryer (2006) defined “acting White” as “a set of social interactions in which minority adolescents who get good grades in school enjoy less popularity than White students who do well academically” (p. 53). Characteristics that led to accusations of “acting White” included using standard English, taking advanced classes, or completing class assignments. Fryer (2006) found that the higher a Black student’s achievement, the lower that student’s popularity would be, particularly among males. However, Fryer did not find the same issue among Black students who attended private schools. Fryer found that Black students attending racially integrated schools experienced a decline in popularity with an increase in achievement twice as often than Black students in resegregated schools. However, Jason’s experience contradicts these findings, as he was ridiculed for “acting white” in a predominantly Black educational setting. This ostracizing of Black students striving for achievement represents a perpetuation of divisive perspectives within the Black community that also further promotes the myth of Black inferiority. Dahlia’s idea of protection for Jason included an acknowledgment that teasing or being picked on would be part of her son’s schooling experience. However, having it occur within the homeschool program, which had little recourse to address the behavior, and the extent to which it occurred sent her seeking educational alternatives once again. Nevertheless, through it all, Dahlia and Jason never lost their faith. Speaking about teachers’ response to Jason’s self-confidence and assuredness, Dahlia stated, Instead of rewarding and encouraging him in that [his self-confidence], there were a lot of people that we have encountered that tried to break him. And that’s really why I pulled him out of the public school system. I

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didn’t experience that from teachers in the homeschool program; I had a much more positive experience from teachers there. But we ran into some of the children that were just discipline problems.

The Middle School Experiment To bridge gaps and to help Jason when needed, Dahlia hired tutors while Jason was also enrolled in the homeschool school programs. When she shared her plans to put Jason back in public school for high school, a tutor suggested that Jason would need to experience middle school before attending high school. So, Dahlia strategically placed Jason in their assigned public school for eighth grade. Late into our interview, Dahlia shared with me for the first time that Jason has a physical disorder that causes his bones to dislocate frequently. Because of Jason’s condition, he qualified for special education services. She shared, Jason has some physical challenges. So I made them aware of that with the 504. We did the 504 plan and everything. So, he wouldn’t have a problem with that and they were very accommodating. So, we were pretty pleased with the eighth-grade year.

According to the Georgia Department of Education website, the special education status Dahlia referred to as “504” represents Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, which in 1990 became the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). This law was established to ensure equality for students with disabilities. Section 504 of the law guarantees the rights of students with disabilities that are not necessarily among the specific, identifiable disabilities that would require an Individualized Education Plan. Essentially, Section 504 provides accommodations to the learning environments and instructional processes for students who have significant challenges but might not otherwise qualify for special education services.1 Nevertheless, even with the 504 status, transitioning Jason to high school would not be as smooth as Dahlia had hoped. Wanting the best high school experience possible, Dahlia and Jason chose Howard High 1 For additional information, see https://www.gadoe.org/Curriculum-Instruction-andAssessment/Student-Support-Teams/Documents/GaDOESection504Guidance.pdf.

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School (a pseudonym), located in the northern portion of the school district. This was the high school Jason would have attended had he remained in the M to M program. However, the school board put up a major roadblock to achieving this dream. Dahlia lamented, I wanted [Howard High School] as a first choice for high school. I fought, I fought, I fought. The [district office employee] told me, the last time I spoke with her—and I must have spoken to them at least a dozen times— she said, Ms. Dahlia, I’m going to tell you right now, even if you do a written appeal we are going to deny it. We won’t approve it.

In Jason’s ninth-grade year, Dahlia worked part-time, within the school district but 30–45 minutes away from where they lived. Therefore, for her second choice, she selected a high school close to her job. But the school board refused to allow Jason to enroll there as well. Dahlia explained, I wasn’t working during his eighth grade year so I was able to get to him very easily. That’s why my second choice was [School X], because it is close to my job. I told [the Board of Education] all of that and it still wasn’t good enough for them. They said, “We have a 504 plan in every school.”

That was the end of Dahlia’s public school experiment. Jason never set foot in a public high school, despite his mother’s willingness to give the public schools one more try.

Self-naming, Homeplace, and Homebound Throughout her attempts to place Jason in a conventional school, Dahlia relied on her primary resources: her faith, herself, and Jason’s 504 status. She explained, So, what I did was I said, It just isn’t worth the stress. So, I said, it just isn’t going to work this year, with me working. So, I decided the best thing for me to do this year is to put him in the Hospital/Homebound Program; let them send a teacher out to the home. That’s when I enrolled him in the Hospital/Homebound Program. You’re still being homeschooled because they only give you three hours per week of instructional time. The only difference is that we don’t have to pay for a tutor and we won’t have to go out and purchase a ninth-grade curriculum because we’ll use the Board

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of Education curriculum. For all intents and purposes he is homeschooled. But the BOE still gets so many dollars for him because he is registered as a Homebound student in [the district].

Typically, the concept of homeschooling has been perceived as standing in opposition to public schooling. However, from Dahlia’s perspective, homeschooling means parents assume complete control of their children’s schooling experience, even if that means partnering with public schools to some extent. Dahlia’s homeschooling in partnership with the public schools through the Homebound Program enabled her to leverage her resources to Jason’s benefit. In this way, she circumvented the barriers the district created in limiting access to the particular high school she wanted Jason to attend. Homeschooling in partnership with the Homebound Program provided a way for Dahlia to maximize her empowerment as a single parent as well. The school district’s Homebound Program provided Dahlia with the peace of mind she needed in several ways. First, it ensured Jason’s safety, both physically and emotionally. Second, the district-sponsored program created structure and provided assurance that her homeschooling practice met Jason’s needs and aligned with the ninth-grade curriculum, which helped validate her practice and reassure her that she was “getting it right.” Within the context of this partnership, Dahlia remained very much in control of Jason’s learning. As a home educator using the district Homebound Program, she played an intentional and crucial role in directing Jason’s educational experience. In her words, What I try to do is to have the Homebound teacher to just supplement. So, my weakest area is math so I make sure that they cover math and they make sure that they send me a teacher that is strong in math and science. That’s what I allow them to do. We’ve gone over different lessons and things in their curriculum. I have a teacher’s manual as well. I just make sure that they go over what we have already done. I make sure that we go over the assignments from the teacher to make sure he has a very good understanding of those. They take his assignments into the school to the regular teachers. Then the teachers grade and send feedback on those areas. Actually, whatever lesson … just like the kids that are sitting in the classroom, he is going over the same things that they have for that week. He is given time to complete it; if he needs extra time due to his physical condition, then

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that’s there for him. I just speak with the teachers to request more time if needed. They offered to do it over the computer, but I said no because that’s part of his condition, he can’t be on the computer for long periods of time. So, I didn’t want that. We use the computer at OUR leisure. But I didn’t want that to be the way that he would gain access to his education because then he would have to be on the computer every day.

Though the district would classify Jason as a public school student, Dahlia maintained full control over virtually all aspects of his education as she partnered with the district Homebound Program. Therefore, she maintained her self-identity as a home educator. To be sure, Dahlia exhausted all other possible avenues before choosing the Homebound Program. At one point, she even acquiesced in her concern for daily computer usage and considered having Jason repeat the eighth grade, even though he had successfully passed eighth grade, because she wanted him to enroll in Georgia’s public virtual charter school, which ended in eighth grade. Her hope was that the virtual school would expand the following year so Jason could continue in it through high school. However, Jason did not like the idea of repeating a grade. Dahlia explained why she thought Georgia’s public virtual school would work well for Jason: With the Georgia Virtual Schooling he can do his work at night, if that is more comfortable for him. He just has to do the four-and-a-half hours that was required for the day. I tried to convince Jason to do it, but he said, “Mom, no way.” He said, “It was hard enough being in the eighth grade the first time; I don’t want to do it again!” [laughing] So he didn’t want to repeat it. I said, “Okay, okay, you don’t have to, you can move on,” because he has goals for his life and he needs to be able to continue to move on.

Jason’s dreams included graduating from New York University. Dahlia shared that while Jason’s choice of major continuously changes, his ultimate goal seems fixed: He said he wants to build mixed communities where all people can live together, young and old. He just wants more people to live together in affordable, good, decent housing. He says, “I’m not talking about building

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castles. I just believe that people try to take more than they need to use.” He says all these people have all these four-bedroom houses and no one is living in some of those bedrooms. Then you’ve got some people living on the street; now what sense does that make? I said, “It doesn’t make a whole lot of sense to me either.”

She ended this explanation of Jason’s dreams by sharing, “I am so proud. It comes from a lot of prayer and faith because he has chronic pain. So he is just always in pain.” Dahlia revealed this toward the end of our initial interview. She continued by explaining the challenges she faced with regard to arranging for Jason’s medical care. When Medicaid regulations restricted Jason’s care, Dahlia had to advocate for him and work with his doctor to extend physical therapy services due to his chronic pain. Enrolling Jason in the Homebound Program provided the additional advantage of serving as an accredited high school experience, which will ease his transition to postsecondary options. Dahlia excitedly explained, No worry about transcripts and things going to college, with all the different tests and everything, which he takes them through the public school system. I’m thinking that we’ll probably just leave him in … not unless God opens a door for him for something else. Cause I’m always willing to walk through those doors that God opens. You know, if God opens the door for something else then we’ll do that.

Dahlia worked part-time 30–45 minutes from her home; while her schedule had some flexibility, she typically worked from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. three days per week. Homebound Program teachers in this school district taught classes in public schools during the day, so the only time they could visit Jason was after 3 p.m. Since Homebound regulations required parents to be present for these visits, after 3 p.m. conveniently worked with Dahlia’s schedule.

Socialization for Dahlia and Jason Jason’s primary outlets for socialization included golf lessons and tournaments, church youth group activities, participation in drama clubs, and spending time with friends. Dahlia remained keenly aware of the need for Jason to interact with others. She stated, “I want him to be in a school setting because of the socialization. He is an only child. He is around too

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many adults. So he needs better skills in dealing with his own peers. I know that.” At the time of the study, Dahlia shared that she knew several people actively involved in homeschool support groups/networks, but she remained relatively uninvolved at that time. The primary reason Dahlia did not participate in support groups is because as a single parent she felt she did not have the time. Instead, Dahlia had a few select friends who were also home educators, and together they provided a support system for one another. She stated, “We are not affiliated with groups, but we all are affiliated with one another.” Dahlia’s support system also included parents who had children attending private and public schools. She met parents at the golf course as well. During the weekdays, youth golf participants consisted mainly of homeschooled students, while Saturday golf instruction included students from private schools. Dahlia’s diverse network informed her of homeschool programs and curriculum and instructional strategies, and provided Jason with opportunities for field trips and other interactions with a more diverse group of children than he would have met had he attended his locally assigned public school. Dahlia’s determination to provide the best educational experiences possible for her son has taken her down a winding road, full of twists and turns, and Dahlia recognizes that their journey might not be over. She summarized, “We’re going to find something that really works. We’ve almost tried it all at this point, but I think the best thing is for us to stay in the Homebound Program. That’s what he wants to do.” Dahlia hinted that if the state-run virtual charter school expanded to high school, she might consider this option for her son as well. In fact, she has already joined the push for such an expansion. Dahlia shared, Unfortunately, Georgia Virtual Schools doesn’t do high school yet. But there are parents pushing for that. I’ve emailed parents from your recent focus group session because they were asking us to start a watch dog committee; they were asking us to write letters just to ask for more choices, more educational choices. One of those choices is more charter schools. We just need more choices, whether it is charter schools, which is just one of the choices, along with homeschooling and scholarships/vouchers. We are just asking for more choices in the state of Georgia because we know that the public school system cannot do it all. It cannot. They’re so overtaxed right now they just can’t do it all. It cannot.

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Dahlia can be described as an “active chooser,” similar to the mothers who participated in Cooper’s (2007) study of low-income African American mothers’ educational decision-making on behalf of their children. Cooper (2007) suggested that “motherwork” included actions focused on (1) children’s physical and emotional well-being, (2) fostering children’s positive racial self-identity, and (3) garnishing power toward improvement of life outcomes. Cooper concluded that for African American mothers, “motherwork” represents “a form of political resistance to domination and oppression” that occurs in both public and private spaces. She continued, “Mothering for many African-American mothers, therefore, is both personal and political work” (p. 495). Cooper identified themes of survival, power, and identity in the “motherwork” of her participating mothers’ decision-making. We see these themes throughout Dahlia’s journey in many ways as well. Dahlia took the initiative to seek information regarding the educational options available to her son, but she did not stop there. Dahlia visited each potential educational option prior to making a choice. She also did not readily accept “No” from authorities. She pushed and, as she said, “fought and fought” to get what she believed Jason needed. Dahlia also made decisions to protect Jason’s sense of self-identity, though she rarely linked this to Jason’s racial identity. Instead, she related it as Jason’s selfidentity from a spiritual perspective. Dahlia reflected, My baby has been through a lot of things. But he still knows who he is in Christ Jesus. You can recognize it if you are around him for a long enough time, and others noticed it; there was a boldness about him. He had this early in life. The boldness is not arrogant. If you are a believer, or you don’t even have to be a born again believer, you just know that this young man has a sureness about himself. Instead of rewarding and encouraging him in that, there were a lot of people that we have encountered that tried to break him. And that’s really why I pulled him out of the public school system.

Dahlia’s account demonstrates the unhappy paradoxes of Black homeschooling, which Romm (1993) described as (1) cultural ties to looking to public schools for uplift and (2) a sense of urgency to “get it right.” In addition, Dahlia’s faith complicated her decision-making in search of the best educational opportunity for Jason. Each time she placed Jason

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in a public school setting, she also placed faith in God, trusting that the adults in the school would do their best for her child. Dahlia wanted public schools to work both for Jason and for her community, but ultimately they did not provide the best option for Jason. Homeschooling thus became a last resort. Even as she partnered with the public school system through the Homebound Program, Dahlia remained in control of her son’s education and self-identified as a homeschool educator. Her decision to leave the M to M school in order to support the new charter school in her predominantly Black community became a source of regret. She shared, “I really wished we had stayed at [the M to M School]. I beat myself up. I was guilt-ridden for years; for years.” Nevertheless, she remained focused on helping Jason become successful and realize his dreams.

References Cooper, C. W. (2007). School choice as “motherwork”: Valuing AfricanAmerican women’s educational advocacy and resistance. International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, 20(5), 491–512. Fryer, R. G. (Winter, 2006). “Acting White”: The social price paid by the best and brightest minority students. Education Next, 6(1). Retrieved from https://www.educationnext.org/actingwhite/. Romm, T. (1993). Homeschooling and the transmission of civic culture. (Unpublished doctoral dissertation). Clark Atlanta University, Atlanta, GA.

CHAPTER 5

Yvette: Homeschooling as Split-Schooling—Homeschooling One of Two

And that’s where I’ve seen the difference, in that my oldest is a conformer and my youngest is a non-conformer. Non-conformers don’t work in public schools. Because they don’t fit in the little boxes that they have, and my son just had to appreciate that. —Yvette

Typically, when families decide to homeschool, they homeschool all the children in the family. However, families that engage in the split-schooling approach to homeschooling make a purposeful decision to homeschool only one, or some, of their children, while other children attend conventional (public or private) schools. The general literature on home education, which regards homeschooling as a practice that occurs in two-parent families and encompasses every child in that family, has rarely considered the phenomenon of split-schooling. In the larger metro Atlanta study, seven (15%) of the 46 participating Black families engaged in split-schooling. In each case, parents determined that one of their Black male children would benefit from homeschooling while his sibling(s) attended traditional schools. Split-schooling offered families the freedom to customize their children’s educational settings. Among the split-schooling families, only one represented a singleparent household; this chapter focuses on her experiences.

