Homeschooling as a Liberatory Learning Option? A Diffractive Reading of Home Education Policies and Enforcement

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session Thursday 5:25 pm Four Seasons Ballroom 2-3
  In Roundtable Session: Toward Family Engagement: Reimagining Parental Involvement (Table 6)

Abstract

This inquiry aims to examine Black homeschooling as a liberatory learning option from a postmodern perspective. The central question for this conceptual paper is: How are home education policies and associated state laws materializing for Black homeschoolers as they seek and begin home instruction for their children? In response, this paper focuses on the story of Kiarre Harris and engages post qualitative inquiry to draw out the sociopolitical complexities of reimagining education beyond the neoliberal context of standardization and accountability. The methodologist gathered state policies and laws for homeschooling and news stories about Harris’ case to diffractively analyze the data through plugging in theory. The analytical exercise considers just education renewal by unsettling the political dimensions of educational regulation.

Author

• Cee Carter, University of Vermont