Homeschooling Black Children in the US

Dr. Khadijah Ali-Coleman had just finished defending her doctoral dissertation on dual enrolled African American homeschooled students and their perceptions of preparedness for community college. The COVID-19 global pandemic and quarantine had just gone into effect. She was offered an opportunity to publish her dissertation into a book. She opted to edit an anthology of voices on Black homeschooling instead. During her own research study, she had seen the lack of Black voices in the research on Black homeschooling families. As a homeschooling mother and researcher, she wanted to expand the research literature and offer an opportunity for other homeschooling parents and researchers to share their experiences and research. She reached out to three university researchers to see if they were interested in serving as a co-editor of the book project and Dr. Cheryl Fields-Smith was the researcher to respond with interest. The two discussed ways to connect their research to practicing home educators and that led to creating the Black Family Homeschool Educators and Scholars Virtual Teach-In. In summer 2020, Dr. Ali-Coleman produced the inaugural BFHES Virtual Teach-In, featuring over 20 speakers and attracting over 200 participants for a seven day event. In tandem with this event, BFHES coordinated a call for submissions for our book, Homeschooling Black Children in the US: Theory, Practice & Popular Culture. Over 12 authors contributed a compelling chapter each for this publication (the book was released in 2022). In September 2020, the BFHES organization became the editorial team managing the Information Age Publishing series, Contemporary Perspectives on Black Homeschooling. The book, Homeschooling Black Children in the US: Theory, Practice & Popular Culture, is the first book published in the series. In 2021, the United States Census Bureau reported that in 2020, during the rise of the global health pandemic COVID-19, homeschooling among Black families increased five-fold. However, Black families had begun choosing to homeschool even before COVID-19 led to school closures and disrupted traditional school spaces. Homeschooling Black Children in the US: Theory, Practice and Popular Culture offers an insightful look at the growing practice of homeschooling by Black families through this timely collection of articles by education practitioners, researchers, homeschooling parents and homeschooled children. Homeschooling Black Children in the US: Theory, Practice and Popular Culture honestly presents how systemic racism and other factors influence the decision of Black families to homeschool. In addition, the book chapters illustrate in different ways how self-determination manifests within the homeschooling practice.

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