© The Author(s) 2020 C. Fields-Smith, Exploring Single Black Mothers’ Resistance Through Homeschooling, Palgrave Studies in Alternative Education, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-42564-7_5

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Background Yvette, the single-parent home educator featured in this chapter, chose to homeschool one of her two children. As reflected in the chapter’s epigraph, her decision to homeschool only one child stood an indictment of public schooling’s insistence on standardizing not only academics, but also behavior. Yvette’s older son was able to thrive in acceptable ways in the context of his district-assigned middle school. Although both sons attended the same middle school, Yvette’s attempts to advocate for her younger son in response to challenges he confronted in school were increasingly unsuccessful, leading her to homeschool only him. Yvette’s homeschooling path represents a sojourn in particular because of her temporary status in the USA. As natural-born citizens of the UK, Yvette and her children represent Black ethnics living in the USA. Greer (2013) reported that 10% of the US Black population consists of Black ethnics, which includes Black Caribbean groups, African nationals, and other African ascendant groups from around the world (Dillard, 2012). Greer’s (2013) theory of Black elevated minority status contends that “Native-born black Americans have … felt the real and perceived distinctions between themselves and their black immigrant counterparts” (p. 27), due to their belief that Black immigrants “are able to more easily assimilate into dominant society, ostensibly enjoying the benefits and not the burdens” (p. 28) of their outsider status. However, despite Yvette and her children’s proper-sounding British accents, her son’s school experiences challenge the notion of a Black elevated minority status enjoyed by Black immigrants.

Yvette’s Sojourn Yvette is a British-born 37-year-old single mother of two sons. At the time of our first interview, she was attending a local college full-time to study music education. Having grown up in England with her grandmother, whom she affectionately referred to as “Gran,” Yvette described a peaceful and playful upbringing. While living with Gran, she resided in what she called a “concrete city,” with back-to-back houses and limited grassy spaces. Yvette reflected on her childhood:

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I remember school being very playful and don’t remember homework. Or being bogged down with homework. I was brought up by my Gran. And that was really lovely. I just remember a really happy initial school experience. As far as community was concerned, I actually remember a quite mixed community in that at school there were Blacks, Whites, Asians. So you know, we had a bit of everything really. And um, it was so much more peaceful then compared to now. It is so much more violent, compared to when I was in school.

Yvette’s Gran attended parent-teacher conferences during her elementary school years. Yvette’s “mum,” who was completing her nursing studies during this time, lived in a different town, but visited occasionally. After Yvette’s mum completed her studies, Yvette went to live with her in a more suburban setting. From Yvette’s recollection, neither Gran nor her mum volunteered for or visited her schools for any reason other than parent-teacher conferences. In fact, Yvette was surprised by my question regarding other inschool engagement activities. She responded, “I can’t remember any of that at all. I don’t remember seeing any volunteering or parents around the school. In saying that, we just didn’t have the problems that warranted that.” When prompted to explain what would have warranted more parental involvement, Yvette explained, Well, I think that the reason [teachers] have had to call parents in is for help because there’s so much pressure on the teachers and the amount that is expected of them. Because it is no longer just about teaching, is it? It is just so much more than that now. And back then, you know, teachers used to come to school, do their teaching, get the respect that they deserve and even respect, that’s just gone out the window.

From the perspective of Yvette’s own school experience, parents’ engagement at school becomes necessary only when problems arise. This sentiment aligns with attitudes toward parental involvement sometimes found among Black American families (Fields-Smith, 2005) as well. Yet this view contrasts sharply with the US middle-class norm of parents

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volunteering in schools, the emphasis on family engagement to create a home-school-community partnership, and the concept of parental agency/advocacy in the school context.1 Yvette came to the USA to pursue her undergraduate degree in music at a historically Black college (HBCU) in the metro Atlanta area. She described her motivation to study in the USA: It’s funny saying I chose [HBCU] because [HBCU] actually chose me! And why I say that is because I was on the Internet searching for schools. So I had put in all of my information and [HBCU] came up. And I looked at their web page and I see all these Black faces and I recognize it is all Black and I’m like, Hell no! I’m not doing that! And then I recognize that the reason I feel that is because of the negativity that I was fed in the UK that anything all Black is negative. That was what I was fed and that’s by my own people as well. So that’s how much we had been brainwashed.

Later, a close friend of her family who had recently returned from a trip to Atlanta sang the praises of several HBCUs he had visited, and Yvette began to reconsider. Not long afterward, the uncle of one of her voice students came for a visit from his home in Atlanta. She recalled, “he was saying if you want to go to school in America you need to go to [the HBCU she was currently attending].” Finally, Yvette concluded, “I thought, Wow! I think God’s trying to tell me something here!” Yvette continued, And amazingly—I say amazingly because people thought that it was such a big deal to get into [HBCU]—you know, they would ask me, How did you get in? And I was like, I applied. [laughs] So obviously that was a plan God had for me. So I just had to follow it through. And you know, I’ve always wanted to do music. What I found is that as a self-employed Black woman in the UK, they were not happy with me. They expected only so much of Black people and along comes this Black woman who thinks she can do more, and she was, and that upset them. And so they were trying to intimidate me into accepting payments that I knew I deserved more because of what I did, what I knew I could do … that what I was doing was worth more. And

1 See for example, Abram, L. S. & Gibbs, J. T. (2002). Disrupting the logic of homeschool relations: Parental involvement strategies and practices of inclusion and exclusion. Urban Education, 37(3), 384–407.

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so I thought, okay, let’s go to college because what they [administrators at the school she worked for in the UK] were telling me is that without a degree they cannot pay me any more.

Yvette came to the USA as a non-traditional international student. Her stay in the USA is temporary and dependent on her status as a full-time student. Racism, in part, spurred her decision to move to the USA with her children. She shared, I had gotten to a stage in my life where I was [Yvette] and I was not going to be who you wanted me to be, if that makes sense. It’s like, um, you know how the racism thing goes and [her employers] only expected only so much of Black people and along comes this Black woman who thinks she can do more and she was; that upset them. So okay, let me get this degree because as far as [music] theory goes I was quite limited, so I knew I could benefit from a degree and learning some of that.

Yvette came to the USA with high hopes that stemmed from faith, believing that God had led her to the decision to study in the USA.

Decision to Split-School Yvette’s children, Kyle (11) and Keith (13), initially attended the same middle school. Yvette shared that Kyle’s teachers threw him out of the classroom repeatedly, almost daily, for behavior they described as “disruptive.” Yvette reported that teachers identified Kyle’s so-called disruptive behavior as, “fighting, talking, knocking on things, and not sitting still.” Yvette challenged this characterization. “I said to them, ‘That’s Kyle, that’s always been Kyle.’” The teachers’ response was, “Yes, but we can’t work like that.” Yvette explained, And I’m just like, You don’t want to. And I do understand that it is hard for them; they have 30 other kids, one teacher sometimes, too, you know. And I just, I think they got annoyed at me, because I’m just not having it, you know.

In Yvette’s view, Kyle’s teachers appeared more focused on his behavior than his academic ability. Yvette wondered,

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How was he, I mean, he was getting some tests 100%, how is he getting 100% if he is not in the classroom half the time? That’s what my thing was. So I put two and two together and decided obviously he’s doing what he already knows. Because if he is not in the classroom to be learning it, he must have learned it from somewhere else!

Yvette believed the school staff held predetermined beliefs that labeled Kyle a troublemaker. Their refusal to consider Kyle’s need for greater intellectual challenge led Yvette to begin to distrust school personnel. Yvette noted that within their first year in the USA, Kyle had been placed in three different middle school classrooms. She reported, In my son’s first school, he was in three different classes. Every time there was a problem he had been moved. And I think at that point I had had enough and I thought to myself, Um, no, this can’t be right … every time there’s a problem… and the issue for me was that he was being told that if you have a problem you need to report that to the teacher. And which he was doing and in some cases I was doing, you know, sometimes he didn’t feel comfortable going to the teacher because when two people are angry it can’t really work, and so he would tell me, and I would pass it on to them. But what I recognized is that they weren’t doing anything about it. They were saying that they were, but they actually weren’t. And the reason, I found that out, was because when it was too much, you know if you have had like three instances with one child, I’d go knock on their door [of that child’s home]. It’s like, excuse me, let’s sort it out. Only to learn from the parents that they had no idea of what is going at the school. So that showed me that actually you’re not meeting my child’s needs, and you’re blatantly ignoring him because you don’t want to deal with it.

Learning that the teacher and school administrator had not contacted the other child’s parents, despite assuring her that they had, fueled Yvette’s distrust of school personnel and led her to believe the school blamed Kyle for these incidents. Kyle’s teacher then informed Yvette that a team of school personnel believed Kyle might have a form of Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD) and recommended psychological testing. They informed her of an upcoming Student Study Team (SST) meeting to discuss the matter. Yvette reports, I told them I’m sorry, I’m not accepting that. Because all ADD means is that you don’t know how to deal with my son, that’s what it means…. It

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is an easy way out for you, and all you have to do is to give him a label. And I’m not accepting that.

However, although Yvette did not approve psychological testing, she did allow the school to conduct academic testing to determine his reading level. Explaining the outcome of the testing, Yvette recounted that a representative from the SST “rung me and she gave me the report, and basically the report was saying that actually [Kyle] was working a year about himself.” In other words, Kyle had scored one full year above grade level. When Yvette returned to the school for what she expected to be a planning meeting to accommodate Kyle’s advanced abilities, the teacher informed her, “Oh, we cannot accept these results.” Yvette reported, I’m like, hang on, your school has organized this test and you can’t accept that? Because as far as they are concerned, if he is not producing the work in class then how can they give him harder work? Which is just bull, isn’t it really? … I’m saying they should match where he is, right?

Instead of aligning the instruction with Kyle’s ability, Yvette believed, the school had labeled him a troublemaker and established a pattern of assuming the worst about him. Kyle experienced what many Black males experience in schools today: even those who meet the requirements for gifted programs often confront negative labels and stereotypes (Ford, 2011; Noguera, 2008). The school’s tests supported Yvette’s belief that Kyle was not being challenged in school, but their decision to ignore these results further undermined Yvette’s trust in them. Yvette emphasized, I’m not signing anything to say that my child is ADD because that ADD,… I’m sorry. ADD means he’s got a problem and medication. They told me, “Oh, [Ms. Yvette], don’t be jumping to conclusions; sometimes these medications do very well.” I said, “You know what, my son isn’t going to have medication because he doesn’t need medication. He needs attention. And obviously you can’t give him that.” Do you know what I’m saying? It was always his problem or my problem.

Up to this point, although Yvette’s sons had attended the same predominantly White middle school, their schooling experiences could not have been more different. She described her older son, Keith, as “comfortable” in the same school setting she perceived as damaging for Kyle.

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Yvette’s decision to allow Keith to remain in the traditional school resulted from her desire to “not uproot him” and to maintain stability for him. Further, unlike Kyle’s teacher, Keith’s teacher responded favorably when Yvette said to her, “My son can do better than this. Can you make sure that you require better of him? Because obviously he is not going to give it if you don’t want it.” In stark contrast to Kyle’s teacher, Keith’s teacher accepted Yvette’s input regarding her son and ultimately agreed to raise the expectations for him. The adjustment in expectations resolved her older son’s issues in school. Yvette explained how her parenting style may have been connected to the problems Kyle encountered: We’ve had a few problems in that I’ve taught my children to be expressive. And [Kyle] has been reprimanded in school for asking questions when he knew things weren’t right. When you teach your children that, if they hear information that doesn’t sound right then they are going to question it, and teachers don’t appreciate that. And he has had to play the adult and keep his mouth shut. And I’m like, Hello? He’s [Kyle] a 13-year-old child. Why should he have to do that?

Yvette’s comments highlight the too-frequent dynamic in which intelligent ethnic minority children who engage intellectually by posing questions are misinterpreted and place teachers on the defensive. Keith’s teacher’s willingness to provide him with more advanced work, as suggested by Yvette, increased his need to pay attention to his schoolwork, which also led him to naturally conform to school standards around behavior. Conversely, Kyle’s teacher disenfranchised Yvette in her attempt to advocate for Kyle. Yvette explained, And that’s when I recognized I had to apologize to Kyle. I said, “You know what son? It’s not you that is a bad child, it is the system.” And that’s where I’ve seen the difference, in that my oldest is a conformer and my youngest is a non-conformer. Non-conformers don’t work in public schools. Because they don’t fit in the little boxes that they have, and my son just had to appreciate that.

During my first interview with Yvette, I had the opportunity to meet both Keith and Kyle. They were equally respectful and carried themselves

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like confident young men. Dahlia gave a similar description in the previous chapter of Jason, whom I never met. Dahlia described Jason as confident and particularly sure of himself and who he was in Jesus. Whether the confidence developed from his faith or from knowing, as Yvette stated when she described her parenting style, “that bit more,” the confidence these young men exuded may have been misinterpreted as arrogance, disrespect, or even insubordination by their teachers. As Dahlia did with Jason, prior to deciding to homeschool Yvette enrolled Kyle in a different school in the hope of achieving a different outcome. Financial challenges kept her from placing Kyle in a private school even though she had found a private school with relatively reasonable tuition. She shared, I went to [a charter school] because at that time, Hello? I’ve got my homework [research] to do. It’s a matter of my child is not at home [England] and I have no schooling for him and that’s when I started to think of other options. I went to visit a private school. It looks totally awesome! It’s like $5000/year. I was so shocked because you could pay that for two months for schooling, but this was for a whole year. I was so frustrated because I couldn’t find the money. They educate their children to a standard where he said they had eighth graders that if they were physically able at that age to control an airplane, they could do it. That’s the level they had them taught at. I was just like, Whoa! You walk in and there’s all these famous Black people. I just think that history is such an empowering thing. Because I came here and did my first year at [HBCU] and thought, if I have to go home today, I am ready for England. I was so empowered!

Yvette sought for Kyle the kind of culturally nurturing learning environment that characterizes Black segregated schools (Siddle Walker, 1996), which would provide him with the same cultural uplift she received as an HBCU student. Seeking this cultural connection, Yvette transferred Kyle to a charter school, as she explained, “to see if there was a difference. His first school was predominantly White, and this one was all Black. He got suspended twice in one semester.” For Kyle, the racial composition of his school setting did not change the outcome. In addition, Kyle was a new student in a middle school, which is a setting in which peer groups can place tremendous pressure on students. Yvette’s description of Kyle’s experiences in the charter school suggested

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that bullying had occurred. At this point, she reluctantly began to consider homeschooling. She shared, So I stressed for the semester, you know, thinking, I can’t do this. I can’t do this. But after being kicked out, and on both occasions he was defending himself because again, he was told if you have a problem report it. He would report it and the children would continue to bully. I said to them, “I don’t condone his actions, but what do you expect him to do— just sit back and be kicked? And shouted at?” That’s not why I send my child to school. And it always led back to Kyle. He needs to listen. He needs to shut his mouth. But I’m like, as an adult, if someone was telling you something that was untrue, would you shut your mouth? No! But because he is a child, he is expected to be quiet.

The charter school administration issued Yvette an ultimatum, which turned into an unintended opportunity for her. She recounted, And the thing is, the very fortunate thing is … there was one incident where he fought with a child. And the principal told me, “I can’t allow him back unless you come in every day.” And I said, I’ll do that, and I went in every day even if it was just two hours. And obviously, you can’t act but for so long, can you? And I saw those teachers’ true colors. I saw total non-control of a classroom. I saw a teacher so lax that I thought, “Are you here?” and another teacher, she was very reluctant to answer [students’] questions. Later in that period, I saw her send a child to pick up his homework from the day before and so it was late. He came back and she ripped it up in front of him. And I’m like, what’s the point in that? This was the charter school. From what I’ve learned about the school system, I say, “No, I don’t need to get him back into the school system.” And the only thing I haven’t tried yet is a private school. I’ve seen one that I’m particularly interested in. I just want to see how this [homeschooling] could work. I’m just so confident that God has brought me this far that, you know, however it is to work next year, He’ll make it work.

Yvette’s observations and her faith confirmed her decision to homeschool Kyle, which also related to her understanding of who he is as a human being.

