The Role of Unconventional Community in BiPOC Homeschooling: An Exploration of the Digital Footprint of Black Home Educators

• In Event: More Than a Bandaid: How Black Mothers Remedy and Repair in Homeschool Communities

Abstract

How important is community? Stemming from the cultural roots of the ancestral village, the need to seek out community calls not only to the parent but beckons to the parent educator. The purpose of this presentation is to explore my own journey as a home educator. I looked to texts concerning pedagogy, but found true solace by finding other parents that mimicked my personal journey and mirrored my own child and family structure. This instinct to “find my people” took me to social media where information can be slanted in opinion but true voices still ring out from the masses. This work uses autoethnographic methods to explore Black home educators’ use of digital communities.
The literature has not yet investigated the internet’s contribution to the sense of community for BiPOC homeschoolers in cultural deserts. The conservative view of homeschooling pushes parents without the same alignments even further away from local meetups, groups and co-ops. Add in the rich needs of being a minority, and oftentimes the only option for community is based in the global connected village.
Preliminary findings suggest that Facebook groups became the local moms meetup though its participants stretched from continent to continent. Instagram became the proving grounds for diverse curriculum, books and resources. Pinterest became the vision board in which to gather ideas for our daily school day and home aesthetic. YouTube served as a parent educators’ masterclass.. The world became the teacher and the internet provided the essence of community no matter how unconventional.
When I needed community, my first boolean search was “Black Homeschooling”. That one search opened our eyes to math books using brown mathematicians as the models, science rooted in the unsung heroes of medicine and space exploration, literature studies for classics by Americans of African descent and parents world over discussing how they use them to teach their children. All loneliness evaporated and I joined in the conversation. I’ve met new friends - also homeschoolers - who continue to share the newest and most innovative curriculum. I’ve gleaned knowledge from those who’ve come before me, whose babies have graduated not just grade school but college and have saved me both time and money with their wisdom. I’ve joined virtual classes for not just my son but for myself, so that we both can surround ourselves with examples of genius that look just like what we see in the mirror. And I found in higher education, those that conduct the research and lift us all up with them - all of this through the ominous and vast internet.

Author

• Christal Gamble Banks, @Mamasweetbaby