Structured and Unstructured Homeschooling: Another Proposal for Broadening the Taxonomy

• In Event: Curriculum, Contexts, and Considerations: Homeschool Research Breaking New Ground

Abstract

There is a wide range of homeschooling experiences and types of homeschooling—an empirical fact that educational research is just now documenting in greater detail (Bjorklund-Young & Watson, 2042; Cheng, 2024; Cheng & Hamlin, 2023). One aspect of diversity among homeschoolers is the use of structured versus unstructured approaches to curriculum and pedagogy. Unstructured homeschooling includes child-led learning and loosely or not following a formal curriculum. In contrast, structured homeschooling is heavily guided by a set schedule for learning and formal curriculum. While studies have confirmed that there is indeed a distinct difference between the two, it is largely assumed that whether homeschoolers take a structured or unstructured approach is a static characteristic (Neuman & Guterman 2015). For instance, according to the conventional wisdom, unschoolers not only initially adopt the unstructured approach but do not deviate from that approach over time. Only one qualitative study of a small convenience sample of conservative Christian homeschoolers by Lois (2013) documents suggests the contrary: homeschooling families evolve over time regarding the use of a structured or unstructured approach. This study’s objective is to test the extent to which Lois’s (2013) findings generalize to the larger population of homeschoolers.

We adopt Lois’s (2013) use of role strain, emotion management, and burnout as conceptual frameworks to theorize why homeschoolers may alter their structured and unstructured approaches. Lois argues that unlike other parents, homeschooling parents undertake two identities—that of parent and teacher. The demands of both roles presumably leads to challenges with emotion management and can lead to burnout, ultimately causing homeschooling parents who are relatively more extreme on the structured or unstructured spectrum to temper their approach. In other words, highly structured homeschooling families over time become more unstructured and vice versa.

Using a nationally representative sample of over 1,000 homeschoolers in 2012, 2016, and 2019 National Household Education Survey, we run multinomial models to estimate the relationship between number of years of homeschooling and how structured or unstructured of an approach families take, while controlling for a range of demographic background variables.

As theorized, we find that for every additional year of homeschooling, the probability of shifting away from the most structured or unstructured approaches increases by 2 percentage points. Scholarship about homeschooling has lately challenged many of the common perceptions and generalizations about homeschoolers’ socioeconomic backgrounds, their motivations for homeschooling, how long they spend in the homeschooling sector, and other characteristics, especially as the practice grows both in absolute numbers but also in diversity (Bjorklund-Young & Watson, 2042; Cheng, 2024; Cheng & Hamlin, 2023). This study is yet another empirical demonstration that prior beliefs about this population are not correct. It answers recent calls from several scholars about the need to characterize the homeschooling population with greater nuance (Hamlin, 2024; Valiente et al., 2024). This study also extends the scholarship on structured and unstructured approaches to homeschooling, underscoring the need to avoid considering them as static characteristics, which almost all prior homeschooling research has done.

Authors

• Andrea Honeycutt, University of Arkansas at Fayetteville

• Albert Cheng, University of Arkansas at Fayetteville