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What’s the point in forcing something? It could be that he’s just not feeling it [school]. It really sounds strange to me because I know that there’s not everybody you can tell that to, cause they’re going to think, You’re crazy! You know? I think it’s worth the fight. I’ve always emphasized the fact that I recognized that Kyle is a very different child and I want him to be that child, because I feel that that’s who God sent to be here. He’s sent to be a different child. He’s not sent to be in this little box like everyone else. And it’s been very difficult because it could even be seen as Kyle is lacking discipline in wanting him to be um, to be Kyle … It’s really been difficult.

The “fight” in this quote refers to Yvette’s internal struggle regarding her decision to homeschool. Yvette’s life as a full-time student and a single mother of two Black males was already challenging. In addition, she now faced the turmoil of having to choose between trying to force her son to conform to school expectations or allowing Kyle to be Kyle. Yvette’s sentiments appear to reflect concern, and possibly shame, about how she might be perceived as a single mother with a seemingly out-of-control child. Her determination and ability to persevere stemmed from her belief in Kyle’s God-given unique nature and purpose. Kyle’s US schooling experience consisted of a full year in a predominantly White, district-assigned neighborhood middle school; one semester in a predominantly Black charter school; and then, in January of his seventh-grade year, Yvette began homeschooling Kyle. Shortly after her observation of Kyle’s charter school experience, Yvette began to research homeschooling in earnest. She recalled, I went to the library. God sent me to the library. I really believe God sent me to the library that day. The lady says, “I know a homeschooler. Put your details down, I’ll give it to her.” And then she said, “Read these couple of books.” One was something about lifelong learning and one was called Your First Year of Homeschooling. I think that’s what it was. Something along that line and it basically went through different lives of different families and how they are dealing with [homeschooling]. And it was some of them that were very scary because they were very rigid and very structured and I’m like, there’s no way I’m going to fit that in! Yeah, because I’ve got my own schooling to attend to.

As Yvette continued to research homeschooling, her split-school approach developed. She needed a homeschool practice that would keep Kyle engaged and challenged; she needed to be able to attend her own

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classes and have time to complete her course assignments; and she needed to be able to engage in Keith’s traditional schooling. Fortunately, as a non-traditional international student, Yvette had funding to support herself and her family, so she did not have to work in addition to homeschooling and being a student. To develop her homeschool practice, Yvette would also come to rely on other resources, such as her social network outside of the HBCU she attended.

Making It Work At the time of our initial interview, Yvette and Kyle had wrapped up their first semester of homeschooling (January to May). Starting in January did not give Yvette much time to plan or prepare for the transition to homeschooling. When asked if she had investigated the state curriculum for Kyle’s grade to see what he “should be learning,” according to the state, Yvette admitted, No, to be honest with you, I haven’t looked there yet. But I have a lot of time this summer and I’m crossing my fingers, praying to God, and thanking God for the funds to send the boys back to the UK this summer so I can have some time to myself to structure some stuff out.

Yvette described days where she and Kyle would study together at home; Kyle would work on his studies while she worked on her own. Ultimately, Kyle had to become extremely independent overall. She described her check-in process as follows: “We’ll be going to bed and I’m like, ‘Okay, have you sorted what you want to do for tomorrow?’ And then we’ll talk about what he has done, what he has gotten together.” To Yvette, these bedtime check-ins hold Kyle responsible for his own learning. She further acknowledged, What I find is that the independence has gotten so great that sometimes when he recognizes that I can’t help him, he actually goes to the Internet and tries the stuff and says, “I’ve worked it out now, Mom.” I say, “Oh, okay then.” We’ve come across some stuff that I’m like, “You know what, babe, I don’t know this one. Maybe you might need to resort to the Internet.” “Okay mom.” He’ll just go and attend to it and I think that’s kind of necessary.

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Kyle’s independence is indeed necessary, given the academic demands Yvette faces. She explained, I’m a music major and I found that this is the most demanding course of study that one could take. Because even if I try to do three four-hour courses, I still have to do voice and I have to do an ensemble, which is more time on top of that 12 hours. So time is the biggest issue I’ve had to face. And I think as an international student, finances … have been a real kind of blocker, but I haven’t allowed it to, if that makes sense.

As a result of her time and financial constraints, Yvette’s homeschool practice embodies the West African proverb, “It takes a village to raise a child.” In this case, it takes a village to educate her child. Yvette’s “village” consists of a diverse group of people and programs with a wealth of resources to contribute toward Kyle’s learning. For example, when Yvette told Kyle’s teachers that she planned to begin homeschooling him, one teacher offered her stacks of worksheets to use in her homeschool practice. The teacher had homeschooled her own children at one point and became an empathetic supporter for Yvette. Her HBCU community provided tremendous support as well. Discussing her need to bring Kyle to campus sometimes, Yvette explained, “sometimes there’s lessons [classes] that are too long for him and he doesn’t want to come, so he’ll go to the computer lab. Cause they are really cool at [her HBCU]; he’s kind of the adopted child. Yeah, they are pretty cool like that.” Yvette also shared that her whole family uses the counseling services on campus for mental health support. Through counseling she learned that Kyle really needed a place to “blow off steam,” she said, because “he is a child that needs to be active.” In addition, Kyle received training in entrepreneurship from friends Yvette regards as “extended family” who own their own businesses. Kyle even earned some money of his own. Yvette shared, She [Yvette’s friend] was teaching, she is so awesome, she was teaching him to sell. They have a pecan tree, where they would get him to pick loads up, bag them, and sell them at the stores. So he’d come home, “Mom, I made $10 today!” and I’m like, okay son. Yeah! I mean when you think about that people say, “Aww, he hanging out all day with these people, what’s he learning?” But I think he learns a lot, such as how to run a business.

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Yvette also met other shop owners from the UK with whom she instantly developed a bond, and Kyle spent time learning about their store as well. His primary purpose in working with Yvette’s business owner friends was to learn about entrepreneurship and how to run a business. This is information Yvette believes will benefit him greatly that he would not have learned in a traditional school setting. Other members of Yvette’s “village” include a husband and wife who work with Kyle once a week. The wife, who attended the same HBCU as Yvette, offered to teach Kyle English while her husband taught him Bible studies. Yvette explained, They’ve started it off with, he’s given Kyle lots of literature about African Americans and also through the Bible and the newspaper. And [Kyle] had to go through readings and pick out all the words he didn’t understand, and then he’d have to go home and write out their meanings and then write a sentence for each one of them as well.

Yvette also found a homeschool program where she and Kyle selected courses such as drama, art, physical education, and leadership skills. Physical education became critical, for example, because Yvette realized Keith had a daily gym class at school, whereas Kyle did not. So she made sure Kyle had the opportunity for physical education as often as possible. Yvette scheduled Kyle’s classes around her own course schedule. The homeschool school course also provided Kyle with opportunities to socialize with his peer group. Kyle and Keith also participated in recreational soccer when finances allowed. One of Yvette’s classes was canceled for the semester she began homeschooling Kyle; she attributed this to divine intervention because the cancellation freed up every Tuesday and Thursday for homeschooling. For the remaining weekdays, Kyle served in an apprentice-like role with Yvette’s friends who owned their own businesses. Yvette described how her homeschool practice was influenced by a family she read about in the library books, The wife fell ill and the husband had to look after her. And the child was just at home and what they recognized was that although they weren’t sitting down with pen and paper, the child was learning everything that went around … life skills, basically. This is from the book. And you know, how you can just look at something and start investigating, do you know what I mean?

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As a former Bank Street model-based teacher, I knew exactly what she meant. The Bank Street approach to teaching and learning, developed during the Progressive Era, is based on John Dewey’s philosophy of experiential learning. Bank Street founder Lucy Sprague Mitchell developed the model to place children—instead of the teacher, the curriculum, or even standards—at the center of teaching and learning, with teachers facilitating children’s learning. This approach to teaching and learning encourages children’s discovery through project-based learning, inquiry learning, and experiential learning, with social studies concepts as the foundation. The Montessori and Reggio Emilia approaches to teaching and learning encompass similar principles. Yvette expressed a strong aversion to what she described as a “very rigid and very structured” pedagogical approach to homeschooling. An inquiry-based, Bank Street-like philosophy represents exactly the opposite approach. Yvette became extremely animated and excited as she described the development of her homeschooling philosophy and practice, inspired by the books she read. She stated, You find just from one investigation you can cover so many subjects. It is absolutely amazing! I mean, I remember our very first homeschool day to this day, and basically, we went for a walk. And we decided to just look at nature. We talked about the trees and why some of them are still green at this time of the year. We came across grass, and we learned that there are over 200 types of grass! We just went to the Internet to try to find out what type of grass is used in Georgia because what we recognized was that at that time of the year [January] it was this color [points to beige carpet], tan. I’m like, hang on, grass is green. And because it is in a public area as in on pavement, why isn’t it green? You know, like false grass … Astroturf? Why isn’t it that type? And then we went online, I’ve forgotten the name of the grass, but we found out that particular name … of the grass that is used here in Georgia.

As Yvette described this learning experience I recalled having a similar shock, having been born in the Northeast, when my grass in Georgia turned “beige” in the winter. Later I learned that it was supposed to do this, as it becomes dormant during the cold months. So I could offer the term Bermuda grass, and she excitedly proclaimed, “That’s it! And we were flabbergasted!” Admittedly, I was too, initially, but not for the same reason.

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In another example, Yvette described how she and Kyle learned the reason for the loud noises caused by vehicles crossing a bridge near their home. She excitedly explained, “Then we learned that [the bridge] has cracks and makes so much noise. Why they have the cracks in the bridges is to allow the concrete to expand, and so they are there on purpose. And that’s why you hear all that rumbling as people drive across there, and that was really fun!” Part of Yvette’s excitement stems from her recognition of how much she herself has learned as a home educator. Yvette hesitantly described her approach to teaching, I’m kind of [pauses], I know this will sound a bit extreme, but children actually know what they need. So I’m trying to go with that. And that was a killer at first, cause I was just so used to, “Mommy needs to know what to do” [laughs] and that’s just how it should be. If he needs to do 10 hours of math this week, then he’ll do 10 hours of math.

As a home educator, Yvette had to unlearn the more rigid form of teaching she had experienced as a student. She evolved into a more intuitive educator and shared control of the content and process of learning with Kyle. Yvette explained how she and Kyle co-planned their instructional time: What I do is I actually allocate a time, and it is about us trying to find ways to fill that time. And we will talk about what we want to do. I will print out a schedule for him and sometimes I tell him to fill out. Or I will fill it out and I’ll leave spaces and I’ll say, All right, this is going to be your time.

In the spirit of “unschooling,” even though they co-plan, the schedule they create does not remain absolute. And the thing is, as well, although I’ve got that time allocated, it might go over or it might be less. But I don’t make a big deal of it because one thing the book emphasized is that we’re not bringing school home. That’s what we are not doing, and that’s the biggest mistake that parents make. And I think that’s what creates the biggest fear, cause you’re like, I want everything so scheduled. How am I going to do that? And another thing they forget is that at school the teacher is doing 1:30 and at home it is just 1:1. So you don’t need all of that time. Two hours a day is actually sufficient.

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As Yvette continued to describe her pedagogical stance, I realized she had intuitively embraced an educational approach grounded in the belief that the joy of learning in and of itself brings a strong sense of achievement. Greatly influenced by the book she had read about unschooling, Yvette had established a student-centered, inquiry-based approach to learning that provided Kyle with a voice and choice in his own learning. Given the obstacles Kyle had faced in traditional schools, it made sense that Yvette would begin with Kyle’s own questions regarding his relatively new US environment. Finding answers to the questions he raised (Why is the grass beige? Why is that bridge so noisy?) validated and empowered Kyle as a learner. This was quite the opposite of what he experienced in his traditional schools, where he was perceived as a “troublemaker.” Discussing her approach to homeschooling, Yvette explained, It’s never been a fixed, structured thing for us. Something else that was mentioned in the book is that you have to allow them to unschool because they are expecting what has been happening in the school to happen at home. I would say, it was so extreme … the stress that he was under, that he was coming out in hives. And I literally saw that disappear … [when I decided] that I’m going to do it. So I said to him, “You know what? We’re going to do this.” And the big smile that came across his face and I’m just like, I don’t think I gave it proper credit regarding how much pressure he was under in school.

Yvette initially worried that the behavior Kyle demonstrated at his previous schools would challenge her at home. “I was thinking, Oh my God, if my child is such as he is at school, what’s he going to do for me? But it has not been like that. It really hasn’t!” Kyle also enrolled in classes one or two days per week at a homeschool school program similar to the one Dahlia’s son attended. This enabled Kyle to socialize with other homeschool students and gave Yvette time to attend to her own coursework as well. Knowing other homeschool families gave Yvette the courage to proceed. She shared, “For those people who have experienced homeschool children, I haven’t met a person that has said someone came in from homeschooling and they were terrible. It is always, always said that the child is way ahead. And that kind of gives me confidence.” Confidence in her ability to homeschool was also supported by her faith and, more

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specifically, by the people she believed had been divinely placed in the path of her sojourn.

On Spirituality Yvette’s faith in God was evident throughout our interview, from her decision to homeschool to her conviction that homeschooling Kyle was “worth the fight.” Evidence of her faith also emerged in her attribution of events that eased her homeschooling practice to divine intervention. Yet when asked directly about the role of her faith in her homeschooling, she declared, “I am not a religious person.” Yvette defined “religious” as belonging to a church and needing a physical structure of some sort to remain connected to God. She explained, I’m not religious in that I don’t need a church. It gets to a point where I get offended when people tell me I can’t have a relationship with God without a building. I’m like, Hello? He has just brought me through a year! And you tell me I can’t do this without you?

It is clear that Yvette has tremendous faith in God, whom she credits for her ability to thrive so far from home despite the challenges of pursuing a degree and caring for her children alone. She also thanked God for having developed such a strong network in a relatively short amount of time. Yvette’s network also demonstrated the strength of her faith. Remaining connected to others, and a widely diverse group of others at that, edified her faith. She not only relied on the families in her “village” for support in homeschooling Kyle, but also trusted that the guidance they provided came from God. She explained, “In some instances I feel, Oh my God, I’m allowing him just that bit too far, you know? But you know, I believe that God always sends people in your life to tell you what you need to hear.” Her faith embodies the belief that God’s wisdom may come from some of the people. He has placed in her life. Because Yvette raised her sons in a faith-based lifestyle, though outside of formal religion, she also trusted that homeschooling Kyle would work—despite her own shortcomings—since he had what she regarded as a good foundation.

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I feel that Kyle could do with a bit more structure, but I also feel that the most important years are [ages] one to five or eight, and I feel that I was there for [Keith and Kyle] at the time. I feel that I created that foundation, you know that saying, in life, wherever they go in life they will always come back to that foundation. And I feel that he has a good foundation, I have done that. I’m just accepting that nothing is perfect, and things will turn out all right. And I think it is the stress, the stressing about it not being right … that makes it harder on yourself. It’s kind of playing a balancing game really.

In a follow-up interview, Yvette clarified that she was referring to the Scripture, “Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old, he will not depart from it” (Proverbs 22:6, King James Version). Faith in this promise enabled Yvette to depart from conventional schooling to support Kyle’s needs. In this way, Yvette’s homeschooling represented an act of faith. This faith enabled her to resist the pressure and demands of conventional schools, which from her perspective sought to control Kyle and mold him into someone other than the person he was intended to be. Yvette’s experience embodies the meaning of spirituality as connection to God, connection to others, and connection to self.

