“This Is How We Raise Free People”: Conceptualizing Black Unschooling as Modern-Day Marronage

• In Event: Looking Back and Moving Forward: Historical and Contemporary Perspectives on Today’s Black Home Education Movement

Abstract

Responding to traditional school systems that marginalize, oppress, and kill their children, Black families in the U.S. are increasingly choosing alternative pathways to education (Fields-Smith & Williams, 2009). While Black families have been widely recognized as the fastest growing demographic in the home education population (Ray, 2019), Black unschoolers represent a lesser known group. This form of self-directed learning is increasing among Black families who unschool to decolonize their education and parenting practices. Using marronage as a theoretical framework, this study investigates unschooling as an instrument of Black liberation that draws from Black radical traditions of freedom, self-autonomy, and self-determination. The research questions posed in this study are: 1) How can Black unschooling be conceptualized as modern day marronage? and 2)What individual and collective practices of marronage do Black unschoolers employ in their pursuit of freedom? Using the Fare of the Free Child audio podcast as a primary source, I employed qualitative research methods to analyze selected episodes. Created by Black unschooling mother Akilah S. Richards in 2016, the podcast host has become the most cited and consulted voice in the Black unschooling movement. As more Black families opt out of traditional schooling amidst anti-Black racism and a global pandemic, I enhance our understanding of alternative education options largely unexamined in academic literature.

Author

• Courtney A Douglass, University of Maryland