Creating Freedom: Africentric Approaches to Curriculum Choices in Black Homeschooling Families

• In Event: Poster Session

Abstract

While a large body of research examines the motivations of Black homeschooling families for disengaging from schooling institutions due to distinctly racial elements (Annamma et al., 2013; Fields-Smith, 2020; Kohli et al., 2017; Lundy & Mazama, 2014), fewer studies explore how Black families navigate curricular choices and exercise educational freedom in the academic spaces they nurture, cultivate, and create.
Guided by the philosophies of Africentric education, which highlight "the act of placing the needs of Black children at the center of their education" (Shockley, 2017, p. 104), this research seeks to understand how Black families use these philosophies to create homeschooling curricula. Specifically, this inquiry aims to explore (1) how Black families navigate educational resources—especially those steeped in Eurocentrism and anti-Black sentiments—and utilize personal literacies to enact and maintain resistance, and (2) how Black homeschooling families intentionally and unintentionally embed and utilize culturally relevant pedagogies into their curricular decision-making processes.

Author

• keturah abdullah, University of Michigan, Marsal Family School of Education