Conclusion Yvette’s experiences offer insight into how the disenfranchisement of parents seeking to advocate for their children in conventional schools may push them into homeschooling. Her encounters with school personnel exemplify the power possessed by individual teachers in the context of family-school partnerships. Ultimately, the teachers Yvette interacted with determined the balance of power that would exist within the “partnership.” One teacher valued Yvette’s input and used it to modify her approach to teaching and learning, which improved the learning environment for Yvette’s older son Keith. Yet in the same school, Kyle’s teacher not only dismissed Yvette’s concern that he needed more challenging work, but also ignored the school’s own test results supporting Yvette’s claim. Given the different experiences of her sons, and despite their royalsounding speech, Yvette and her children did not reap the benefits that purportedly accompany “elevated minority” status. Instead, Yvette, like

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many other ethnic minority parents in the USA, experienced marginalization in the home-school partnership. Abram and Gibbs (2002) posited, In many instances the school still possesses the power to practice exclusion or to impede parents’ utilization of their cultural capital or their voice. All parents, then, bring some bargaining chips to the table, but the school maintains the power to include or exclude their presence or input. (p. 386)

By focusing narrowly on his behavior, Kyle’s teacher attempted to stringently limit Yvette’s agency in advocating on his behalf. Yvette responded by assuming full control of his education through homeschooling. Yvette, like Dahlia, suggested that her sons’ self-confidence and intelligence, as expressed through posing challenging questions in class, may have put their teachers on the defensive. Dahlia described Jason’s selfconfidence as “a boldness about him. Instead of rewarding and encouraging him in that, there were a lot of people that we have encountered that tried to break him, and that’s really why I pulled him out of the public school system.” Similarly, Yvette spoke about encouraging her sons to ask questions when they heard something that did not align with what they had been taught, and her perception that teachers sought to suppress rather than encourage such intellectual engagement. These mothers’ approach to raising confident, intellectual, selfefficacious, and successful Black men appeared to conflict with the efforts of some school personnel to control children’s bodies, particularly Black bodies as described by Coates (2015), Hatt (2012), and Lee (2017) and others. In addition, schools typically value White, middle-class ways of interacting and being, such as students raising their hand and waiting to be called on before speaking, and exhibiting deference to and respect for authority. Moreover, deference to and respect for authority, particularly from children toward adults, are hallmarks of “good manners” in the South, as exemplified by the expectation that children will respond, “Yes ma’am/sir” to adults. Given this strong tradition of valuing White, middle-class norms of communication and Southern expectations of deference, Kyle’s tendency to pose questions, inspired by his mother’s training, could have been misread as disrespectful by his teachers. Over time, repeated misinterpretation may have fueled his teacher’s disdain for Kyle, to the extent that she ignored test results demonstrating his need for more challenging schoolwork.

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Yvette’s decision to homeschool represented a reprioritizing of homeplace in that she created a learning environment that valued Kyle’s unique personality traits and prior knowledge. Her unschooling approach aligns with Progressive Era learning theories including Constructivism, experiential learning, and child-centered models. This approach appealed to Kyle’s natural curiosity and fostered his love of learning. Yvette repeatedly referenced her relationship with God in discussing her experiences. Yet she also maintained that she was not a religious person. Indeed, despite the religious stereotype associated with homeschooling, formal religious studies remained limited to time with one of Yvette’s friend; not directly included in her homeschool practice. Nevertheless, Yvette relied on her spirituality and faith in a higher power to fuel and inspire her homeschool decision and practice. Faith enabled her to trust the people in her “village,” whom she viewed as divinely sent. This network supported and informed her homeschool practice, helping to create a learning community in which Kyle could thrive.

References Abrams, L. S., & Gibbs, J. T. (2002). Disrupting the logic of home-school relations: Parental involvement strategies and practices of inclusion and exclusion. Urban Education, 37 (3), 384–407. Coates, T. (2015). Between the world and me. New York: Spiegel & Grau. Dillard, C. B. (2012). Learning to (re)member the things we’ve learned to forget: Endarkened feminisms, spirituality, & the sacred nature of research and teaching. New York: Peter Lang. Fields-Smith, C. (2005, Winter). African American parents before and after Brown. Journal of Curriculum and Supervision, 20(2), 129–135. Ford, D. Y. (2011). Multicultural gifted education. Waco, TX: Prufrock Press. Greer, C. M. (2013). Black ethnics: Race, immigration, and the pursuit of the American dream. New York: Oxford University Press. Hatt, B. (2012). Smartness as cultural practice in schools. Review of Research in Education, 49(3), 438–460. Lee, K. (2017). Making the body ready for school: ADHD and early schooling in the era of accountability. Teachers College Record, 119(9), 1–38. Noguera, P. (2008). The trouble with Black boys: Race, equity, and the future of public education. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass. Siddle Walker, V. (1996). Their highest potential: An African American school in the segregated South. Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press.

CHAPTER 6

Chloe: Homeschooling as Way of Life

Living is teaching and teaching is living. And that learning is a fun thing. —Chloe

Unlike the other single-parent home educators featured in this text, Chloe’s entrance into homeschooling had little to do with experiences in traditional schools, or even her perception of them. Instead, she began life as a stay-at-home single mother when her job presented her with an ultimatum that forced her to choose between caring for her child or keeping her job. Shortly thereafter, she would recall that a year prior to her job’s ultimatum, she had experienced a feeling that God had called her to ‘stay home,’ but she ignored this prompting because it conflicted with her belief, at that time, that as a single parent her responsibility required working outside of her home to maintain her household. Though she initially resisted the calling, Chloe’s account offered insight into the ‘God told me to homeschool’ stereotype of homeschooling. When we met for our initial interview, Chloe, a 32-year-old, disabled, army veteran had been homeschooling her daughter, Cecilia, for nine years. Cecilia was entering the 9th grade at the time. Chloe’s homeschool practice had evolved into a lifestyle reflected in her philosophy, “Homeschooling is more about how you live; living is teaching, and teaching is living. And that learning is a fun thing.” Her homeschool practice embodied this belief.

© The Author(s) 2020 C. Fields-Smith, Exploring Single Black Mothers’ Resistance Through Homeschooling, Palgrave Studies in Alternative Education, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-42564-7_6

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Chloe’s homeschooling lifestyle resulted in a seamless fusion of her mother and teacher roles, which provided necessary stability for Cecilia, given the frequently changing contexts of their nomadic-like lifestyle. Originally, from Maryland, Chloe had homeschooled Cecilia in Maryland, Virginia, Texas, and Georgia during her nine years of experience as a home educator. As a result, Chloe’s homeschool practice required her to remain diligent in knowing the varying requirements regarding how to (1) declare her decision to homeschool, (2) maintain her right to homeschool, and (3) document her daughter’s academic progress in accordance with each state’s mandates. In her travels homeschooling across the states, Chloe found that states differed in their level of homeschool regulation. She explained, “Every place is completely different, and you would think, one country would have one set of laws. Well, I’m telling you they are as different as night and day.” The changing context of her homeschool lifestyle would have implications for her sense of community as well.

Background Chloe grew up in Rockville, Maryland, a suburb of Washington, DC, with her mom and dad, who still lived there. She described herself as an A-B student in school, but she did not remember having to study very much. Chloe recalled learning she would have to work to get good grades while in college, I wasn’t a good student, because when I got to college, and you had to really study, it’s was different. You don’t get A’s and B’s in college without trying. It was like, I had to learn how to study because I went to college right after high school. I went for a year to [a historically Black university in VA] and then I stopped, and it was like the hardest thing, to study. Then when I went back to [historically Black university in Virginia], I kind of knew because I was more focused, and it was my choice. But it was still hard; I really had to study. What in the world? I didn’t know it in high school, but I wasn’t studying, you know, I thought I was.

This reflection of her upbringing and challenges in developing meaningful study habits informed the evolution of her homeschooling practice. Chloe described her parents’ engagement in her learning as minimal with a primary focus on making sure she had completed her homework. She recounted,

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I don’t remember them [her parents] coming to school at all. I don’t remember them doing like PTA or anything like that. I do remember occasionally like when I was cheering, they would come to a game occasionally. Or when I was doing dance or something like that, they would come to that. I remember when I did a play, I know they were there for that. So, for my extra curriculum activities they were there, but like for meetings or for PTA kind a thing, I don’t remember them ever doing that kind of stuff.

Even though Chloe’s parents did participate in typical parental involvement activities, such as participating in PTA, they conveyed the importance of her education daily by checking in regarding her homework. Chloe shared, “They made sure I did my homework. I mean, my mom would ask me every day, did you do your homework? They always asked, and I wasn’t allowed to do my homework in my room, until the last two years of high school. I had to sit at the dining room table, so, I guess, that they knew, and I hated that.” Chloe changed this for her daughter. She allowed Cecilia to work wherever she was comfortable. Chloe’s parents followed the practice of many African American parents historically, in that they supported Chloe’s extra-curricular activities such as attending her school plays and going to football games to watch her cheer, but they rarely stepped foot inside the school to volunteer or attend meetings. Oftentimes, during segregation, African American parents refrained from going to their children’s schools during the day to avoid disruption of the teaching and learning happening in the school, and this lack of presence represented respect and deference to educational professionals (Walker, 1996). However, much to Chloe’s surprise, her parents’ high regard to public schools did not keep them from supporting her decision to homeschool. This contrasted with frequent reports of Black homeschool families who face critique and ridicule from their families because in so doing, they appear to be “turning their backs on a rich educational legacy” (Anderson, 2018). Chloe concurred, “One of the first things you hear from other home schoolers is don’t be surprised if your family doesn’t support you. But, when I called my mom and told her that I was gonna homeschool, she was like, really? Wow, I wished I had done that!”. She continued to share,

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And I’m going, oh my God, if you had I would have been a basket case. I was so glad she didn’t, she was like, oh my God that’s so cool! Cause I was geared up for hearing, you can’t do that. So, it was this huge surprise. I’m going what? What did you say? And she was just so, easy going about it. Now the rest of my family? Every year up until like, probably this last time that we were up there, they finally stopped asking, when I was going put her in school. Cause they were asking like every single year, “Is [Cecilia] ever gonna go to school?”. Then this last time, they started telling me about stuff going on at the college, that homeschoolers could go to now, and they started giving me stuff to support [Cecilia’s] learning. I think that they finally clicked that [Cecilia] was ok being home school. We were in our eighth year, and she was actually learning, and she was intelligent… that kind a thing. They finally got it!

Enduring scrutiny from family members, required Chloe to have strong faith in knowing that she should be homeschooling. As she stated, “It is really funny how people react, I’m telling you. That’s why I say, You gotta know that you’re supposed to be doing this thing [homeschooling], cause woosh.” Chloe’s relationship with her Higher Power confirmed and sustained her confidence in knowing that she should be homeschooling. The magnitude and nature of her relationship with God became evident in response to a query regarding her rather nomadic lifestyle. Describing the reason for her frequent moves, Chloe spoke as if she had no choice the matter because moving represented her faith in a Higher Power. She explained, The lord makes us move, you know, that’s how we got here [Georgia]. That’s how we got to Texas (with a sigh). I say that like that, but no, really God just says, “Ok, it’s time to go”. We thought we were going back to Texas when we moved from Maryland to here. We thought we were going back to Texas and we were just coming through here [Georgia]. God said, “No, you’re stopping here”. I’m going, ok. When I say that we may move again, it’s because I don’t know what God will have us do. But, our prayer is that we’ll stay, because we really like it here. We’ve just moved so many times. We’re praying that we’re not gonna move again. But, we live with the eventuality that it may happen. Now I’m praying that these last four years, she can just finish right here, and we don’t have to go anywhere. I don’t wanna move again, I’m tired of it all.

Chloe’s complete submission to God in terms of where she lived served as a precursor to understanding her decision to homeschool as well.

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The Decision to Homeschool Chloe’s initial entrance into homeschooling had little to do with schoolrelated factors. Instead, her decision to homeschool started in response to an ultimatum from her employer that pitted her job against her sense of responsibility as a single mother. At the time, she worked as a bookkeeper for a small company in Virginia Beach, Virginia. Cecelia attended a private, Christian kindergarten ran by the church they attended. Chloe explained, “My daughter got sick. She got very, very sick, and they wouldn’t let me take off. The doctor actually told me to take off for a week and stay at home with her. I had never heard that from a doctor before. She said, ‘I think it’s the stress’. And my daughter was only five.” Continuing, Chloe elaborated, My daughter was stressed. And I realized that ever since I had taken that job, I had been working long hours. You know, what single parent does that? Um, and so anyway they thought they were giving me a choice between staying home this week with my daughter or keeping my job, and I said, “That’s not a choice, I’m leaving”.

The ultimatum forced her to choose between her role as a mother and her job as a bookkeeper. Chloe did not hesitate. She knew she had to care for Cecilia. But, as Cecelia started to mend, Chloe recalled the moment when she realized that she would leave more than just her job. She explained, So, I left [the job] and when Cecelia started getting better, I proceeded to start looking for another job and it was probably a month later. It happened. I was watching the 700 Club and Terry Meeuwsen was talking about homeschooling. And I said, homeschooling, well what’s that? And then, I mean it just really clicked. All of a sudden, I knew why I supposed to be…why I should’ve come home that year before and it just started clicking, “click, click, click”. And that’s how I heard about homeschooling.

In that moment watching the 700 Club she had recalled that a year prior to the ultimatum, “God had told me to come home.” This did not mean moving back to Maryland with her parents. She clarified, No, just to come home. To leave that job. I was never going to be a CPA. So, essentially, he was saying you need to leave this job and go home. And [at that time,] I’m thinking, “Go home and I’m single?”. I was single

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then, so I’m going “uh no”. You know I’m hearing things. No, this is not happening now and so for that whole year everything started getting worse at my job.

The directive from God a year prior to the ultimatum conflicted with Chloe’s sensibilities regarding her role as a single parent and even her hopes of becoming a Certified Public Accountant. But, her job’s refusal to give her time off to care for her daughter forced her to walk away from her career plans. Learning about homeschooling through a 700 Club episode clarified the meaning of the divine directive to “go home.” Soon afterward, Chloe visited a teacher store in her community as she described, I went to a teacher supply store, and I saw a lady that went to my church who had been my daughter’s Sunday school teacher. I asked, “What are you doing in here?” and she said, “I homeschool!” and I’m like “No!”. But we went to church together and it was an instant friendship. So that’s how it got started. It really was obedience to God, because I had never heard of it before, I didn’t know what I was walking into, but, I knew that’s what I was going to be doing.

Chloe framed her motivation to homeschool as a directive from God, which she initially misunderstood because it conflicted with her acceptance of the belief that as a single parent she had to work outside of the home to support her family. But, when pushed to choose between her job and caring for her daughter, Chloe did not hesitate to resist that norm. The connection to homeschooling came later through what Chloe perceived as obedience to divine intervention. In other words, she came to realize that God had told her to homeschool Cecelia a year before her job gave her the ultimatum. Connections to other families in a homeschool community served as additional confirmation and support of her homeschool practice.

Making It Work Spirituality and Finances At the time of our initial interview, Chloe credited her Higher Power for the ability to homeschool her Cecilia without any financial support other than her disability compensation from her military service. She declared,

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All I can tell you is, nothing but God. Now, my disability pay has increased, so it does cover what we need to live on. I still do budgets, but it hasn’t been easy. There were many a person that marveled that I was single and that I was doing this [homeschooling]. They were like, how do you work? You not on Welfare? I was like, no! Are you? (laughter). It hasn’t been was easy, but it has been worth it. Every bit of it was worth it. And it is, it’s very hard and that’s why you have to know for sure this is what you should be doing.

Early in Chloe’s homeschool career, she reported that she would have to supplement her disability pay by hosting Pampered Chef parties or even taking care of other people’s children. These side hustles helped to keep her household afloat, but her faith in knowing that God had called her to homeschool Cecilia gave her the ability to endure the challenge of homeschooling as a single mother. Homeschooling Lifestyle In describing her homeschool practice, Chloe exclaimed, “Oh there is no traditional day [Laughter]. Ah, I wish I could say there was. Let’s see well lately. How about lately? [More laughter]”. Chloe also declared that she and Cecelia, “We’re not really morning people.” Georgia law required homeschool families to have 4.5 hours of instruction at the time. So, Chloe began the academic instructional part of their day at 11 a.m., which provided plenty of time for a full day of learning, as defined by the state law. Chloe actually perceived homeschooling extended well beyond 4.5 hours because it had become their lifestyle. Over the years, Chloe’s homeschool practice evolved into an embodiment of her belief that learning occurs in life and teaching required strong connections between content and life application. She expounded, Some of them [home educators] are very video orientated. Video schools or the virtual schools, that kind of thing. And they don’t consider life as being school. But there are a lot of us who consider life as being school and that’s where you learn. That what you do in that math book really applies in everyday life. For me, I tell [Cecilia] all the time, that’s what I missed; that’s why I hated math. Because I didn’t understand how it applied to my life. And even when I was doing accounting, I didn’t consider that math, that was accounting. (Laughter) I knew the connection, the literal connection, but to me I didn’t like math, but I liked accounting. They

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couldn’t be the same thing in my head. So, I want her to know that the English that she uses is what makes that book so good, you know? The math that she uses is what makes her understand if that sale price is good, verses this sale price.

