The Religious Homeschool Movement and Micro-Level Impact on Educational Attainment

• In Event: 165 - Section on Sociology of Religion Roundtable Session (one-hour).
  In Refereed Roundtable: Table 09. Religious Experiences of College and University Students

Abstract

Over the past few decades, the homeschool movement has grown substantially (see US Dept. Ed., 2008). Despite the controversy over this movement, it has been largely overlooked by social movement theorists. This is particularly true regarding the effects of home education on students raised in this movement. This paper notes the variation in educational attainment between graduates of homeschooling and graduates of other schooling sectors evidenced by the Cardus Education Study (see Pennings et al., 2011; Pennings et al., 2012). It argues that greater understanding for the differences in educational attainment between graduates of religious homeschooling and conservative Christian schooling may be related to micro-level impacts of participation in the homeschool movement. In particular, it argues that interpretive frameworks associated with participation in the homeschool movement may help to explain variation in the post-secondary educational attainment of graduates of religious homeschooling in relation to the outcomes of graduates of conservative Christian schools. It also provides preliminary theoretical considerations of other factors, such as differing social networks, which may also help to account for differences in the levels of post-secondary educational attainment of these two groups.

Author

• Shanna Corner, University of Notre Dame