Chloe summed up her teaching and learning beliefs as, “So, that’s why homeschooling is more about how you live. Living is teaching and teaching is living. And that learning is a fun thing, if you encourage everything as, wow, what can I find out about this today? You know, that kind of thing.” In this passage, Chloe distinguished math from accounting because math represented what she learned in school with a textbook disconnected from life application, but accounting held significant meaning to Chloe as she understood the life application of those skills to everyday life. Chloe’s homeschooling lifestyle had been influenced by resources she learned about from other home educators, but then she also began to describe her own living as learning through the development of her homeschool practice. Well. It started with like I said that homeschool store. That was an incredible resource simply because it was run by homeschoolers and the family that ran it had a daughter that was a graduated homeschooler. So, she knew the whole process. That gave me a jump start. They provided this packet of information about the laws of Virginia and just gave you sample magazines. But, we have tons of homeschool magazines now. There are lots of resources on the internet. I mean if you just put homeschool in there you would be overwhelmed. The curriculum is out there! We can get everything from what they use in the schools to what they use in the private schools, to what is developed specifically for homeschoolers. Then you start talking to other parents because you’ll find that a lot of people use a lot of different things. Then there are lots of homeschool books to that have been written. Most of them have resources listed in the back. So, you find websites that way. You find other authors that way and most of the libraries like this library here doesn’t have a lot of homeschool books, but most libraries have a good resource center. If somebody doesn’t know which book to buy first they go to the library. The library is a really great resource, if you know how to use it really well.

Chloe had learned to homeschool by immersing herself in the literature and resources, trying them out in her own practice, and making decisions

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on what worked for her and Cecelia. While she never mentioned a particular pedagogical approach or homeschool author, Chloe’s conception of homeschooling as a way of life aligned with the ideas of John Holt, who famously espoused unschooling, or allowing children to learn through their natural discoveries rather than relying on a prescribed curriculum. By conceptualizing homeschooling as a lifestyle and learning as living, Chloe did not isolate her motherly role from her role as Chloe’s teacher. In fact, she saw them as one in the same. She explained, I think they [mother and teacher roles] are a conglomeration, I don’t think they are distinct, you know, roles. Like when she has to fill out a form or something and it says teacher, the first time she put mommy (laughter). I was like, uh, no you can’t, you gotta put my name. I thought that was so cute. I was like oh yeah mommy’s a teacher. I think that it’s important that it’s one thing. So that she doesn’t see that, ok from 11.00-3.00 is teacher time and ok no, I’m not supposed to be learning after 4 pm. Mommy is not supposed to be teaching me anything because Mommy’s a teacher before 3 o’clock, whatever. So, I don’t really think it was ever two separate things, but I think there was a time of melding the two together. That way, she would come to ask me questions about her school or anything else. So, I think it’s actually crucial that she sees it not as mommy teacher, but as just mommy. Even if she was in school I would still be her teacher because I would be teaching her life lessons like how she’s supposed to live and about Christ and that’s the most important thing for me, is that she has that foundation for God.

Chloe understood her role as mother-teacher being one in the same, which led to her belief that living is learning and homeschooling represented a lifestyle. The living as learning lifestyle also eased the pressure of having to know everything as mother-teacher. She shared, There are times that I would say, I don’t know, I’ll have to find out. And I think that was the biggest thing for her, she’s going “What do you mean you don’t know?” I’m like no, I don’t know everything. I think kids think that teachers know everything; they especially think that parents know everything, and we don’t.

Chloe’s living is learning approach to homeschooling called into question the Georgia homeschool law mandating homeschoolers to submit a monthly attendance schedule. She wondered,

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This [Georgia] is the first place I’ve been where I had to send in an attendance form. What’s that about? Because we school seven days a week really. We do not consider school as in session just Monday through Friday. We may do something on Saturday, like [Cecilia] when she was learning about money, we went to the grocery store. When she was learning ounces and gallons and things, we went to the store, you know what I mean? But, we may not have gone to the store until Saturday or Sunday. But, to me that was school time. To her it wasn’t, it was just going to the grocery store, but she was learning. When she did percentages, we went to a sale. You know? (laughter). But it is just so funny to have to send in an attendance form.

From Chloe’s perspective, the attendance form assumed a Monday through Friday teaching schedule for certain hours of each day, which did not accurately account for the ongoing nature of her mother-teacher homeschool practice. Eventually, Georgia lawmakers would seemingly come to agree as the monthly submission of an attendance form has been removed from the Georgia homeschool requirements as of this writing. Chloe’s soon learned that her dual mother-teacher role and her desire to foster a love of learning in her daughter meant she would have to remain open to providing Cecelia with learning experiences quite different from her own. In a sense, her homeschool practice represented an undoing of how Chloe had experienced learning. Chloe reflected, I had to not get caught up in how boring some subjects can be or how boring I remember them being. I hated science until I became an adult, now I’m like, science is so cool. There are so many things that I didn’t even realize were science, like basic everyday things, because it was made to be so boring when I learned them as a child. History the same thing, so I strive to keep it interesting. So that she still has that hunger and thirst for information, and oh my goodness! I think the greatest benefit is watching my child grow. Seeing what thrills her, and what excites her! I absolutely love when she comes to me and says, mommy did you know… and tells me something and then I say, “no I didn’t”. She says, really? and then she tells me even more. Oh, to see her face just light up with new information and to read a book with her.

Chloe’s conceptualization of living as learning and finding the joy in that learning resulted in her own enjoyment of learning new things as a home educator, but most of all, seeing the joy of learning in her own child. The process of enacting a learning as living approach to teaching required

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Chloe to nurture her daughter’s “hunger and thirst” for knowledge, and she accomplished this by relating content to everyday life, which added significant meaning and joy to learning. Community Connections Chloe integrated community resources into her homeschool practice. In some cases, she even created the connections where none existed and in others, she aligned community resources to meet instructional content needs or Cecilia’s interests. Chloe shared ways in which her use of groups in particular had changed over the years as Cecilia grew older and has Chloe’s self-efficacy as a home educator grew from that chance meeting in the teachers’ story in Virginia Beach. Moreover, the community connections within Chloe’s homeschool practice served as outlets for Cecilia’s socialization as well. Initially, Chloe sought groups where home educators shared teaching responsibilities such as co-ops or cooperatives. The first co-op she participated in stemmed from meeting a fellow church member at a local teachers’ store in Virginia Beach at the start of her homeschooling experience. The philosophy of a typical co-op required each home educator to be responsible for instruction of the whole group in a subject area of his/her strength. Research on homeschool cooperatives has remained sparse. However, from Chloe’s experiences they seem to support the development of beginning home educators most. Referring to homeschool groups focused on sharing the teaching and learning experience among home educators, Chloe stated, “Now when we first started it was crucial for us to belong to those-kind-of-groups and that’s why we joined the co-op thing.” She found having someone to collaborate with on the homeschooling curriculum and instruction provided a guiding structure to her emerging homeschool practice. Integrating Field Trips Since arriving in Georgia two years ago, Chloe learned that the homeschool support groups in her area focused primarily on younger children. Therefore, she started her own homeschool group for older students with an emphasis on coordinating field trips for the group using social media outlets. She explained,

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With the field trip group that I started, and I started it because there wasn’t something in this area, on this side of Georgia, that was for teens. We had joined a homeschool group and it was strong for the younger children, but not for the teenagers. And I started this group in February and we had our first meeting in the beginning of March. We had five families and now we have twenty-two. In just that short amount of time that’s how much there was a need for their kids to meet other teens and other homeschoolers. That’s how you find out what’s available when you start to network.

Within the field trip group, as parents began to talk their conversations extended well beyond the field trips themselves. They shared curriculum and teaching ideas with one another as well as other community resources. To establish the field trip group, Chloe relied on social media resources such as Yahoo Groups and Facebook. She wanted the group to not be “bogged down with rules and regulations.” She described the primary purposes of the field trip group as (1) connecting field trips to curriculum and learning, (2) making friends and building friendships, and (3) having fun. Chloe explained how the Georgia-based field trip homeschool group functioned: So, what we did was, the teens made up a list of places that they wanted to go and the adults made up a list of places they wanted to go. What we decided was that we would do two field trips a month, and one would be from the adult list and one would be from the teen list. So, it isn’t like before the field trip there are phone calls to make you RSVP. If we are going to like an Art gallery, or say we are going to Fernbank, or something. If there is a specific exhibit, we may ask the museum if they have pamphlets or something that they can send us.

Reminiscing on previous field trip groups she and Cecilia had participated in, Chloe recalled, Now, I have done field trips, not here, but in Maryland where we would go to the Smithsonian’s and they had information that they could send us prior to our trip about the exhibit. They would send us vocabulary lists and reading lists and then it was up to the parents whether they actually do those things. We went to art museums in Virginia Beach and one of them gave us a coloring book that had some of the paintings, and you could color them in. So, we took it and you could color it the way it was on display or you could decide if you wanted to color it differently. And that like just sparked her and then the next time that we went she wanted

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to bring a sketch pad and her pencils and do whatever and that kind of thing! We would go to a history museum and the display would be on the civil war or something like that. Well, we weren’t talking about the civil war and I wasn’t going to jump all the over to civil war we would just talk about it afterwards. And with the art museums especially we may look up and artist, like she saw a piece by Leonardo Da Vinci so we got the book “The Crazy Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler” And she loved that. Then we went off and looked at stuff by Da Vinci. So, the field trip sometimes sparks something that happens that lasts forever.

Chloe clearly identified why field trips had become such an integral part of her homeschool practice, which also represented her learning as living philosophy as well. Whether within a homeschool group or on her own, the field trips provided meaningful connections to what they were learning across the subjects and even helped to integrate subjects. Field trips ignited Cecilia’s interests and motivated further exploration of topics related to those interest beyond the field trip. Nurturing Cecilia’s Interests Chloe’s practice included taking full advantage of the flexibility homeschooling offered in using community resources toward nurturing Cecilia’s many interests. Connections to nurturing Cecilia’s interests came up as Chloe considered her daughter’s goals after high school. She shared, “So, I don’t know now and I’ve heard many stories of home schoolers that their children get to 10th or 11th grade and they’re like, oh, I don’t wanna go to college. So, we’re preparing for that to happen, but if it doesn’t happen, then that’s fine too, but at least she’s prepared.” At this point, Chloe explained that Cecilia aspired to become a professional barrel racer. Having no clue what this entailed, Chloe offered, Cecilia wants to be a professional barrel racer, which is a rodeo advance. She’s always loved animals, and she absolutely adores horses. Our dream home would be a ranch, where we had horses and we could do lessons and training and all that kind of thing. Because we loved bull riding and we used to watch bull riding in Texas. So that’s what she wanted to do, but she starting to realize that God maybe directing her elsewhere. So, I’m not sure where that’s gonna go, but that’s what she wanted to do; she wouldn’t need to go to college for that. Well I said, you can get a college scholarship for it though. We were watching it one time and this guy fell

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off and someone said, “yeah he got a scholarship for that [bull riding]”. I’m going scholar… what?!!!! (in a high pitched exclamation tone).

Given Cecilia’s interest in horses, Chloe built her homeschool practice around Cecilia’s participation in 4H Club, being in nature, and even included a form of service-learning. Working with different local ranches, Cecilia volunteered with equine therapy for children with disabilities and even cleaned horse stalls. In exchange for this service, Cecilia received riding time and training, which fueled her ultimate goal, at the time. Cecilia liked to draw pictures of horses, and mom proudly showed me many of them that decorated the walls in their home. Connections between Cecilia’s interests and Chloe’s use of community resources were also revealed as she described strategies for infusing movement into her homeschool practice. She stated, “We do swimming at the YMCA; she likes to work out on the machines. When we do our group… now before like in Maryland and in Texas, we had park group where all we did was go to this huge park that they had. So, they got in nature; they got to run around and splash around in the water in the creeks and stuff like that. They would throw the football, throw the frisbee. [Cecilia] and I play tennis as well.” The library served as a critical component for Chloe’s homeschool practice and nurturing Cecilia’s interests as well. Chloe explained, We always used the library but we didn’t use it the way we use it now, now we use the library extensively. We use it a lot more than we did then. Then, we were there because she always loved to read. So, we were always there reading and things like that. And when she was six, I started teaching her how to ask the librarian and how to look up her own research. So, she’s been doing that for a long time now. The library has always been a fun place, and she’s very familiar with it.

In sum, whether focused on Cecilia’s future profession, passion for horses, art, or her other interests, Chloe used community resources to create an intricate support network for her homeschool practice and to support her learning as living approach to homeschooling. Chloe consistently sought community resources and even created community where none existed in each state she had homeschooled in.

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Spirituality Chloe’s spiritual beliefs remained consistently positioned in the forefront of all of her decision-making related to homeschooling and beyond. Throughout the telling of her experiences, she demonstrated strong connections to a Higher Power, others, and herself, and also a strong religious influence that mediated those connections. Though she never said, “God told me to homeschool,” she embodied this ideology as she described her experiences. Based on her account, strongholds related to beliefs surrounding her single mother status delayed Chloe’s sojourn into homeschooling. As many in society would, Chloe wondered, how can a single parent “go home” without working full-time to care for and eventually, homeschool her child? Unaware of homeschooling, at that time, she interpreted the directive to “go home” as leaving her job. From her perspective, God revealed the pathway to homeschooling later, after she had actually left her job. Ultimately, homeschooling represented an act of obedience to Chloe’s Higher Power. Reflecting over her experience as a home educator, Chloe shared she had enrolled Cecelia into a public school briefly when she moved back to Virginia Beach, prior to our interview in Georgia. Cecelia would have been in 6th grade at the time. Chloe shared, Well three or four years ago, we moved back to Virginia Beach and I thought because we had moved again that, you know, I was supposed to go back out and get work outside the home because I was doing work in the home. So, I put her in school because we moved in August, so September school starts, so I put her in school. That lasted about seven weeks (laughter) and by week six Cecelia was coming home saying, “Mommy I am going to school all day; this is crazy.” She said, “I am coming home, doing school all day and then you have to re-explain”. I was having to re-teach her lessons to her. She wasn’t understanding because the teacher has thirty kids and you can’t teach to everybody’s learning style and apparently that teacher’s teaching style did not match with Chelsea’s learning style. So, she would bring home her work and I had to re-teach it. We were both going, “This is crazy!”. And I said ok Cecelia, “I’ll pray about it, I’ll pray about it.” First day of prayer and fasting God said, clear as day I mean I thought someone was standing behind me, “You can pray and fast if you want to, but you already know what you’re supposed to be doing. I already told you”. So, I pulled her out of school. I think we needed it for both of us because she had been asking, like the year before if she was ever going to school, like regular school. In the neighborhood

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we were living in all of her friends went to public school. None of them were homeschooled. And so, when she went and when I pulled her back out she never asked that again.

Unlike other homeschool teachers represented in this text, Chloe’s descriptions personified the relationship she held with her Higher Power. As if talking with a wise elder, Chloe sought direction from God and waited for a response. She had a familiar and even intimate way of interacting with God, and often ascribed Him with the characteristic of humor. Chloe trusted that the ‘voice,’ which she heard in a visceral manner rather than audibly, represented a direct communication with her Higher Power. She sought guidance from her Higher Power, but at times resisted the response she received. Yet, even in her resistance, her Higher Power patiently continued to gently point the way toward homeschooling. The permeating presence of Chloe’s faith continued as she described her homeschool practice and ability to sustain it. Chloe clearly indicated that hers was a Christian household. She used religious-based curriculum materials given to her by the teachers at the Christian school Cecelia attended when she started homeschooling because she thought continuing with the same books would provide Cecelia continuity. But, as Chloe’s homeschool practice evolved she broadened the curriculum and materials she used. Nine years into her homeschooling, Chloe acknowledged that she and Cecelia began their day with Bible study. Her living as learning approach meant that community resources and Cecelia’s interests also influenced decisions regarding homeschool curriculum. Overall, Chloe’s homeschool practice blended academic, spiritual, and religious understandings. For example, in response to a question regarding her use of the Georgia Performance Standards, Chloe shared, Most of the time, what they [Georgia Department of Education] think they [students] should have learned, really isn’t the most important thing, in my opinion. Like, for instance, for history we haven’t done a whole lot of US history, because I told [Cecelia], I said the world is a whole lot older than the US is. And I said it’s more important that we know what the world was doing before the US came along, because the US wouldn’t have been here if Rome hadn’t have been here, and Egypt and Asia and all those other cultures, and they don’t stress that in school. And people don’t know how much of their history is really what made us who we are, you know? So, we started from the very beginning and worked, correlating it with biblical history. So, now when she sees something, she says “Oh yeah

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we got that from Rome” or “Oh yeah we got that from Ancient Egypt”. She knows where it came from, cause we’re not a culture in ourselves, we’re a bunch of immigrants. The only people that were here were Native Americans. But, they [Georgia State Department of Education] might say “Oh you need to know US history”.

Here Chloe provided her rationale for teaching world history rather than US history and then correlating world history to Biblical understandings. In so doing, she characterized Georgia’s standards for having a narrow, monocultural focus toward the teaching of history. Instead, her homeschool practice prioritized a Biblical focus and as such began with the beginning of civilization as explained by the Bible. But, Chloe also expressed disagreement with some of the ideology promoted among Christian leaders. For example, she argued, You will find a lot of homeschoolers too that are very against public schools and they may say every Christian should pull their child out of school. I’m like uh, no they shouldn’t! (high pitch voice). What about the Christian teachers? What about the Christian kids that are in school having a powerful impact? What would happen if we pulled all of our kids out? We can’t do that, but you’ve gotta do what you’re supposed to do; what you’re called to do.

Rather than positioning homeschooling as a matter of choice, Chloe’s spiritual understanding defined homeschooling as a calling, which suggests her disbelief in the universality of homeschooling. As will be discussed further in the next section, her homeschool practice also spurred deeper connections to herself, particularly in the shaping of her beliefs surrounding motherhood. Motherhood Chloe’s beliefs surrounding her role as a mother ignited her journey into homeschooling in response to her job’s demand, but serving as Cecelia’s mother-teacher also taught Chloe about being a mother, which in turn influenced her homeschool practice. Explaining why her first year of homeschooling was the hardest, Chloe quipped that the first lesson she learned about motherhood from homeschooling was realizing there is a difference between loving your children and liking them. She declared, “Oh my gosh! Cause she got on my nerves

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(Laughter)!”. In the process of understanding her new mother-teacher role, Chloe explained, It was the fact that I had never spent all day with my child. Even when they are first born, you had time when they would go to sleep. You know, grandma comes over and baby-sits and all that kind of stuff. You are never with your child 24-7. But all of a sudden you are with your child morning, noon, and night. Mommy…mommy…mommy…mommy! (laughter) Mommy…mommy…mommy…mommy (more laughter) And you are going, “There is no other adult in the house, Ah!”

Understandably, for a single parent, homeschooling an only child means you will likely be with your child every day, all day. Chloe explained, In the beginning years, they’re [your children] very dependent on what you know, and the teaching time is intense. [Cecilia] wakes up talking and she goes to bed talking. I mean all day long, the child talks. She will talk to herself if she didn’t have anybody to talk to and I am not like that. I need to wake up with the radio on, something I don’t have to respond to (laughter).

Parents who send their children to traditional schools have much less time with their children. But, Chloe had to adjust to having such an increased amount of time with her daughter. This perspective is quite understandable as Chloe explained, “because for me there’s no husband coming home for me to go out and run errands and stuff.” Thankfully, Chloe found that she enjoyed the company of her daughter, but she had to find ways to honor her need for ‘me time’ time as well. Interestingly, none of the other homeschool mothers in this study talked about the importance of ‘me time,’ or self-care, but balancing between homeschooling and time for herself became quite critical to Chloe’s ability to sustain her practice. Chloe described her attempts to manage time for herself, “What I do is I try to get up before she gets up, that works sometimes. I’m not really good with that, because she gets up at 8.30. That means I have to get up at like, 6.30. So, usually I just stay up late, but then, she likes to stay up late with me.” Adjusting her schedule to accommodate her own “me time” led to the 11am homeschool day start time. Now that Cecelia was older (14 years old), Chloe acknowledged she found it easier to slip away. She related, “Like yesterday, I said ok I’m going out to the store and she stayed here. So, it

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gave her some alone time too because she’s always with me, and she does need time where it’s just her. So, occasionally we’ll do that, it’s a very rare thing though.” Chloe found that homeschooling led to strengthening her family bond with Cecelia. She shared, “You’ll find that homeschooled children are so comfortable with their parents that you really can’t close your door, and them not knock on it. Because they know you’re in there. (laughter) You try everything and they just… you know, you don’t wanna say don’t knock on the door (through gritted teeth). But, she just loves to climb on my bed and I love that. You know, I love it. But you don’t have much me time.” Becoming a stay-at-home, single-parent, home educator altered Chloe’s beliefs regarding her responsibilities as a single parent. Prior to homeschooling, she thought she had to work outside of the home to provide for her household, particularly since her disability income did not cover all of her expenses. But, the ultimatum from her job gave her the push she needed to take the leap of faith to quit so she could take care of Cecelia, which then led to the revelation that homeschooling would become a new way of life for them both. As described earlier in this chapter, Chloe altered her family budget in order to accommodate the change from being a work-outside-the-home mom to become a stay-athome, single, homeschool mother. One of Chloe’s greatest joys as a homeschool mother was being able to witness firsthand her daughter’s joy of learning. For example, while reading the book Lord of the Rings before seeing the movie, Chloe observed, Now, so I told her that you can’t watch Lord of the Rings until you read the book, you know, we’ll read the Hobbit and then we’ll read the others. Well, we read the first chapter, and she was like, “Oooh, I don’t like this book!”. Now, we’re like in chapter 5 or 6 and she goes like, “oooh, mommy this is so cool”. And I love that, to see that spark come alive. I love when she reads a book, and she gets excited about the characters and she’s like mommy I gotta read this again, and I gotta find that. I think we [parents] miss that, I think that’s the greatest thing that we miss when our kids go to public school. We miss that light bulb going on. We miss seeing what thrills them and I love that I get to watch her learning towards her passion. So, we do a lot of reading about animals and her science focuses on animals. So, I love that. That brings me joy, when I get to do that, and I see the results of that. Ooh, there’s nothing better! (laughter)

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Race Interestingly, Chloe never mentioned racially based factors related to her motivations to homeschool. Further, Afrocentrism did not serve as the basis of her instructional decision-making. Instead, her decision-making remained grounded in her Christian values and worldview. However, when asked directly about the role of race and ethnicity in her homeschool decision-making, Chloe had a definitive perspective. Infusing the African American perspective of history represented a key focal point for Chloe’s homeschool practice. She stated, “As far as black history, I’m adamant that she learns black history, more than just Martin Luther King and Malcolm X and stuff that people learned in school. As great as those people were, there was a lot more. It was a black person that invented the traffic light, it was a black person that invented the ironing board and the iron, a black person that first did plasma, you know, and all those kinds of things. And what I have found is that there’s not a lot of material out there.” The materials she used to provide Cecelia with the black historical perspective included black history games, books on early African history, and programs on PBS. But, Chloe clearly stated that race did not play a part in her homeschool decision or practice beyond ensuring Cecelia had knowledge of contributions Black people made to the world. Yet, once again, her religious beliefs also informed this decision. She declared, The only thing that race, like I said, comes into play in our homeschooling is that I am determined that she [Cecelia] learn black history. And that she knows biblical history. And so, when they talk about people from Egypt and those kinds of things. They could have been black. And they may not be these little white people that you see. You know? Not to say that that is wrong, but that’s who created that image, so that’s what they saw, that’s what was comfortable. But, because Egypt is in Africa…Hello. She knows those kinds of things.

As Chloe teaches Cecelia about world history and the contributions of black people throughout history, she also teaches her daughter to question the accuracy of depictions of Jesus as a Caucasian, given the region of the world He is said to come from. However, homeschooling also gave Chloe the flexibility to decide to delay teaching about challenging topics such as slavery until Cecelia was developmentally ready to learn about them. Public school students do

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not have this luxury. According to the Georgia Performance Standards, segregation, Jim Crow and Civil Rights are topics that would be taught as early as 1st grade, or at the age of six for most students given the focus on Ruby Bridges, who integrated a public school as a young child. From Chloe’s perspective and as a mother, she recognized that Cecelia was not ready to learn about these tough topics. Chloe shared, It was very hard, she read the American Girl series, and she liked Keya which is the Indian girl. It took her three years before she would read Addie, Addie’s story, which is the black girl, simply because she was a slave. She [Cecelia] didn’t wanna talk about that. She didn’t wanna think about that, and she went through several years of, “Mommy, why do they call us black, I’m not black this is black. I’m kinda chocolate. White people aren’t white, they’re kinda pinky yellow”. So, she went through that kind of thing, and that was kinda hard. Teaching her that kind of thing, and it’s still a very sensitive subject of course. But she’s more open to learning that, and that’s how our history started. I’ve taken her back past that. And said that is not initially how we [African Americans] got here. People just don’t tell that.

To overcome/counter the negative socialized notions of race, Chloe ensured that Cecelia knew aspects of our African heritage prior to slavery in the USA. But, she waited until Chloe was willing to participate in that learning rather than forcing it on her. By providing Cecelia with a positive context of African ascendant history, Chloe provided her with a strong foundation in which to teach about the oppressive and tragic conditions of slavery. As she did this, Chloe also included aspects of African slave resistance such as the Nat Turner Rebellion. So, that Cecelia would know that our fight for freedom did not begin with the Civil Rights Movement as well. In all, Chloe’s entrance into homeschool and her homeschool practice provided insight into the ways in which religious beliefs can ground a home educator’s decision-making surrounding the decision to homeschool and her homeschool practice. She integrated religious studies and perspective into her academic teaching. Chloe also assumed a motherteacher stance that fused the two roles into one. Homeschooling became this family’s lifestyle as a result.

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References Anderson, M. (2018, May 17). The radical self-reliance of Black homeschooling. The Atlantic. Available: https://www.theatlantic.com/education/ archive/2018/05/black-homeschooling/560636/. Walker, V. S. (1996). Their highest potential: An African American community in the segregated south. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press.

CHAPTER 7

The Significance of Single Black Mothers Homeschooling

In an essay titled, Monarchs: Defying Odds and Achieving Success, Owens (2017) likens single Black mothers to Monarchs stating, “With a focus on a long-term goal, Monarchs are women who labor through the pains of systematic inequality and oppression in order to establish a new family legacy of education success-one generation at a time” (p. 114). The women presented within these pages represent single Black mothers who have demonstrated their ‘maternal responsibility’ by taking control of their children’s education in order to counter the continuous, lying social narratives that seek to render them, and their children, as inferior. They too are Monarchs. Remaining in traditional schools would have kept their children in survival mode as described by (Love, 2019) instead of fostering their children’s ability to thrive. Previous research has relatively ignored the perspective of single Black mothers related to homeschooling. Therefore, this book centered single Black homeschool teachers’ voices in the telling of their experiences, rather than comparing them to other racial/ethnic groups or family types. For single mothers, the decision to homeschool required reconsideration of strategies for family survival and how they could effectively teach their children outside of school. Thankfully, through homeschooling they found ways to achieve both.

© The Author(s) 2020 C. Fields-Smith, Exploring Single Black Mothers’ Resistance Through Homeschooling, Palgrave Studies in Alternative Education, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-42564-7_7

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The perspectives and experiences presented in this text demonstrated the diversity that can exist among a group of single Black homeschool mothers. From these narratives, we observed the complexity of the homeschool decision for single parents. Homeschooling was not the first-choice education option for three of the four mothers in this study. Understanding what pushes single mothers into homeschooling can inform pedagogical and home-school relationships in all types of educational settings. In this final chapter, I unpack the unique perspectives found across the experiences of single Black home educators related to the themes of motherhood, spirituality, and the role of race in homeschool decisions including both entrance into homeschooling and the development of homeschool practices. Understandably, these themes are interconnected and complex. My purpose remains to draw attention to some of the richness of the phenomenon of single Black mothers’ homeschooling and to invite scholars to join me in this work to deepen our understanding. The chapter ends with a culmination of thoughts regarding new ways of conceiving Black home education and insights that emerged from the experiences of single Black parents.

Expressions of Faith, Religion, and Spirituality The single mothers all professed that they followed Christianity, and they each credited God for their ability to homeschool as single parents. Yet, their relationships with God varied; the degree to which their religious beliefs influenced their homeschool practice and their lives differed as well. Previous research, as discussed in Chapter 2, has distinguished between religion and spirituality in the classroom. But, few featured the role of faith in teaching and learning. Biblically, Hebrews 11:1 stated, “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” The mothers in this study exhibited tremendous faith with statements such as, “I’m just so confident that God has brought me this far that you know, however it’s to work next year, He’ll make it work (Yvette).” The moms’ confidence in knowing that their Higher Power had complete control over their situations, God could/would ensure that everything would work out, and God would provide for their household sustained their ability to homeschool. So, theologically, homeschooling represented a proverbial ‘leap of faith’ and as a result, these single mothers did not homeschool alone.

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Yet, homeschool mothers’ narratives suggested different types of relationships with their Higher Power. Chloe equated her homeschool motivation as an act of obedience to God. She expressed her relationship with God in a very personal and intimate manner with direct dialogue she perceived as coming from Him. The depth of Chloe’s relationship and submission to God led her to live a nomadic lifestyle. She spoke of homeschooling as ‘what she is supposed to do’ as directed by God. Where Chloe’s relationship with God was deeply personal, Dahlia’s faith also included hope for resolution in the school inequities that existed within her school district. When this did not happen, Dahlia did not lose faith instead, she relied on her faith to turn to homeschooling, even though this is not what she really wanted to do. Faith gave single home educators strength to do what they had to do in order to obtain what they believed would be the best educational opportunities for their children. This single Black homeschool teachers engaged in spiritual education through their practice. Dillard (2006) described spiritual education as being (1) focused on both self and others, (2) connected in ways that renders us vulnerable to others, (3) cognizant of a variety of ways of existing and understanding, (4) aware of the harmony between the mind, body, and spirit of others as well as ourselves, and (5) versed in narratives representing more than one perspective and settings. Though none of the home teachers featured in this text spoke of international travel, they did welcome multiple perspectives in their lives and teaching, but they did so in different ways. Dahlia’s practice included having her son pursue golf lessons where they both gained the opportunity to interact with multi-ethnic families, for example. In addition, instead of solely relying on the accredited, Christian-based curriculum provided by ATI, Margaret blended many different learning modalities into her practice; these included opportunities for her children to engage in community service and to learn to create things with their hands. Both, Yvette and Chloe, shared the importance of not having to know all the answers as their children’s teacher-mothers. This made them vulnerable in their children’s eyes, but they used the opportunity to teach their children how to learn. In the position of humility, the mothers were able to learn new things as well. The teaching practice of each teacher-mom focused on developing their children spiritually, academically, and culturally. By incorporating a pursuit of their children’s interests and passions into their teacher practice, homeschool mothers also helped develop their sense of themselves as a learner and as a human being.

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Multiple Perspectives on Motherhood Single home educators differed in their beliefs and practices regarding their roles as mothers and as the sole provider for their households, and these differences in perceptions of motherhood roles varied in the way they framed homeschool decision-making. For the purposes of this section, I focus on unique characteristics of the home educators’ experience by relative age. Here Chloe and Yvette have been represented with a designation of younger mothers while Margaret and Dahlia represented slightly older mothers.

Younger Mothers Chloe clearly struggled between her belief that as a single mother she needed to work outside of the home to provide for her family and obeying a message from her Higher Power to “go home,” which she ultimately interpreted as to homeschool. She even placed Cecelia back in a public school for a brief time, thinking that she ‘should’ find a full-time job to support her family. Chloe was the only home educator to frame her homeschool decision in terms of abandoning a job, and a long-term career goal. As she wrestled with what a good single mother should do, two factors provided Chloe with clarity: first, her faith and interpreting direct messages from God, and second, the well-being of her daughter emotionally, physically, and academically. In this way, the decision to homeschool troubled Chloe’s preconceived notions of good mothering and fostered emerging beliefs surrounding motherhood. Conversely, Yvette, also a relatively young, single homeschool mom, clearly centered her decision to homeschool from a bulwark function as a mother, which has been captured in the existing literature with homeschooling serving as a protective function for children (Fields-Smith & Wells Kisura, 2013; Mazama & Musumunu, 2015). She identified not only the inadequacy of the school system to support one of her sons, but also the destruction she perceived the school system had begun to inflict on him as the reason she had to homeschool him. Meanwhile, her other son, who she described as having the ability to conform, remained in public school. Yvette enrolled her sons in two public schools prior to deciding to homeschool. She believed in the value of public education even as a non-native of the USA, but also she held high standards as contingencies for her trust that school personnel had her children’s best interests

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in mind. When teachers and administrators did not meet those standards for her oldest child, she lost trust, and as a mother, had to take her son’s education into her own hands. In some ways, Yvette’s role as a full-time, non-traditional, international student, challenged/complicated, her motherly decision-making related to her sons’ education. Her already drained financial resources made private school an impossibility. Homeschooling one of her sons while the other attended public schools required a very careful balancing act to schedule time to fully engage in (1) her coursework, (2) one-on-one homeschooling time with her son, (3) her other son’s public schooling, and (4) meaningful educational settings for her homeschooled son while she attended classes. These four components of Yvette’s scheduling needs as a student mother and home educator existed in addition to the division of labor challenges (e.g., household chores, budgeting) challenges experienced by stay-at-home mothers who homeschooled as described by Lois (2013). Single Black homeschool mothers maintain responsibility for all household labor, homeschool labor, and labor related to work outside of their homes, typically accomplished through short-term side hustles with the exception of Dahlia, who held a part-time job. In addition to balancing teaching time and household chores, only one homeschool mom, Chloe, mentioned the challenge of having no one in the household to provide support and opportunity for self-care. Without the added in-house support of a spouse, homeschool mothers’ self-care, or “me time,” would seem to be critical to avoiding burnout. Lois’s (2013) study of married, predominantly White home educators found that mothers managed burnout through their faith in knowing that homeschooling was God’s plan for the family. The author also found that home educators’ “me time” became a luxury that held little value to everything else such as homeschooling and household chores. But, Chloe, who repeatedly declared that she knew God told her to homeschool, also clearly acknowledged that homeschooling required her to spend more time alone with Cecilia than ever before, and that initially, she questioned whether this was a good thing. Typically a night owl, homeschooling Cecelia would require Chloe to get up extra early in order to have quiet time alone before Cecelia woke up. So, to get her “me time” Chloe had to either change her late-night habits, or she would have to function on less sleep. She admitted that after nine years of homeschooling, she still struggled to consistently wake early enough to have her quiet time. As a high schooler, Cecelia could work independently and even be

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alone in the house, which provided Chloe additional relief. In fact, the youngest child represented in this study would be Margaret’s nine-yearold son; the remaining children were middle school or high school age. Given that single Black home educators tended to foster their children’s independence and their children’s ages at the time of the study, the home educators had likely found ways to cope. In both Yvette and Chloe’s experiences, the homeschool decision required each mother to wrestle with protecting and providing for their children, while also considering their own careers. In the end, Chloe walked away from her personal dreams to become a CPA in order to care for and to educate her child. She considered this decision as an act of obedience to her Higher Power so that she could homeschool her daughter. Alternatively, Yvette believed that obtaining her college degree was paramount to being able to support her children in the future. She had already sacrificed so much to leave her home in the UK to become a student in the USA. But, she recognized that her status as a full-time student would be temporary, and in the end, the ability to command higher pay in her field of music education would be worth her sacrifice. In our more than an hour-long interview, Yvette never mentioned any concern for notions of being a good mother. Homeschooling only became necessary for Yvette when she lost trust in the school system. Her instinct to protect her child from being labeled a troublemaker in school through homeschooling demonstrated good mothering in of itself.

Older Mothers Dahlia and Margaret, both in their forties, differed tremendously in the ways in which they conveyed conceptions of motherhood beliefs as they shared their homeschool experiences. Dahlia had given up her career long before she began homeschooling when she agreed with her then husband’s decision to move to Georgia. Margaret’s career to a drastic turn when the declining economy brought construction work to a standstill. Instead, Margaret based her homeschool decision profoundly steeped in the temporary nature of motherhood, while Dahlia’s conceptualization of homeschooling represented the protective nature of mothering, but not just for her child, but instead for an entire community. Throughout our interview and even in the focus group session she attended, Margaret consistently grounded her motivation to homeschool all of her children on the basis of the limited time she had as a mother to

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instill in her children everything they needed to ensure that they would be good adults. She spoke about the future when they would no longer reside under her roof and have families of their own. As a homeschool mother, she wanted to make sure her children would grow into productive adults who were also good people. To this end, character building, community service, and work ethic development became prominent features of her homeschool practice. Moreover, she modeled what she wanted them to become by serving her community through tutoring children and doing what she had to do in order to keep a roof over their heads. From Margaret’s perspective, being a good mother also required her to foster her children’s independence in their learning. Poignantly, we can observe from Margaret’s experiences that being a good mother also meant ensuring her children will never have to face the financial challenges she currently had by using homeschooling to equip them to always be able to earn a living by learning to work with their hands (e.g., apprenticeships with carpenter and electrician). Margaret’s community service days served as lesson in relationship building. As her sons worked on behalf of neighbors, they initially received gifts of meals, which soon turned into access to vocational apprenticeships in carpentry and learning to become an electrician. Every aspect of Margaret’s homeschool practice contributed to her overall motherly mission of ensuring her children would become productive citizens. Well aware of the inequity overwhelming the schools in her community, Dahlia had done her due diligence in researching the most effective educational opportunity for her son, and she enrolled him in a wellresourced, high achieving school through the Minority to Majority Program. Cooper (2007) referred to this type of school choice, decisionmaking parental action as a form of resistance and empowerment called motherwork. Dahlia’s motherwork led her to a school she and her son loved. Her son thrived there and she had found several ways meaningful way to remain engaged in the school even though they lived almost an hour away. But, this did not resolve the issues surrounding the declining schools found within her predominantly Black community. Dahlia’s deep desire to improve the educational conditions of schools in her part of school district expanded her motherhood role well beyond her on child to include consideration of the well-being of the entire community.

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Race When we discuss the role of race in homeschooling, we are, for the most part, continuing the conversation on motherhood because we are actually talking about Black mothering. Most of the research has been conducted with Black mothers and the findings suggest that teaching responsibility resides primarily with mothers, even in two-parent families. Previous literature on Black homeschooling has also focused primarily homeschooling as a motherly protective function to rescue Black children from school environments that underestimate their ability, see them as troublemakers, and ignore their parents’ attempts to advocate (Fields-Smith & Wells Kisura, 2013; Fields-Smith & Williams-Johnson, 2009; Mazama and Musumunu, 2015). Recently, in an article titled, Being a Protective Black Mom Isn’t a Parenting Choice-It’s the Only Choice, Moore (2019) reported, In her account of Black motherhood, We Live for the We, she (Reporter Danie McClain] writes, ‘Black women have had to inhabit a different understanding of motherhood in order to navigate American life. If we merely accepted the status quo and failed to challenge the forces that have kept black people and women oppressed, then we participated in our own and our children’s destruction.’ McClain’s words point to another reality of black motherhood-that raising healthy, happy black children is political. (Parenting While Black, para 4)

Black mothering in of itself is a form of African American resistance. Indeed, the experiences of the single Black mothers in this text have contributed to the conversation on Black mothering and the role of race in homeschooling within classrooms and beyond. Their voices revealed that (1) Margaret believed being made her strong, (2) Dahlia would rather have had the success of a new charter school in her predominantly Black community than to have to homeschool Jason, (3) Chloe taught history from a Biblically and Black perspective, and (4) Yvette thought removing her children from a predominantly White school and into a predominantly Black school would resolve their challenges in school. The re-creation of segregated, under resourced, Black schools and communities contributed to single Black mothers’ decisions to homeschool. Dahlia and Yvette tried multiple schools before resorting to homeschooling. Further regarding race, researchers in education have had the tendency to ignore the vast ethnic diversity that exists among Black people

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by not disaggregating findings by Black ethnic groups fully representing the African diaspora or even distinguishing Black immigrants. Greer (2013) reported that from 2000 to 2009, the US African immigrant population rose from 574,000 to 1,081,000. During the same time, AfroCaribbean immigrants increased from 1,428,000 to 1,701,000. A Census report found that the US African immigrant population has nearly doubled every decade since 1970.1 Additionally, a (2015) Washington Post article reported that the non-American-born Black population has grown to nearly 4 million and that Black ethnics make up close to 10% of the US Black population.2 Given the trends toward an increasing Black immigrant population, these numbers are likely higher today. Greer (2013) uses the fact that our first Black president, Barack Obama, is actually of Kenyan-American heritage and General Colin Powell, one of the nation’s highest ranking generals, is of Jamaican-American heritage to introduce the concept of an elevated Black minority status. She suggests that President Obama might not have had such tremendous support across racial lines, “If his background were that of a man from Detroit and a woman from Duluth, or a man from Newark and a woman from Nebraska…” (p. 12). Black elevated minority status posits that Black ethnics, or Black immigrants, tend to be looked on more favorably than their African American counterparts. She also writes about the tension that can exist between Black ethnics and American-born Black people from a political and economic standpoint. In education, one would have to wonder to what extent Black ethnic parents and African American parents have similar or different experiences activating their agency in public schools? Also, do the children of Black ethnics and African American families have similar discipline disproportionality rates? Similar or different special education referral rates? Similar or different representation in gifted education programs? Do they homeschool for similar reasons as African American families? As a native of the UK, Yvette’s experience demonstrates that Black immigrant children do not always experience a Black elevated minority status and Black immigrant parents are not always able to garner their agency on behalf of their children within schools. Given that her children attended the same school at the time, Yvette’s 1 See https://www.census.gov/newsroom/press-releases/2014/cb14-184.html. 2 See https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/black-immigration-is-remaking-us-black-

population-report-says/2015/04/09/ded49c58-de29-11e4-a1b8-2ed88bc190d2_story. html.

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decision to homeschool only one of her sons seemed to be the result of one teacher’s refusal accept Yvette’s suggestion to provide him with more challenging work while another teacher accommodated her request. Had this teacher held Yvette’s UK background in higher regard than being of African American heritage, then the teacher would have likely worked with Yvette. On the other hand, her younger son’s teacher did work with Yvette, provided him with the more challenging work and he was able to function successfully in that classroom. Yvette also noted that her younger son’s temperament was more conforming to school expectations compared to her older son, likely contributed to his teacher’s willingness to work with Yvette. To begin to eliminate the myth of a monolithic Black community, more intentional focus needs to be placed on the differentiating our results by Black ethnicity and immigrant demographics.

New Ways of Thinking About Homeschooling Home education has been supported by the ideals of parental freedom to determine the best interests in their children’s regarding education, and moreover, traditional homeschool parents view teaching their children as part of their parenting (Kunzman, 2009). Therefore, homeschool traditionalists continue to define homeschooling as parents assuming full control and responsibility for their children’s education, as well as teaching children at home, outside of public or private institutions (Cooper, 2007). However, this definition would exclude people like Dahlia and also has cultural implications potentially limiting who could/would homeschool in this manner. Romm (1993) found that Black home educators experienced a sense of urgency to ensure that they did not do damage when teaching their children. This pressure stemmed from concerns regarding the perpetual societal view of the inferiority of African Americans and as a result, Black home educators tended to select structured forms of instruction instead of fully engaging in the instructional flexibility homeschooling would/should afford them. In other words, Black homeschool parents had applied the long-time cultural adage that as African Americans we have to twice as good to be accepted to their homeschooling. Given that Black Americans tend to be viewed from a deficit perspective and given the persistence of racism in the US Black home educators, and other homeschool parents of color, will like to have similar concerns on their minds as they homeschool.

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From a Black Feminist perspective, self-definition represents a form of empowerment for Black women (Collins, 2000). Collins explained the implication of self in self-definition does not represent an individualistic concept. Instead, self-definition requires connectedness to community. She denoted, “Rather than defining self in opposition to others, the connectedness among individuals provides Black women deep, more meaningful self-definitions, (Collins, 2000, p. 125).” Such alignment with others promotes empowerment, agency, and advocacy. Dahlia’s experience represents the power of self-definition while also pointing toward new conceptualizations of home education. At the time of the study, Dahlia had enrolled her son in a Homebound Program provided by public schools for students with special needs. Therefore, he would not have been designated as a homeschool student from the school district’s perspective. Yet, Dahlia continued to view herself as a home educator because she remained in complete control over her son’s education and she continued to interact with her homeschool group. The Homebound Program provided a teacher who served as a liaison between Dahlia’s home and the school. The teacher met with Dahlia weekly. But, note that Dahlia limited the liaison teacher’s focus to subject areas that Dahlia did not feel comfortable teaching in Jason’s 9th grade curriculum. She did this in order to overcome her insecurities in particular subject areas and to ensure that Jason had been taught well. Dahlia also did most of the teaching in the Homebound Program with the use of teacher manuals. So, even though Jason was a public school student, the Homebound Program simultaneously maintained Dahlia’s authority over his education, provided structure to his instruction, and ensured he would have an accredited high school experience, which he would need in order to attend college. Dahlia further shared that she remained connected to the homeschool support group in her local area for socializing and sharing of ideas. Therefore, as her response to participate in this study indicated, Dahlia identifies as a home educator. Understandably, the challenge to broadening the definition of homeschooling to include parents such as Dahlia, who enroll their children in public, or even private, education programs, would be the legal consequences of doing so. Keeping the boundaries between homeschooling and traditional schooling clear helps to ensure parental freedom as home educators. Conceivably, if the public school or a private school becomes involved then there would have to be shared responsibility for children’s education and with traditional institutions there would have to be greater

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oversight and accountability for children’s education than most home educators currently face. Hence, there would be less parental freedom. However, Dahlia’s stance to practice self-definition by identifying as a home educator even though her son would be considered a public school student should not be ignored. Remaining connected to the homeschool support group gave Dahlia and Jason an outlet for socializing with likeminded families while also providing Dahlia with teaching support and access to information on strategies to advocate for parental rights within, and outside of, public schools, not just for her, but also so she would be able to inform other parents. Moreover, as a Homeschool-Homebound teacher/mother, Dahlia finally found a way to partner with public schools that gave her the opportunity to remain Jason’s primary teacher without having to deal with bullying, teacher low expectations, or any of the other frustrations she and Jason experienced in public schools. She would no longer have to experience marginalization in her attempts to be engaged in his learning as well. The traditional definition of homeschooling will continue to be challenged by families who find ways to take advantage of public offerings such as virtual schools and even public schools seeking to specifically partner with homeschool families. Several families from the larger study that Dahlia, Margaret, Chloe, and Yvette participated in reported that they had enrolled their children in the state-sponsored virtual charter school, yet they still defined themselves as home educators because from their perspective, they remained in charge of their children’s education. Enrolling in the virtual charter school only required four hours of instruction daily. These parents remained connected to homeschool groups for the remainder of their day including participation in homeschool co-op groups. Therefore, they were in fact, homeschooling their children. Enrollment in the virtual school helped to ensure them that their children had structure and help address parents’ need to ‘get it right.’ Lines (2000) found similar practices across the country stating that state founded virtual programs actually enticed home educators as a way to boost their per pupil funding. Nonetheless, broadening the definition of homeschooling to include these types of parents increases the inclusive nature of homeschooling. Moreover, public schools have begun to seek partnerships with homeschool families that will further continue to expand the definition of home education. Public schools have been motivated to seek partnerships with

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homeschool students as a means of bringing more funds into their districts by honoring parents’ desire for flexibility in their children’s educational experience (Hirsch, 2019; Lines, 2000; Schwartz, 2015). Typically, homeschool students would be considered part-time public school students and home educators would select the public school classes they would like to attend. Hirsch (2019) referred to these as hybrid schools. Lines (2000) described such partnerships as “programs that accept parents as the child’s primary teacher (159).” In response, the Home School Legal Defense Association (HSLDA), the leading advocacy group for home educators, have remained clear on their view of not acknowledge homeschool-public school partnerships as homeschooling. Donnelly (June 19, 2017) stated, “HSLDA’s mission is to defend the rights of parents to homeschool their children. HSLDA has always sought to protect homeschooling as an essentially private activity which works best without government interference. HSLDA does not advocate or support government funding for home education.” Clearly, HSLDA adheres to the traditional definition of homeschooling. Yet, Hirsch (2019) reported on several innovations in homeschool-public school partnerships available to parents including homeschool assistance programs, partial day schools, district extracurricular participation, microschools, and online resources. Programs such as these increase the feasibility of children of all backgrounds to benefit from a customized instructional experience as their parents also partner with trained educators. For African American families, these programs can help to alleviate the sense of urgency to “get it right” and ease fears of ‘messing up.’

Homeschooling as Constructive Criticism of Public Schools Expressions of Empathy Collectively, the narratives of Margaret, Chloe, Dahlia, and Yvette offer constructive criticism to public education in general. Surprisingly, each of them expressed empathy for public schools and wanted public schools to succeed. But, how long should they wait for schools to work for their children? Yvette believed in public schooling so much that when she saw one son doing well in his classroom she allowed him to remain there while she removed her other son for whom school was not working. Given that

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her sons attended the same school, her experience demonstrates the critical role of a teacher-parent relationship in determining student success. Yvette brought her concerns to both teachers, but only one teacher valued Yvette’s contribution toward resolution. The teacher made changes in the classroom based on Yvette’s ideas and that fostered her son’s success. The other teacher refused to consider the possibility that Yvette’s son needed to be challenged academically, even though after testing demonstrated he performed a grade level ahead. But, the marginalizing experience did not deter Yvette’s empathy and support of public schools. She explained, Well, I think that the reason they [teachers] have had to call parents in is for help because there’s so much pressure on the teachers and the amount that is expected of them. Because it is no longer just about teaching is it? It is just so much more than that now. And back then you know teachers use to come to school, do their teaching, get the respect that they deserve and even respect that’s just gone out the window.

Likely both Yvette and the teacher became frustrated by the situation with Kyle, which led to a breakdown in their relationship. Without an effective parent-teacher relationship, Yvette felt she had no choice but to homeschool Kyle. She left her other son in his classroom because his teacher demonstrated treated Yvette as a partner. Alternatively, Dahlia returned to public schools as a partner in Jason’s education through the Homebound Program, which positioned her as Jason’s primary teacher with the program providing structure and support. Yet, when Chloe placed Cecelia back in school, they both realized that homeschooling worked best for them. Chloe shared, “Cecelia wasn’t understanding because the teacher has, you know, thirty kids and you can’t teach to everybody’s learning style, and apparently that teacher’s teaching style did not match with Chelsea’s learning style. So, she would bring home her work, and I got to re-teach it. So, at week six, we both we were both going this is crazy!”. Describing the difference between her teaching and public school teachers’ instruction, Margaret stated, The teachers couldn’t do the follow up with her [student being tutored by Margaret]. Why she was doing it wrong? And how can I do it right? And let me (the student) understand it. Let this go in my brain and soak in and be retained for the future. (laugh). See, they [teachers] went on to the next lesson and see the teacher in the public school can’t say, “Oh wait, some students don’t have it. We’ve got to review before we go on”.

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They [teachers] have to continue because they have a goal of getting to a certain portion of the book before the year is out.

Although her children had never experienced public education, Margaret had a strong perception of understanding how a child might get left behind within a classroom. To some extent, she understood the pressure teachers faced daily. She continued, My focus is on the student learning the information. If the student hasn’t learned then the teacher hasn’t taught. So, if the student fails then it is like who is the teacher of that student? I’m not going to look to make up the summer. This is my first question. I have had parents call me. Tell me what is going on. If the student is failing then has the student been to school, number one? Yes. Okay, number two has there been a major traumatic experience or event in the child’s life? Oh yes, the student’s daddy died in a truck accident. Do the teachers know this? Are they understanding and working with the student extra knowing that they are dealing with a crisis? Then, how can a kindergartener fail school? That’s not right. You know, looking at what’s out there on the fringe. What’s going on why is this student failing? They (school) don’t take the time to do that. And some teachers just don’t care, you know. The care, but they just don’t have the time to just individually see what’s going on with the students, but if something is happening, grades are dropping then something is going on.

The voices of single Black homeschool mothers demonstrate understand the challenges of teachers face in schools today. Instead of blaming them, sincerely appear to understand the idea that changes in teachers’ focus represents an overall systemic change. Ravitch (2010) has documented the negative impact of the shift in focus from children to test scores and standards as a result of the No Child Left Behind mandate in 2001. As single Black mothers express their empathy for public schooling, they also convey concern for the lack of focus on children beyond just academics. Dahlia and Yvette’s sons, in particular, experienced belittling or excessive punishment in their schools. Both mothers talked about the importance of instilling a sense of confidence in their children. Yvette raised her sons to question things that did not align with their thinking. In the context of classrooms focused on tests and standards, there seemed to little opportunity to nurture such questions or bolster students’ confidence. This type of spirit-murdering (Love, 2019) happens to Black children all

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too often. As future Black men, Yvette and Dahlia felt the need to ensure their efforts to raise confident Black men would not be thwarted. Though they do not actually cite him, the teaching practice of single Black homeschool mothers align with theories and practices depicted in the Progressive Era of education that place emphasis on ideas espoused by John Dewey such as experiential learning, child-centered instruction, and fostering children’s ownership of their education. They would suggest that there is a need to re-center children’s voices in their own education. Chloe’s teaching is living and living is teaching conception would be fully embraced John Dewey. Each of these home educators viewed teaching and learning as an active and interactive process. Margaret’s sons engaged in community service as part of their learning routine. She even had them select where and how they would serve. Dahlia and Yvette’s homeschool practice included participation in sports, access to community resources, such as theater programs (Dahlia) and homeschool school programs where they could select courses to take with other students. Most of all, Black home educators seek to foster their children’s positive cultural self-identities by learning African American perspectives of history and sometimes, focusing on global perspectives as well. Ultimately, home educators and public school staff should have the similar goals, which is to help every student reach their full potential.

Homeschooling as a Pathway Toward Healing Most of the existing research on homeschooling among Black families demonstrates that Black parents choose to homeschool their children as a form of resistance to racism, discrimination, prejudice, injustice, or inequity experienced within or outside of traditional schools. The moms in this study demonstrate this as well, which has led me to wonder to what extent Black parents’ homeschooling has helped them to create learning environments that overcome, and therefore, heal from, the negative and destructive experiences they sought to resist. Engaging in resistance should bring about some relief, or healing, or should it? Singh (2019) defines racial healing as beginning, “to unlearn the stereotyped racial messages you internalized about your own race and the race of others. It means you as an individual learn to recognize the wounds that racism creates in you, whether you are White or a person of color and whether you are conscious of these nicks and tears to your psyche or not. Healing means you open your eyes to the costs of racism, which are pretty

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much everywhere…” (p. 2). So, I wonder beyond employed an African American perspective in the homeschool practices, or their other aspects of Black homeschooling that brings about racial healing? For example, Dahlia expressed anger and hurt by the negative reputation of her predominantly Black section of the school district. She continued to live in that community as a home educator. Therefore, I am left wondering if she finds that her presence in the community as a single Black mother who homeschools contributes toward a more positive perception of her community? Margaret’s rural community members sometimes ridiculed her choice, but many also respected her abilities as they sought her tutoring services for their own children. Homeschooling might also be a pathway to other types of healing, or sense of overcoming. Children who are homeschooled sometimes experienced bully behaviors. But, I wonder if removing the child from that situation in order to homeschool actually provides healing from the scars of bullying? Margaret’s intent on making the most of her time with her children could have been a way of trying to heal from the death of her oldest child, though it is hard to imagine ever completely healing from the loss of a child. But, perhaps, by homeschooling she experiences a comfort in knowing she has done all she could do for her children before they grow up and live their lives outside of her home? Another way to look at this notion of homeschooling as healing would be to consider Bell’s (1992) stunning conclusion that racism will always be with us, but it is the meaningfulness of the fight that matters. “This engagement and commitment is what black people have had to do since slavery: making something out of nothing. Carving out a humanity for oneself with absolutely nothing to help-save imagination, will, and unbelievable strength and courage. Beating the odds while firmly believing in, knowing as only they could know, the fact that all those odds are stacked against them” [emphasis in the original] (Bell, 1992, p. 198). In this way, we might ask, “How as homeschooling among single Black mothers, and other Black families, enabled them to not see themselves as victims, but as innovators, conquerors, and pioneers?”.

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References Bell, D. (1992). Faces at the bottom of the well: The permanence of racism. New York, NY: Basic Books. Collins, P. H. (2000). Black feminist thought: Knowledge, consciousness, and the politics of empowerment. New York: Routledge. Cooper, B. (2007). The politics of homeschooling: New developments, new challenges. Educational Policy, 21(1), 100–131. Dillard, C. B. (2006). On spiritual strivings: Transforming an African American woman’s academic life. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press. Donelly, M. (2017, June 19). What about Michigan’s “homeschool partnerships”? HSLDA. Available: https://hslda.org/content/hs/state/mi/ 201706090.asp. Fields-Smith, C., & Wells Kisura, M. (2013). Resisting the status quo: The narratives of Black homeschoolers in Metro-Atlanta and Metro-DC. Peabody Journal of Education, 88(3), 265–283. Fields-Smith, C., & Williams-Johnson, M. (2009). Motivations, sacrifices, and challenges: Black parents’ decisions to home school. Urban Review, 41, 369– 389. Greer, C. (2013). Black ethnics: Race, immigration, and the pursuit of the American dream. New York, NY: Oxford University Press. Hirsch, A. (2019, July). The changing landscape of homeschooling. Center on Reinventing Public Education. Bothell, WA: University of Washington. Kunzman, R. (2009). Understanding homeschooling: A better approach to regulation. Theory and Research in Education, 7 (3), 311–330. Lines, P. (2000). When home schoolers go to school: A partnership between families and schools. Peabody Journal of Education, 75(1&2), 159–186. Lois, J. (2013). Home is where the school is: The logic of homeschooling and the emotional labor of mothering. New York, NY: New York University Press. Love, B. L. (2019). We want to do more than survive: Abolitionist teaching and the pursuit of the educational freedom. Boston, MA: Beacon Press. Mazama, A., & Musumunu, G. (2015). African Americans and homeschooling: Motivations, opportunities, and challenges. New York: Routledge. Moore, D. (2019, December 20). Being a protective black mom isn’t a parenting choice-it’s the only choice. Quartz. Retrieved December 30, 2019 from https://qz.com/1765439/why-black-moms-cant-behelicopter-parents/? bclid=IwAR0MMgPNy2lEr4duLDnWcjXRGehB9ZgtpZbRHXaCj7xzCGL hbHzOy3dgIxM. Owens, C. M. (2017). Monarchs: Defying odds and achieving success. In D. Y. Ford (Ed.), Telling our stories: Culturally different adults reflect on growing up in single-parent families (pp. 113–121). Charlotte, NC: Information Age Publishing Inc.

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Ravitch, D. (2010). The death of life and the great American school system: How testing and choice are undermining education. Philadelphia, PA: Basic Books. Romm, T. (1993). Home schooling and the transmission of civic culture (Unpublished doctoral dissertation). Clark Atlanta University, Atlanta, GA. Schwartz, K. (2015). Busting stereotypes: A homeschool-public school partnership that works. Mindshift. KQED, Inc. Singh, A. A. (2019). The racial healing handbook: Practical activities to help you challenge privilege, confront systemic racism, and engage in collective healing. Oakland, CA: New Harbinger Publications Inc.

Index

A Activism, 24, 26, 28 African American resistance, 16, 21–24, 134 Afrocentric/Afrocentricity/Afrocentrism, 12, 25, 124 Agency, 3, 5, 15, 22, 24, 28, 86, 102, 135, 137 B Black Feminist Thought (BFT), 23–25, 29, 34 C Charter schools, 63–70, 80, 82, 91–93, 134 Christianity, 128 Church, 5, 31, 45, 57, 62, 67, 73, 79, 100, 109, 110, 115 Community service, 53, 54, 129, 133, 142 Co-op, 28, 33, 115, 138

Curriculum, 8, 11, 12, 29, 49–51, 67, 73, 76, 77, 80, 94, 97, 107, 112, 113, 115, 116, 120, 129, 137

D Desegregation, 6 Discipline disproportionality, 7–10, 14, 135

E Elevated minority (Theory), 84, 101, 135 Endarkened Feminist Epistemology (EFE), 21, 34–36, 39 Entrepreneurship, 68, 95, 96

F Faith, 25, 33, 35, 38, 46–49, 60, 64, 66, 69, 74, 76, 79, 81, 87, 91, 92, 99–101, 103, 108, 111, 120, 123, 128–131

© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG, part of Springer Nature 2020 C. Fields-Smith, Exploring Single Black Mothers’ Resistance Through Homeschooling, Palgrave Studies in Alternative Education, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-42564-7

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INDEX

H Homebound Program, 76–80, 82, 137, 140 Homeplace, 24–26, 29, 30, 32, 34, 103 Homeschool school, 73, 75, 96, 99, 142 M Marginalization, 7, 10, 16, 21, 102, 138 Motherhood, 21, 27, 30, 38, 40, 44, 48, 49, 60, 121, 128, 130, 132–134 R Religion, 30–32, 44, 47, 100, 128 Religious, 31, 32, 44, 47, 100, 103, 119, 120, 124, 125, 128 Resegregation, 14, 37, 61, 63–66, 74 Resist, 4–6, 21–23, 25, 27–29, 44, 48, 59, 101, 110, 142 Resistance, 3, 7, 21–27, 32, 34, 36, 38, 59, 81, 120, 125, 133, 142

Resister, 22, 23 Rural community, 45, 57, 59, 143

S School choice, 2, 8, 14, 61, 62, 64, 133 Self-agency, 5–7, 15, 24, 29, 34 Self-definition, 27, 28, 137, 138 Self-determination, 5–7, 24, 29, 50 Self-taught, 5 Slavery, 4, 12, 26, 59, 124, 125, 143 Special education, 8, 13, 32, 75, 135 Spirituality, 21, 30–34, 38, 40, 49, 62, 101, 103, 128 Split-schooling, 83, 93

U Unschooling, 98, 99, 103, 113

V Virtual charter school(s)/Virtual learning, 78, 80, 138